Okx, the crypto industry’s sixth largest exchange by market volume, has announced the launch of its layer-2 ZK cryptographic network in collaboration with the “Polygon Chain Development Kit”(CDK).
The new infrastructure, called “X1,” will be launched in the mainnet in the first quarter of 2024 and will use the OKB exchange’s native token as a resource for paying gas fees.
Okx thus joins a long list of companies that have developed a blockchain based on zero-knowledge evidence technology, which is one of the hottest trends of 2023.
Coinbase launched its Layer-2 Base in August while Kraken seems poised to follow in the footsteps of its competitors and may also announce the introduction of a secondary network by year-end or early 2024.
Let’s see together all the details in the news.
Summary
Okx launches its layer-2 ZK network built on the ” Polygon Chain Development Kit” (CDK)
Cryptocurrency exchange Okx yesterday announced the testnet launch of its layer-2 ZK network, built on the Polygon stack.
The new blockchain, which leverages zero-knowledge cryptographic proof-of-concept technology, has been named “X1” and uses the Polygon Chain Development Kit (CDK) framework.
The decision to join the now vast landscape of secondary infrastructures in the Ethereum ecosystem that use zk proofs as a tool to achieve scalability is motivated by the success this niche market has been experiencing over the past year.
OKB currency, the main resource within the crypto exchange, will be used as token gas to pay the new network’s fees.
The mainnet launch is scheduled for the first quarter of 2024, ahead of the long-awaited bull market that could give an extra boost to the assets that will be registered on the new layer-2 blockchain.
As mentioned by Okx itself, the X1 network will boast high levels of security and scalability, and in parallel will offer a simple and cost-effective environment for developers to build the next successful decentralized applications in the web3 industry.
In this regard, Jason Lau, Okx’s chief innovation officer, said during a press release that:
“This scalable and accessible network is perfect for developers, who can build on X1 to deliver user friendly world-class consumer Web3 applications, all while maintaining interoperability with other networks and ecosystems. X1 will be a key pillar of our efforts to educate and bring our users on-chain and into the world of Web3.”
The exchange, which has been gaining more and more market share in recent months at the expense of other competitors in the industry, has not come up with anything particularly innovative with X1.
In any case, by doing so, Okx is aligning itself with one of the hottest trends of the past year by coming to offer its own second-tier solutions, which will connect interoperably with the rest of the decentralized ecosystem.
On the topic of cross-chain interoperability, the Polygon Labs team has ensured that with its CDK, blockchains built on its framework will have the ability to connect via a shared zk bridge.
Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal is excited about the collaboration between his team and that of the Okx exchange. These are his words after the news of the launch of “X1”:
“Looking ahead, Polygon CDK-deployed chains can interoperate and coexist within a larger network of ZK-powered L2s in the Polygon CDK ecosystem.
Many Layer 2s — including Immutable zkEVM, IDEX, Palm Network and Astar zkEVM — are already being developed with the Polygon CDK.”
Also very interesting to note is how the OKB token, which will take a central role within the new chain, touched its all-time high yesterday at a price of $64.89, before falling slightly in parallel with a retracement of Bitcoin.
The coin represents one of the few crypto assets that held up better over the crypto winter of 2022 as well as one of the best performing during 2023.
The strong growth of the ZK infrastructure sector in 2023
Okx’s announcement that it will unveil its ZK chain in the first quarter of 2024 follows that of other crypto companies that have recently launched their own layer-2 already achieving excellent on-chain results with TVL worth hundreds of millions of dollars and a number of active users that is the envy of top-tier infrastructures that have been on the market for years now.
Among the latest arrivals in the context of zero-knowledge networks are the newly formed Base, launched by the well-known exchange Coinbase in August this year, and Scroll, a network celebrated on October 17 that many have bet heavily on.
Then there are many rumors of an imminent launch for the Kraken exchange as well, which must, however, contend with stringent US regulations and pressure from the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Again, there is talk of a launch of the infrastructure headed by Dave Ripley in early 2024.
On Okx’s launch of X1, Polygon Labs CEO Mark Boiron expressed positivism for the entire zk rollup industry. These are his words:
“You can look at all these chains as competitive, or you can look at them as one.
I fundamentally believe that if we can have the largest ecosystem of chains that are all interoperable, then everyone in that ecosystem will win.”
According to L2Beat data, the total TVL of Ethereum’s layer-2 networks has reached $13.5 billion, up 8% in the last week.
As of 1 January 2023, bridged assets within these zk-based infrastructures have increased by as much as $9 billion, a testament to the success this sector has experienced.
The top blockchains in this niche include Arbitrum at the forefront, which alone controls more than 50% of the market share, followed by Optimism, Base, ZkSync, and DyDx.
Among the most promising networks, which will surely make people talk about them in the coming months, we cannot fail to mention Starknet, Linea and Polygon ZkEVM.
Much of the success experienced by the ZK chain landscape over the past year is due to the emerging crypto airdrop narrative, which incentivizes increasing masses of users to try a decentralized infrastructure by dedicating capital for exchanges and liquidity providing, driven by the possibility of being able to obtain shares of new crypto tokens.
In any case, Okx is not likely to launch any airdrops.
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