Polygon Co-Founder Jordi Baylina Launches Zisk, Independent zkEVM Project

Polygon co-founder Jordi Baylina has spun out a new venture, Zisk, to continue developing zkEVM technology after the Polygon Foundation decided to decommission the costly chain. Baylina retains a founder's title but his team and codebase are now fully independent, with a focus on low-latency proofs and open-source architecture.

Polygon co-founder Jordi Baylina has spun out a new venture, Zisk, to continue developing zero-knowledge EVM (zkEVM) technology after the Polygon Foundation decided to decommission the costly chain. Baylina retains his founder's title but his team and codebase are now fully independent, with a focus on low-latency proofs and open-source architecture [1].

Zisk was initially incubated within Polygon Labs since May 2024 and completed its spin-off on June 13, transferring all related intellectual property and the core zkEVM team to SilentSig GmbH, a Swiss entity fully owned by Baylina [2]. Despite the transition, Baylina continues to hold his role as Polygon co-founder and will provide advisory support.

The decision to discontinue the zkEVM chain reflects Polygon's strategic shift towards optimizing scalability and interoperability within its ecosystem. The Foundation plans to redirect resources towards enhancing the Polygon PoS network and accelerating the development of the AggLayer cross-chain aggregation protocol [2].

This move comes after Sandeep Nailwal took full executive control of the Polygon Foundation, which oversees Polygon Labs and the broader layer-2 ecosystem. Nailwal described Polygon co-founder Mihailo Bjelic as "a force behind so much of what makes Polygon what it is today," following Bjelic's departure from the Foundation’s board [1].

The intensifying competition in the Ethereum layer-2 space, driven by traditional financial institutions planning to tokenize billions to trillions of dollars of real-world assets via custom-built L2s, underscores the strategic importance of Zisk's focus on zkVM verification technology [1].

References:
[1] https://www.tradingview.com/news/cointelegraph:1524309a7094b:0-zisk-spins-off-from-polygon-with-core-minds-behind-polygon-zkevm/
[2] https://en.coinotag.com/breakingnews/polygon-co-founder-jordi-baylina-launches-independent-zisk-project-as-polygon-phases-out-zkevm-network/