$USDC Jordi Baylina, the co-founder of Polygon, revives zkEVM technology under his new project "Zisk".

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

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

All intellectual property rights associated with this project, including databases developed under the Polygon umbrella, have been 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, prior to formalizing the spin-off process on June 13.

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

Baylina's separation 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.