In the midst of the growing popularity of layers 2, the Canto blockchain has announced that it wants to become an Ethereum ZK Rollup, thanks to Polygon’s technology. Let’s take a closer look.
The Canto blockchain intends to become an Ethereum layer 2
As the months go by, we’re seeing growing interest in Ethereum (ETH) layer 2s, with the aim of improving scalability. With the success of The Merge and then Shapella, the trend now seems to be accelerating as the leading smart contract blockchain delivers on its promises.
Such is this trend that, 2 months ago, it was the Celo blockchain that put forward the idea of abandoning its status as a layer 1 network and becoming a layer 2 as well. Today, it’s the Canto blockchain that appears to be moving in a similar direction.
To achieve this, Canto is reportedly turning to ZK Rollup technology, rather than Optimistic Rollup. Indeed, the teams behind the blockchain’s development have revealed that they are working on the development kit offered by Polygon (MATIC), Polygon CDK :
We’re thrilled to announce Canto is building with @0xPolygonLabs to migrate to a ZK L2 on Ethereum- powered by Polygon Chain Development Kit (CDK).
This ZK chain will be dedicated to Real World Assets in support of the next wave of application-layer adoption via neofinance. pic.twitter.com/x04dMIHsg7
– Canto Public (@CantoPublic) September 18, 2023
A change needed to avoid oblivion
During the previous bull run, we witnessed an explosion in the number of layer 1 blockchains, some of which didn’t hesitate to position themselves as “Ethereum killers”. In fact, despite a decline in adoption inherent to all cryptocurrencies during this bear market, the Ethereum blockchain proved to be more solid than ever.
Today, “layer 2” is a buzzword, and we’re entitled to wonder whether certain players in the ecosystem aren’t trying to jump on the bandwagon in search of a resurgence in popularity.
For its part, Canto seems to be suffering particularly from a lack of adoption, with a total locked-in value of just $42.83 million on its various decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, according to DefiLlama.
It should be remembered, however, that its mainnet was launched barely a year ago, making it still a very young network. It’s time to give it a chance, so that we can draw conclusions from its choices in the years to come.
