On May 24, Cointelegraph spoke with Polygon co-founder Brendan Farmer to discuss the inner workings of Polygon AggLayer. Brendan Farmer has a strong background in mathematics and cryptography.
According to Farmer’s Mirror post, AggLayer can be described as follows:
“(…) A decentralized protocol run by staked nodes that guarantees low latency, cross-chain transactions and the safety of integrated bridges.”
Cointelegraph: How long will it take to see AggLayer implemented?
Brendan Palmer: “I think we’re moving at a pretty good pace. I think the tentative internal estimate will come out around the third quarter.”
Cointelegraph: How does AggLayer reduce latency and secure cross-chain transactions?
BF: “So currently Ethereum Layer 2 (L2) has a problem called fragmentation. I think we currently have assets sitting on dozens of L2s, as well as Optimism (OP), Arbitrum, zkSync, etc. The problem is that each of these individual L2s cannot accommodate the global demand for blockspace for cryptocurrency usage.
“Now, when you bridge, rather than exporting an asset to the destination chain, you get a wrapped synthetic version of that asset. The world shouldn’t work like this. Ethereum takes 12 to 19 minutes to complete a block, and chains should be able to interoperate securely with much lower latency than that. This is what AggLayer provides. This allows chains to securely use shared bridges without transacting on the layer 1 (L1) blockchain.”
Cointelegraph: What is the Chain Development Kit (CDK) and what role does it play in AggLayer?
BF: “Think of CDK as the building block of this ecosystem, allowing anyone to spin the chain. AggLayer links them together so that it feels like you’re using a single chain, even when moving through a horizontally expandable space. Eventually, developers will be able to use a variety of execution environments.”
Cointelegraph: What are the main challenges in building AggLayer?
BF: “AggLayer is designed to enable chains to use shared bridges that ensure low-latency interoperability. Ensuring this secure interoperability is inherently difficult. Unlike other ecosystems, AggLayer does not require revenue or profit sharing to use its technology.”
Related: Web3 needs more layer 2 — Polygon co-founder
Cointelegraph: Looking ahead to 2025, what use cases or improvements can AggLayer deliver?
BF: “Regarding the use case, I would like to provide two classes that make it possible. The first is a way to save money on a much larger scale. If you think about what it would take to engage 100 million people in decentralized finance (DeFi), it wouldn’t be possible on existing chains, but AggLayer provides a path to make it possible.
“On-chain, you are bound by the constraints of the virtual machines (VMs) on the chain, which implicitly limits your ability to design new applications. Cosmos has a very interesting DeFi chain launched called Penumbra that enables private swaps and private staking. Applying privacy to DeFi is not really possible in Ethereum L1 or L2.
“But with AggLayer, you can have chains with completely different VMs or state models and still be fully composable as if they were on the same chain. We believe this flexibility and support in the new VM will change the way developers play and build.”
Cointelegraph: Why did you first become interested in zero knowledge (ZK) technology?
BF: “I think it started when I was studying math in school. I desperately wanted to do something mathematically interesting, and the first time I was exposed to cryptocurrency and became more interested was the Snowden information leak and this level of privacy infringement and invasion. It was after witnessing this.
“Having learned that we can use math to solve this fundamental social problem, I really like how ZK gives us the ability to take back privacy in the way we make financial transactions and use the internet. “I think exploring financial privacy is going to be really important in the coming decades.”
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