On June 18, Jordi Baylina, co-founder of Polygon, announced via platform X that he and the core zkEVM development team have split to form "Zisk," an independent project focused on developing low-latency, open-source, zero-knowledge virtual machine technology.

The new project by Jordi Baylina, "Zisk," will continue the zkVM journey after the Polygon Foundation's decision to shut down this costly chain. Baylina retains the title of founder, but his team and database have now become completely independent.

All intellectual property rights associated with this project, including databases developed under the Polygon umbrella, were transferred to SilentSig GmbH, a Swiss company wholly owned by Baylina. According to the Zisk website, the team had been incubating the project within Polygon since May 2024, before the formalization of the exception process on June 13.

Zisk Maneuver: How Polygon's exit from zkEVM can reshape zero-knowledge technology

Baylina's departure comes just one week after a major leadership change at Polygon, where co-founder Sandeep Nailwal took direct control of the Polygon Foundation. Following his appointment, Nailwal rushed to present a new roadmap that sidelines zero-knowledge EVM technology in favor of Polygon PoS and the AggLayer interoperability protocol.