Polygon Labs and Fabric Cryptography unveil custom ZK chips to fast-track AggLayer development

Polygon Labs is collaborating with crypto hardware manufacturer Fabric Cryptography to bring its Verifiable Processing Units (VPUs) to the AggLayer ecosystem.

The AggLayer is an interoperability layer currently under development by Polygon Labs and other core contributors, designed to facilitate unified liquidity and security across a network of chains. It uses ZK proofs to ensure that if one chain experiences a failure, it does not impact the funds or operations on others.

ZK proofs allow one party to prove to another that a statement is true without revealing the underlying data, enhancing privacy and security in blockchain systems.

Polygon Labs co-founders Daniel Lubarov, Bobbin Threadbare, Jordi Baylina and its ZK team have been working with Fabric since the beginning of the year to co-design the Plonky2 and Plonky3 libraries, utilizing the VPU's cryptography-focused instruction set, according to a statement shared with The Block.

Plonky2 and Plonky3 are part of Polygon Labs’ suite of ZK-proof systems that allow for fast and cost-efficient proof generation, making blockchain transactions more secure and scalable. These systems are particularly known for their ability to generate recursive SNARKs, which are a critical advancement in the speed and efficiency of ZK proofs.

“Plonky2 and Plonky3 are among the most widely adopted ZK-proof systems in the world. It’s incredible to work together with Polygon Labs, a pioneer in open source ZK, to make the Plonky family the very first ZK-proof systems to be powered end-to-end by custom silicon,” Fabric co-founder and CSO said. 

Fabric claims its VPU is the first custom chip designed exclusively for cryptography processing. Unlike general-purpose hardware like CPUs or GPUs, the VPU is highly programmable and can be repurposed when innovations in proof systems change the algorithms used for ZK.

“The VPU’s cryptography-native architecture delivers unprecedented performance for today’s proof systems, while our software stack provides exceptional programmability and expressiveness to ensure Polygon Labs’s proof system innovation and the AggLayer will be supported years into the future,” Fabric co-founder and CEO Michael Gao said.

Cutting zero-knowledge-proof adoption timelines

ZK proofs have historically been computationally intensive, making them costly and slow to implement. By deploying Fabric’s technology, Polygon Labs aims to cut zero-knowledge-proof adoption timelines from years to months.

“Fabric’s VPUs can accelerate the timeline for wider adoption of zero-knowledge technology from 3-5 years to 6-12 months,” Polygon Labs co-founder Mihailo Bjelic said. “For Polygon Labs, implementing this tech will massively accelerate the development of the AggLayer, bringing real-time, affordable proofs that nobody thought would come for years, and much lower proving costs than previously thought possible in the medium-term. Our engineers are excited to develop on the VPU, where proof systems can get faster and faster without a redesign of the chip.”

Polygon Labs is set to acquire $5 million worth of VPU-based server systems to accelerate ZK-proof generation for ZK-powered projects on the AggLayer, including Polygon zkEVM, Polygon Miden and Polygon CDK.

Fabric said it has already generated “tens of millions” worth of customer pre-orders ahead of entering its mass production phase next year.

Last month, Fabric announced it had raised $33 million in Series A funding to develop its cryptography processing units to “drastically improve” the speed and cost of running cryptographic workloads. The round was co-led by Blockchain Capital and 1kx, with participation from Polygon Labs, among others.