{"id":3306,"date":"2025-06-18T18:32:04","date_gmt":"2025-06-18T18:32:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/polygon-co-founder-jordi-baylina-revives-zkevm-tech-under-new-venture-zisk\/"},"modified":"2025-06-18T18:32:06","modified_gmt":"2025-06-18T18:32:06","slug":"polygon-co-founder-jordi-baylina-revives-zkevm-tech-under-new-venture-zisk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/polygon-co-founder-jordi-baylina-revives-zkevm-tech-under-new-venture-zisk\/","title":{"rendered":"Polygon co-founder Jordi Baylina revives zkEVM tech under new venture, Zisk"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Jordi Baylina\u2019s new venture, Zisk, will carry the zkVM torch forward following the Polygon Foundation\u2019s decision to decommission the costly chain. Baylina retains a founder\u2019s title, but his team and codebase are now fully independent.<\/p>\n

On June 18, Polygon co-founder Jordi Baylina took to X to announce<\/a> that he and the core zkEVM development team have spun out to form Zisk, an independent project focused on advancing low-latency, open-source zero-knowledge virtual machine technology.<\/p>\n

All intellectual property tied to the effort, including codebases developed under Polygon\u2019s umbrella, has been transferred to SilentSig GmbH, a Swiss entity wholly owned by Baylina. According to Zisk\u2019s website, the team had been incubating the project within Polygon since May 2024, before formalizing the carve-out on June 13.<\/p>\n

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The Zisk gambit: how Polygon\u2019s zkEVM exodus could reshape zero-knowledge tech<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Baylina\u2019s spinout comes just a week after a major leadership shakeup at Polygon, with co-founder Sandeep Nailwal taking direct control of the Polygon Foundation. Following his appointment, Nailwal quickly introduced a new roadmap that sidelined the zero-knowledge EVM in favor of Polygon PoS and its AggLayer interoperability protocol.<\/p>\n

The decision effectively shuttered a project that had been burning over $1 million annually. Blockchain researcher Lorenz Lehmann noted on X that Polygon had \u201cquietly abandoned\u201d development, despite investing nine figures into the initiative.<\/p>\n

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Soon Polygon zkEVM will shut down. Quick recap:<\/p>\n

>Polygon acquired Hermez for $250M in 2021
>Rebranded to Polygon zkEVM
>Development quietly abandoned
>Never upgraded to use Blobs, chain runs at 1M$+ loss\/y
>Announce chain will shut down https:\/\/t.co\/paYx0P06oi<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/0uJAPSvOFX<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Lorenz Lehmann (@LehmannLorenz) June 16, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

For Baylina and his team, the writing was on the wall. Rather than resist the shift, they opted to forge a new path. With Zisk, Baylina aims to eliminate the overhead of legacy architecture and focus on delivering the core promise of what zkEVM aspired to be but never fully achieved.<\/p>\n

While current zkVMs like Polygon zkEVM emphasize EVM compatibility, Zisk\u2019s architecture prioritizes low-latency proofs, a critical requirement for real-world use cases such as decentralized exchanges and gaming. Early benchmarks suggest Zisk\u2019s approach could reduce verification times by 40\u201360% compared to incumbent solutions, though independent audits will be required to verify those claims.<\/p>\n

The spinout also inherits Polygon zkEVM\u2019s open-source legacy, with Baylina pledging to keep Zisk\u2019s codebase permissionless.<\/p>\n

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