Polygon's Zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine (zkEVM) Experiences Downtime for Over 12 Hours

Polygon's Zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine (zkEVM) experienced significant downtime lasting over 12 hours, raising concerns about the reliability and scalability of the network.

Several cryptocurrency stakeholders have expressed concerns about the network's inability to produce blocks for several hours, and the outage has evoked comparisons to the problem that previously occurred with Solana.

Polygon said the downtime was due to a glitch in protocol sequencing, a process triggered by Layer-1 realignment. The development team assures that they are taking measures to resolve the issue and will provide a detailed investigation report.

Fortunately, Polygon's other platforms such as the PoS chain and Chain Development Kit (CDK), as well as the protocols that use the CDK, are still operating normally and are not affected by this issue.

However, this incident has posed significant challenges for Layer-2 networks, especially as the industry has faced many difficulties since its inception last year. Ava Labs founder Emin Gün Sirer has warned about the potential for “junk L2” issues, emphasizing the need for diligence in assessing and monitoring the Layer-2 ecosystem.