- Developers claim to have fully resolved the issue that led to Polygon zkEVM’s outage over the weekend.
- Developers initially linked the outage to software that bundled transactions from the Layer 2 chain to the Ethereum mainnet.
- A statement from a Polygon Labs executive suggests that the complexity of ZK technology may have contributed to the recent debacle.
In March 2023, Polygon Labs threw its hat in the Ethereum Layer 2 ring with the launch of the Polygon zkEVM in beta. However, a year after its release, there are signs that the network has yet to reach its finished form.
On March 23, 2024, the network hit a snag that halted block production for at least ten hours. According to developers at the time of writing, however, the issue that led to this hours-long outage has been resolved, and the network has resumed normal operations.
But What led to the network halt?
Polygon zkEVM Developers Deploy Emergency Fix
On Monday, March 25, Polygon Labs disclosed that developers have fully resolved the issue that led to the Polygon zkEVM outage over the weekend. According to the firm, the resolution follows an intervention by the network’s emergency council (a small group of network participants trusted to oversee upgrades and step in during a crisis) that allowed developers to deploy a fix.
Per the statement, developers would release a full report on what led to the issue early next week. They had initially attributed the outage to the network’s sequencer, a software responsible for ordering transactions on the network, going out of sync with the Ethereum mainnet. The report will likely detail the root cause of this incident.
While users wait for the report, a Polygon Labs executive has implied that recent difficulties faced by the Layer 2 chain might be linked to the technological complexities of the approach the firm has chosen to scale Ethereum.
“ZK is Hard”
Responding to the recent Polygon zkEVM crisis, Polygon Labs VP Product David Silverman quipped, “zk is hard.”
"zk is hard, zk is still inevitable. a hard hard weekend, but tremendously proud of the team getting the network back up."
While ZK-rollups are hailed for providing better security guarantees and faster settlement than Optimistic rollups, the technology remains relatively new. At the same time, it faces significant hurdles, including the computationally intensive process of generating proofs and Ethereum’s non-ZK-friendly design.
To tackle these challenges, Polygon Labs and other proponents like StarkWare have continued to lead innovations in the space, mostly recently linking up to develop a more efficient proving system dubbed Circle STARKs.
On the Flipside
- Network outages are becoming increasingly frequent in the crypto space, and the Ethereum Layer 2 space is no exception. In December 2023, Arbitrum, the largest Ethereum Layer 2 network by TVL, experienced an over five-hour outage due to a surge in inscriptions. In the same month, zkSync Era, the largest ZK-rollup by TVL, also experienced a four-hour outage.
- Polygon zkEVM is still in beta, allowing developers more room to conduct extensive testing and iron out quirks.
- The outage had no effect on Polygon PoS or any other CDK-powered chain.
Why This Matters
The Polygon zkEVM outage adds to recent incidents, highlighting that tech in the Ethereum Layer 2 space is still evolving and yet to fully mature.
Read this for more on the Polygon outage:
Polygon’s 12-Hour Outage Is Not What You Think. Here’s Why
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