“We believe this is in a way a historical moment since this will be (to
the best of our knowledge) the first full-blown merger of two blockchain
networks,” said Polygon.
Layer-two protocol Polygon will be merging ZK-rollup project Hermez
Network into its ecosystem for $250 million worth of MATIC tokens.
In a Friday announcement, Polygon said Hermez would become
a part of the network’s suite of solutions under the name Polygon
Hermez. The 26 people in the Hermez team as well as its tech and
solutions — including work on an Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible
solution — will join the platform.
As part of the merger, holders
of Hermez’s native HEZ will be able to exchange the tokens at a rate of
3.5:1 to Polygon’s MATIC tokens. Polygon said HEZ tokens would
eventually be phased out at an unspecified date.
“We believe this
is in a way a historical moment since this will be (to the best of our
knowledge) the first full-blown merger of two blockchain networks,” said
Polygon. “[Mergers and acquisitions] in the traditional tech world are
an everyday thing. In blockchains, however, they are a new and very
interesting concept.”
The merger with Hermez is part of Polygon’s
expansion into zero-knowledge, or ZK, proofs. The project has committed
$1 billion to ZK-based solutions and plans to continue to form
partnerships to grow its suite of solutions.
As a ZK-rollup, Hermez uses zero-knowledge proofs
to verify the correctness of a large batch of transactions. An outside
ecosystem executes these transactions and generates proofs for them,
which are then posted directly on the Ethereum blockchain. The system is
aimed at saving block space — a standard transfer of Ether (ETH) might take just 100 bytes on the chain, while a transaction with Hermez would only be 10 bytes.
Related: Tether launches on Hermez rollup as Ethereum starts falling behind
Though the companies will remain separate entities, Keep Network and NuCypher announced in March they will integrate their data encryption and protection protocols
into a new network called Keanu. Though the projects said they will
form a decentralized autonomous organization, the development will be
driven by two independent teams rather than a full merger.
source link : https://cointelegraph.com/news/polygon-acquires-hermez-network-for-250m-will-merge-native-tokens
