Astar Network, a blockchain firm based in Japan, launched Astar zxEVM on March 5, becoming the first layer-2 chain to integrate into Polygon’s AggLayer.

Astar zkEVM is a zero-knowledge layer-2 chain designed to enable cross-chain transactions between the Astar and Polygon blockchains. It’s integrated through AggLayer, a protocol that supports multichain smart contracts via aggregate zero-knowledge proofs (ZK-proofs), essentially making the chains seemingly operate for end-users as though they’d merged into a single network.

According to a blog post from Polygon Labs, AggLayer brings “uniform cryptographic security and atomic composability across aggregated chains without sacrificing sovereignty,” which is to say that transactions remain immutable throughout the entire process of crossing chains.

In a press release seen by Cointelegraph, Sota Watanabe, founder of Astar Network, said the move came as part of Japan’s national tech strategy:

“Our integration in the AggLayer and continuous investment in development solidifies Astar zkEVM’s position as Japan’s web3 authority for innovation, entertainment, and retail dApps, positioning Astar at the forefront of Japan’s web3 expansion in the enterprise, retail, and government sectors, accelerating the growth of web3.”

As Cointelegraph reported, AggLayer was announced just a little over a month ago with the goal of easing friction for users across chains.

Polygon Labs compared the result to an end-user experience more in line with the internet. Instead of manually connecting, recovering and restaging assets to facilitate cross-chain movement, AggLayer basically does the connecting and converting behind the scenes. This works much like today’s Web2 experience, where users click on a link and all the handshaking between sites and across domains occurs in the background.

Sandeep Nailwal, co-founder of Polygon, said in a statement that the onset of the AggLayer era was an important milestone:

“Today is an important first step to welcome communities to a seamless multichain ecosystem. With Astar and numerous other ZK-powered chains onboarding soon, Polygon CDK and AggLayer are poised to bring internet-scale capabilities to the world of crypto.”

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