Canto and Astar blockchains intend to transition to the Ethereum ecosystem as layer 2 solutions.

The Cosmos-native layer-1 blockchain Canto has recently transitioned to Ethereum as a layer 2 zero-knowledge rollup, following a similar announcement from another layer-1 blockchain, Astar, which is moving from the Polkadot ecosystem to Ethereum.

Canto is a permissionless, general-purpose blockchain that is compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and aims to integrate the traditional financial sector into decentralized finance applications.

Following an official agreement established by Canto Commons—a framework for contributors to coordinate ideas and solutions for the protocol—its core developers will create a ZK rollup on Ethereum’s second layer, as explained by Polygon Labs on Sept. 18:

“By utilizing a shared ZK bridge, Canto will ultimately access the liquidity of a unified Polygon ecosystem with seamless entry to Ethereum.”

Polygon Labs stated that Canto will “inherit” the security of Ethereum, which will facilitate greater decentralization and trustless assurances when transferring assets:

“User security is provided through a top-tier and operational ZK prover, meaning community security is guaranteed by cryptography and derived from Ethereum, rather than relying on the socio-economic incentives of fraud proofs.”

Neofinance at scale – Canto is migrating to a ZK-powered Ethereum L2, built with @0xPolygon CDK.
The @CantoPublic community will access Ethereum’s extensive liquidity via a shared ZK bridge without compromising user security – a significant advancement toward neofinance. https://t.co/8uDhLYk1G9

— Polygon (Labs) (@0xPolygonLabs) September 18, 2023

Polygon Labs further noted that there will be no alterations to Canto’s validators or staking system.

Canto follows moves from Astar

Canto joins Astar, Gnosis Pay, Palm, and IDEX in announcing intentions to develop ZK layer 2s utilizing Polygon’s Chain Development Kit in recent months, according to Polygon Labs co-founder Sandeep Nailwal.

On Sept. 13, the Astar team revealed plans to commence the development of its own Ethereum layer-2 scaling solution, referred to as Astar ZK-Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), also leveraging Polygon’s CDK.

“We are constructing a trustless bridge to Ethereum with high EVM equivalency right from the start, enabling dApp developers to utilize existing tools to create solutions across our entire ecosystem,” the Astar team stated in a Sept. 14 announcement.

I’m thrilled to welcome @AstarNetwork, the leading @Polkadot chain to Ethereum. They are set to launch a zkEVM chain using @0xPolygon CDK, an Ethereum L2 secured by ZK! @AstarNetwork is the foremost blockchain in Japan. Following the launch, it quickly became one of the most notable… pic.twitter.com/0SgYE6ENet

— Sandeep Nailwal | sandeep. polygon (@sandeepnailwal) September 13, 2023

Polygon Labs anticipates that the ZK-powered chain will allow businesses to implement Web3 solutions with enhanced speed, scalability, and security in Japan—where Astar is headquartered—and globally.

Ryan Sean Adams, co-host of the Ethereum show Bankless, suggested that the recent migrations to Ethereum could signify the beginning of a rollup avalanche.

The largest chain from Polkadot just transitioned to Ethereum. (Astar)
The largest public commons chain from Cosmos just became a Polygon Validium. (Canto)
And…I hear the world’s first Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) L2 is launching tomorrow.
Ethereum rollups are taking over the world.

— RYAN SΞAN ADAMS – rsa.eth (@RyanSAdams) September 18, 2023

Not every protocol is sticking around on Ethereum

Conversely, some protocols seem to be moving in the opposite direction.

The decentralized exchange dYdX announced its plans to establish a “purely decentralized” order book exchange on Cosmos as part of a strategy to migrate away from Ethereum in early September.

Another Ethereum-native protocol, Maker, indicated intentions to sever ties with Ethereum and create a new, more “efficient” chain utilizing Solana’s codebase in September as well.

Related: Idealistic Ethereum community-built zkEVM Scroll launching in weeks

Maker’s co-founder Rune Chistensen noted that Solana currently represents the “most promising” ecosystem to explore, having demonstrated resilience during the FTX crisis and possessing a high-quality pool of talented developers building on Solana.

The final phase of Endgame is the launch of a native blockchain for Maker, codenamed NewChain.
It will enhance the ecosystem’s security and efficiency.
After conducting some research, I believe the Solana codebase should be considered as the foundation for NewChain. https://t.co/KyGxBBGlVH

— Rune (@RuneKek) September 1, 2023

The non-fungible token collection OnChainMonkey is also relocating its entire collection of 10,000 NFTs from Ethereum to Bitcoin. The team behind the protocol cited a more secure base layer and a flourishing Bitcoin Ordinals ecosystem as the primary reasons for the migration.

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