Polygon co-founder Jordi Baylina and his team have spun off Polygon's zkEVM project to establish a new company named ZisK. ZisK focuses on low-latency, open-source zero-knowledge virtual machine (zkVM) proof technology. The project was initially incubated within Polygon Labs in May 2024 and became an independent entity on June 13. This move comes as the Polygon Foundation prepares to shut down the underutilized zero-knowledge EVM network. Previously, Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal took over as CEO of the Polygon Foundation and announced a phased discontinuation of the zkEVM chain, shifting resources to develop Polygon PoS and the Agglayer cross-chain aggregator. Critics argue that this decision should have been made earlier, pointing out that after Polygon acquired Hermez for 250 million USD in 2021 and renamed it zkEVM, development was "quietly abandoned," resulting in annual network losses exceeding 1 million USD. As part of ZisK's independence, all intellectual property and the core team of Polygon zkEVM have been transferred to SilentSig Switzerland GmbH, fully owned by Baylina. Baylina remains a co-founder and advisor of Ethereum scaling solutions.

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Polygon co-founder Jordi Baylina and the team behind Polygon’s zkEVM have transitioned into an independent venture dubbed Zisk, just as the foundation prepares to wind down the underused zero-knowledge EVM network.ZisK will focus on a low-latency, open-source zkVM proving technology, Baylina said in a post on X. Blockchain provers are used to verify transactions or onchain data validity without revealing the underlying information. According to Zisk’s website, the project was incubated inside Polygon Labs from May 2024 until becoming standalone on June 13.The move follows last week’s leadership shake-up, which saw Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal take over as CEO of the Polygon Foundation. Nailwal outlined plans to deprecate the zkEVM chain while pivoting resources to Polygon PoS and the Agglayer cross-chain aggregator.Critics say the decision is overdue. In a separate X thread, researcher and founder of the student-run RWTH blockchain, Lorenz Lehmann, noted Polygon bought Hermez for $250 million in 2021, rebranded it as zkEVM, and then "quietly abandoned" development, leaving the network to rack up more than $1 million in annual losses.As part of Zisk’s spin-off, all Polygon zkEVm intellectual property and its core team were transferred to SilentSig Switzerland GmbH, a company wholly owned by Baylina. He remains a co-founder of the Ethereum scaling solution and an advisor.

Polygon co-founder launches independent zero-knowledge project ZisK, taking over the core team of zkEVM