Polygon partners with Near Protocol to bring increased scalability and decentralization to Ethereum

Since the advent of Ethereum, the EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) has been the standard for Protocols to run on Ethereum; however, Wasm chains are now being onboarded as a means of upgrading from EVMs. To make the same happen, Polygon and Near Protocol are joining hands to bridge that gap.

Polygon and Near Protocol announce partnership

Polygon and Near Protocol announced on Wednesday that the two companies were jointly developing a zkWasm prover. The zero-knowledge (zk) prover for the Wasm blockchains will bridge the gap between Wasm-based chains and the Ethereum ecosystem.

Wasm, also known as WebAssembly, is a framework that is used for running complex programs in a browser. The reason it is considered to be a viable replacement for EVM is because it offers higher flexibility and interoperability, supports more languages, and offers a broader toolset than Ethereum Virtual Machine.

Speaking about the collaboration, Polygon founder Sandeep Nailwal stated,

“The zkWasm prover maximizes developer customizability, which means projects will be able to select from a number of provers when building with Polygon CDK, whether that’s launching or migrating an EVM chain, or building a Wasm chain for closer Ethereum alignment and access to liquidity.

In addition to wider ecosystem development, this partnership would bring NEAR Protocol closer to Ethereum, enabling Wasm chains to tap Ethereum liquidity. Given that NEAR Foundation has also joined Polygon Labs as a core contributor to Polygon CDK (Chain Development Kit), the potential for its growth is high.

NEAR price rise halts but not for long

NEAR price grabbed the crypto market’s attention after it rallied by more than 65% in over two weeks. The increase could be credited to broader market bullishness, as well as the anticipation for Near Protocol’s developer conference, NEARCON, that began on November 7.

As the conference turned out to be a sell-the-news event, NEAR price fell by more than 11.6% in the span of less than 48 hours, trading at $1.44. The altcoin is hovering around the $1.45 line at the time of writing, and bouncing off it would give the cryptocurrency a shot at recovery.

The Relative Strength Index (RSI) falling back down from the overbought zone suggests the trend has changed. However, given that the lingering broader market bullishness is not likely to end until December, the price could bounce back to reattempt the failed breach of $1.63.

NEAR/USD 1-day chart

Nevertheless, if the NEAR price fails to close above it and eventually falls through this support level, it could see a bearish change of events. Not only would the bullish thesis be invalidated, but NEAR would fall toward $1.17.