Espresso and Polygon Labs partner to address rollup interoperability

Espresso Systems, a shared sequencer developer, has partnered with Polygon Labs, an Ethereum layer-2 scaling solution. The collaboration is meant to build out and produce an aggregation layer (AggLayer) that could solve the problem of fragmented liquidity across interoperable rollups.

AggLayer, first introduced in January, is designed to enable transaction verification across multiple chains using a process called “proof aggregation.” This ensures that transactions across its ecosystems are valid without relying on third-party bridging solutions. Documentation from Polygon Labs state that all transactions will be guaranteed on AggLayer, providing a seamless experience for users.

“Blockchains today don’t look or feel like the Internet. Instead of a unified, highly scalable network, users face scaling limitations and bad UX due to fragmented liquidity and state,” Polygon Labs said.

The Espresso Shared Sequencer is a decentralized system that serves as a sequencer and data availability point to connect a variety of L2s. With such an infrastructure, the credibility, interoperability, and alignment with Ethereum, are enhanced to better achieve autonomy, neutrality, and collaboration among EVM chains.

“Our respective teams have been thinking deeply about layer-2 interoperability over the last year — it’s amazing to see our solutions converge in such a synergistic way,” Espresso Labs CEO Ben Fisch said in an interview.

Other projects such as Nil Foundation are also building out either modular or integrated approaches to solving scalability in Ethereum. For comparison, projects such as zkSync are pursuing “vertical” scaling, while Nil Foundation is building on “horizontal” scaling with the idea of embedding the sequencer to a protocol to enable transactions across different shards.

Aggregated blockchains. Source: Polygon Labs

Espresso has received significant funding in the past, including $28 million in a Series B round led by a16z crypto . Notably, Espresso serves as a marketplace for shared sequencing, allowing rollups to auction the rights to build their blocks. This market enables rollups to offer sequencing timeslots to shared sequencers through an auction. Espresso, on this end, will act as the coordinator that unifies the interdependent rollups prior to settlement on Ethereum.