Polygon Co-founder Jordi Baylina Launches ZisK for Open-Source zkVM

Highlights:

• ZisK becomes an independent project spun out from Polygon zkEVM.
• All code and IP transferred to Swiss-registered SilentSig GmbH.
• Polygon to sunset zkEVM chain and focus on PoS and AggLayer.

Polygon co-founder Jordi Baylina has officially spun off the zero-knowledge EVM unit into a new standalone company named ZisK. The transition includes the full transfer of all intellectual property and the core development team into SilentSig Switzerland GmbH. This move aligns with Polygon Foundation’s ongoing shift away from zkEVM infrastructure toward its PoS and AggLayer platforms.

ZisK Launches as a Standalone zkVM Project

ZisK emerged from a year-long incubation inside Polygon Labs before gaining full independence on June 13, 2025. The new project focuses on developing low-latency, open-source zero-knowledge virtual machines for high-speed proving. Jordi Baylina, along with seven developers, now leads ZisK under his own company, SilentSig GmbH.

The zkVM stack is designed for real-time cryptographic proving and is fully open-source for community adoption. ZisK intends to address both scalability and privacy concerns in modern blockchain ecosystems. The team has positioned it as a foundation layer for next-gen decentralized applications.

Baylina confirmed that while he remains an advisor and co-founder at Polygon, his main focus will be on ZisK. The project aims to improve developer access to performant zkVM tooling. The launch was announced publicly as Polygon began winding down zkEVM infrastructure.

Polygon Shuts Down zkEVM Amid Strategic Pivot

Polygon Foundation has begun deprecating its zkEVM chain following a major leadership transition. New CEO Sandeep Nailwal confirmed the foundation’s new priorities will be Polygon PoS and the cross-chain AggLayer. These moves come after the zkEVM network failed to scale and generated losses of over $1 million per year.

Polygon originally acquired Hermez in 2021 for $250 million and rebranded it to zkEVM. Despite the high acquisition cost, the chain did not integrate Ethereum’s EIP-4844 blob support. With declining network usage and performance, the decision to sunset the chain was finalized in June 2025.

Current activity data reflects the drop in zkEVM adoption. Active addresses as of June 2025 stood at only 1,030, with transaction counts at 3,480 per day. Throughput dropped to 0.01 Mgas/s, compared to peak levels of 0.30 Mgas/s in early 2023.

Bhilai Hard Fork Set to Boost Polygon PoS

Polygon is now prioritizing its PoS chain, with a major upgrade scheduled for July 1, 2025. The Bhilai hard fork will activate at block #73440256 and is expected to increase network throughput above 1,000 transactions per second. It will also improve block finality and processing consistency.

Source : X

According to Polygonscan data, the current block height is #72878522 with 561,734 blocks remaining until the fork. The countdown shows 13 days and 14 hours to the expected launch. This upgrade is seen as critical to positioning Polygon PoS as the primary scaling solution within its ecosystem.The move comes as part of a broader effort to consolidate and streamline the network’s architecture. With zkEVM phased out and ZisK now independent, Polygon seeks to maximize throughput and lower latency on its PoS infrastructure.

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