How Polygon’s Aggregation Layer Brings a New Phase in Rollup Interoperability?

2023 was the year for the rollups because they exploded as a technology solving the much-awaited scalability woes of the Web 3 ecosystem; however, scalability without interoperability is a half-won battle. Why?

Imagine the Internet restricted to a single network. With that said, no two computers connected to two different networks could have been able to communicate with each other. However, that changed under TCP/IP, which brought scalability with interoperability for the World Wide Web.  Polygon Aggregation Layer is going to do the same for interoperability in the rollup ecosystem.

In this article, we will deep dive to understand why interoperability is necessary for sustaining the rollup ecosystem.

Why is Interoperability Necessary for Rollups?

Every rollup these days is using the modularity approach to solving their innate problems; however, in the process, they have undoubtedly exposed their ecosystem to liquidity risks. Though bridges somewhat solve this by acting as a link between different rollup solutions, while doing so, they do compromise the UX present in a monolithic chain, which creates complexity for wider adoption.

To help explain better, locking and minting synthetic assets is possible for fungible tokens but a challenge for non-fungible tokens. Suppose someone wants to swap an NFT on one chain for another on a separate chain. Bridges create a lot of complexity around because you never know how the minting and burning would work for non-fungible tokens. As a result, bridges have not only made experience complex but also evoked safety concerns in the minds of the users.

Therefore, if rollups want to enjoy mass adoption, they need to provide the simplicity of the monolithic blockchains and the scalability of the modular blockchains without compromising liquidity. That’s where the Polygon’s Agg Layer is making a huge difference.

What is the Polygon Aggregation Layer?

Polygon Aggregation Layer is a decentralized messaging protocol that shall be using Zk-Proofs to provide full information on events that are happening across the rollup ecosystem, thereby establishing the possibility of a one-chain solution for all the Dapps without sacrificing liquidity and UX.

Complex, huh? Let’s break it down further.

How Will Polygon Aggregation Layer Work to Achieve  Absolute Interoperability in Rollups?

 Source: Polygon Technology

Replacing the old process of minting synthetic tokens on the source chain through bridges has turned from a necessity to a compulsion because bridges expose more vulnerability than an L1/L2 layer. At one end of the spectrum, they do not sync directly with different rollup environments, which severely creates capital inefficiency problems, while at the other, their security issues while connecting different rollup ecosystems not only complicate the UX but also take the security for a toss.

The Agg Layer is going to solve that which shall anchor the possibility of interoperability among rollups in the following way;

1. Shared access to native Ethereum assets using the Agglayer messaging protocol bridge that creates Message Queues. All the chains in the Polygon rollup ecosystem will maintain a local queue of outbound messages in a predefined format protected by a ZK-Proof. Hence, there will be no necessity to lock tokens at one chain to interact with another chain. On the contrary, a Zk-Proof of the events on multiple chains will be created and subsequently posted on the Ethereum chain, making the users feel as if they are interacting on a single chain ecosystem.

Once the Ethereum chain validates the same through Zk-Proofs triggered by the messaging protocol, it will notify and intimidate the recipient chain to release the assets to the desired address. Hence, completely eliminating complex involvements of intermediaries bridges that completely make the rollup ecosystem complex from a user  standpoint

Polygon AggLayer aggregator component will streamline cross-chain transactions, and it would be done through messaging protocols that would act like watch towers looking after all the events happening across the Web 3 rollup environment. The aggregator, acting as an automated bridge to receive and relay information between the Polygon Chain and Ethereum Chain via ZK proofs and Message Queues’ representations validated via Merkle Roots, will aggregate all the events automatically into a single Zk- proof and submit the same to the Ethereum chain for quick settlement.

2. Once that has happened, the AggLayer triggers instant finality with cross-chain atomic transactions to provide instant settlements and eliminates the need for wrapped tokens. Since the Agg-layer will use a decentralized sequencer,  the liveness will be intact, and censorship resistance operation for the messaging protocol will be guaranteed, which will be in equivalence to that of the Ethereum ecosystem where users get sovereignty and scale of modular architectures and unified liquidity and smooth UX of a monolithic system.

How PolygonAgg Will It Change the Experience of the Ecosystem?

  Source: Polygon Technology

For Users

It will abstract the experience from complexity to a simplified form in which a user can easily buy an NFT or swap tokens across the protocols as a single chain without having to connect through bridges. Hence, it will also look as if they are interacting with the Internet using multiple devices and with different networks without having any knowledge of the fact that they are transacting in a Web 3 ecosystem. Considering the fact that Web 3 technology is new and very advanced if they fall behind in simplifying the user experience, it will only remain as an ecosystem for the nerds.

For Developers

At present, if the developers want to tap into the liquidity of other chains, they are restricted by the technology stack of the other platforms. If different ecosystems wish to streamline interoperability, it will come at the cost of security scalability or both. The Agg layer helps in restoring security, liquidity, and sovereignty without compromising the user experience. It is very essential when you are building a heterogeneous network of use cases using different tech stacks and consensus processes to function as a whole. But they also cannot be left behind due to their technology shortcomings in communicating with each other.

For the appchains and Rollups

Rollups and appchains will be able to communicate with all their network partners without changing a single line of code, which will not dilute the objective of their use cases. All they need to do is just tap into the Agg layer integration, and they can quickly communicate with each other by incurring very little fees.

How will this work with Polygon CDK-based rollups?

When you are developing your own rollup chain using the Polygon CDK, the AggLayer will help consolidate all the information as one, roll them up as a single proof, and post the data to the Ethereum Main Chain. The trade-off of such a practice will be that it would almost appear to the users that they are using a single chain because atomic bundling of the transactions will be happening through a decentralized sequencer set to ensure the liveness and security of the chain.  At the same time, ensuring that users have been getting the best experience of initiating a transaction on a monolithic chain with the scalability and gas fees of a modular chain.

Build with Zeeve RaaS to leverage Polygon Aggregation Layer easily:

Developers creating ZK Rollups with the Polygon Chain Development Kit (CDK) via Zeeve Rollups-as-a-service can seamlessly tap into the benefits of the Polygon aggregation layer and the LxLY bridge to achieve unified liquidity, composability, and interoperability. The Polygon CDK allows for the integration of Custom Data Availability (DA), custom Virtual Machines (VMs), custom gas tokens, enhanced privacy options, and tailored governance mechanisms, all supported by the enterprise-grade Zeeve platform. Developers can test with complete flexibility using our 1-click Polygon CDK Sandbox tool.

Additionally, our suite of integration partners enhances your Polygon CDK rollups by providing extra capabilities, such as Alternative Data Availability, Sequencers, decentralized oracles, account abstraction Software Development Kits (SDKs), and various other tools, all of which can be easily incorporated through the Zeeve RaaS platform.

Furthermore, our comprehensive service package includes full provisioning (including block explorers, faucets, data indexers, bridges, etc.), backed by an enterprise Service Level Agreement (SLA) and a commitment to 99.9% uptime.

If you are planning to launch your own rollups, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. Our experts can help you identify the best infrastructure suitable for your use case. Schedule a call today!