Polygon Acquires Zero-Knowledge Cryptography Firm Toposware

Polygon Labs, the main development firm behind the Polygon blockchain, announced Tuesday that it has acquired Toposware, a blockchain research firm that helped develop Polygon’s Type-1 prover – a core component of the company's zero-knowledge (ZK) product suite.

Polygon has gone all in on zero-knowledge cryptography over the last few years, betting that the tech will be key to scaling Ethereum's blockchain ecosystem over the long term. Polygon Labs has a history of acquiring outside ZK shops to help staff its internal zero-knowledge initiatives, and the purchase of Toposware brings a third major zero-knowledge team into the Polygon orbit. The firm previously acquired the companies Hermez and Mir, whose founders Jordi Baylina and Brendan Farmer now lead Polygon Labs' in-house ZK teams.

CoinDesk reported in 2021 that Polygon Labs paid $400 million to acquire Mir and $250 million for Hermez. Sources close to the deal told CoinDesk that Toposware was valued somewhere between $30 million and $50 million. Polygon Labs said in its press release that the acquisition brings the total sum of its investments into ZK teams and technology past $1 billion.

According to Polygon Labs' statement, the Toposware team will integrate with Polygon’s existing ZK teams, helping to develop Polygon’s AggLayer, Chain Development Kit and its layer-2 zkEVM.

“Toposware joining Polygon Labs signals our continued commitment to building the world’s best ZK research and development team,” said Marc Boiron, the CEO of Polygon Labs, in a telegram message to CoinDesk. “ZK technology is central to our overarching strategy, driving initiatives including building the leading aggregated blockchain network with the AggLayer, empowering developers to launch new L2 chains on Ethereum with the CDK, enabling DeFi projects to scale and enhance security with Polygon zkEVM and enhancing the security of Polygon PoS as it becomes ZK enabled.”

Edited by Sam Kessler.

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