Cosmos' native Layer 1 blockchain Canto has become the latest chain to migrate to Ethereum as a Layer 2 zero-knowledge rollup, after another Layer 1 blockchain, Astar, announced plans similar to move from the Polkadot ecosystem to Ethereum.
Canto is a permissionless general-purpose blockchain, which is compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and aims to bring traditional finance into decentralized finance applications.
Following an official agreement reached by Canto Commons, a framework where contributors coordinate ideas and solutions for the protocol, its main developers build a ZK rollup on the second layer of Ethereum, Polygon Labs explained 18th of September:
โBy leveraging a shared ZK bridge, Canto will eventually tap into the liquidity of a unified Polygon ecosystem with easy access to Ethereum.โ
Polygon Labs said that Canto will "inherit" the security of Ethereum, allowing for greater decentralization and trustless guarantees by pooling assets:
"User security is achieved through a best-in-class, in-production ZK tester, meaning community security is guaranteed by cryptography and inherited from Ethereum, rather than the socioeconomic incentives of evidence of fraud".
Neofinance at scale: Canto is migrating to a ZK-powered Ethereum L2, built with @0xPolygon CDK.
He @CantoPรบblico The community will leverage Ethereum's deep liquidity through a shared ZK bridge without sacrificing user security, a big step towards neofinance.https://t.co/8uDhLYk1G9
- Polygon (Labs) (@0xPolygonLabs) September 18, 2023
There will be no changes to validators or Canto's staking system, Polygon Labs added.
Canto follows Astar's movements
Canto joins companies such as Astar, Gnosis Pay, Palm and IDEX in announcing plans to build ZK layer 2 using Polygon Chain Development Kit In recent months, according to Polygon Labs co-founder Sandeep Nailwal.
On September 13, the Astar team announced that it will soon begin building its own Ethereum layer 2 scaling solution, called Astar ZK-Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), which also uses Polygon CDK.
โWe are building a reliable bridge to Ethereum with high EVM equivalency right out of the box, so dApp developers can use existing tools to build solutions across our ecosystem,โ the Astar team explained in a statement dated September 14.
I am excited to welcome you @AstarNetworkleader @Moles chain to Ethereum. They are going to launch a zkEVM chain using @0xPolygon CDK, a ZK-secured Ethereum L2!@AstarNetwork is Japan's leading blockchain. After release, it quickly became one of the most notable... pic.twitter.com/0SgYE6ENet
-Sandeep Nailwal | deep. polygon (@sandeepnailwal) September 13, 2023
Polygon Labs hopes that the ZK-powered chain will enable companies to deploy Web3 solutions with greater speed, scalability and security in Japan, where Astar is headquartered, and around the world.
Ryan Sean Adams, co-host of the Ethereum Bankless show, said the two most recent migrations to Ethereum could be the start of a cumulative avalanche.
The largest polkadot chain has just moved to Ethereum. (A star)
Cosmos' largest public commons chain has just become Polygon Validium. (Singing)
And... I hear the world's first Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) L2 is coming out tomorrow.
Ethereum rollups are taking over the world.
- RYAN SฮAN ADAMS - rsa.eth (@RyanSAdams) September 18, 2023
Not all protocols are maintained on Ethereum
Meanwhile, some protocols seem to go in the opposite direction.
Decentralized exchange dYdX announced its intention to build a โpurely decentralizedโ order book exchange on Cosmos as part of a plan to migrate away from Ethereum in early September.
Another native Ethereum protocol, Maker, signaled plans to move to cut ties with Ethereum and build a new, more "efficient" chain with the Solana codebase also in September.
Related: Idealistic zkEVM Scroll created by the Ethereum community will launch in weeks
Maker co-founder Rune Chistensen added that Solana currently stands as the "most promising" ecosystem to explore, having proven resilient during the FTX debacle and boasting a pool of high-quality talent developers based on Solarium.
The last phase of Endgame is the launch of a native blockchain for Maker under the codename NewChain
It will make the ecosystem safer and more efficient
After doing some research, I think the Solana codebase should be considered the basis for NewChain.https://t.co/KyGxBBGlVH
- Rune (@RuneKek) September 1, 2023
Non-fungible token collection OnChainMonkey is also moving its entire collection of 10,000 NFTs from Ethereum to Bitcoin. The team behind the protocol cited a more secure base layer and a thriving Bitcoin Ordinals ecosystem as the main reason behind the migration plan.
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