Polygon

Polygon 2.0: PoS Becomes a zkEVM Validium

Updated 2025
The Future Roadmap

What Is the Polygon 2.0 Upgrade?

In 2023, Polygon Labs published a proposal to upgrade the Polygon PoS chain to a zkEVM Validium — a first-of-its-kind decentralized Layer 2 secured by zero-knowledge proofs. This is a major milestone for the Polygon ecosystem. The upgrade would allow Polygon PoS to become more secure, more performant, and a core part of the Polygon 2.0 ecosystem while preserving all existing applications, users, and developer experience. The goal is to add ZK security without disrupting the existing ecosystem.

What Is a Validium?

A Validium is the lower-cost, higher-throughput sibling of a rollup. Rollups like Polygon zkEVM leverage Ethereum to publish transaction data and verify proofs, fully inheriting its security. The trade-off with rollups is that posting all transaction data to Ethereum is expensive and limits throughput. Validiums offer similar ZK-proof security guarantees — ensuring all transactions are valid — but keep transaction data available off-chain. This dramatically reduces costs and increases throughput while retaining mathematical proof of validity.

How Will PoS and zkEVM Coexist?

After the Polygon 2.0 upgrade, Polygon PoS (as a zkEVM Validium) and Polygon zkEVM (the rollup) will continue to coexist as two separate public networks. Polygon zkEVM (the rollup) will have slightly higher fees but offer the highest level of security, making it ideal for high-value DeFi transactions. Polygon PoS 2.0 (the validium) will offer the highest scalability at the lowest cost, remaining optimal for applications with high transaction volume requiring very low fees — such as gaming, social media, and NFT marketplaces.

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