Polygon Labs Doubles Down on Ethereum Data Availability Roadmap; Spins Off Avail

Today, Polygon Labs is announcing that in order to focus on ZK scaling for Ethereum and aligning more closely with the roadmap of Ethereum, Avail will be spun off completely from Polygon Labs. The Avail protocol co-creator Anurag Arjun, who has helmed the development of Avail from its inception, is moving out of Polygon Labs and will become Avail’s sole steward and will continue to lead the project in a separate, standalone and self-funded entity.

Being part of the Polygon ecosystem, Polygon Labs aligns with its core values, one of which is decentralization. The commitment to decentralization has been demonstrated in various ways, from validators and delegators to protocol development decentralization, such as the recent release of the privacy-based protocol Nightfall into the public domain. Avail becoming an independent, self-funded project is another step in this direction; it will make ecosystem development more decentralized and at the same time enable Polygon Labs to focus on its core activities and projects.

Ethereum-alignment is another important value and guiding principle for Polygon Labs and embedded in the Polygon protocol. By releasing Avail, Polygon Labs becomes able to follow this principle more closely by shifting focus to Ethereum-native data availability efforts. Ethereum-native data availability solutions have unique properties and represent interests of Ethereum, so Polygon Labs will support them more moving forward. Most immediately, this means supporting the upcoming implementation of EIP-4844, an important part of Ethereum's roadmap.

Avail as a standalone layer will be better positioned to play a leading role in bringing modular blockchain architectures to market and enabling any Web3 project to scale. Avail will sit in a new entity led by Anurag and his team to continue developing Avail as a protocol-agnostic, open-source, and community-owned project.
The spinoff is a win-win. Avail will benefit from being developed autonomously in an innovative and independent manner. Polygon Labs can increase Ethereum-alignment and focus on developing scaling products, a portfolio that already includes the Polygon PoS chain, three zero-knowledge solutions (Polygon zkEVM, Polygon Zero and Polygon Miden), Polygon Supernets and a number of smaller efforts.

Anurag co-founded the Polygon protocol with Sandeep Nailwal and Jaynti Kanani in 2017, and he was instrumental to Polygon Labs in helping grow Polygon into a vibrant ecosystem that is home to some of the biggest Web3 projects in the world. In order to focus full attention on Avail, Anurag will be stepping down from Polygon Labs and Polygon Foundation.

“The Polygon protocol would not be what it is today without the leadership and technical vision of Anurag,” said co-founders Sandeep Nailwal and Jaynti Kanani in a joint statement. “While his considerable intellect and energy will be missed at Polygon Labs, this isn’t a goodbye. With Avail, Anurag will be solving a scalability challenge that is key to our shared mission of accelerating the mass adoption of blockchain technology.”

"It fills me with immense pride and gratitude to have been a part of the talented team that brought a wave of Web3 adoption. I want to thank Sandeep, Jaynti, and Mihailo for their unwavering dedication and support," said Anurag Arjun. "The growth of modular blockchain architecture will be critical to powering the next phase of Web3. The Avail team looks forward to helping developers realize their full potential and serving the broader ecosystem, including the Polygon community."

You can continue to follow Avail’s journey here. And be sure to check the Polygon blog and tune in to our social channels for the latest on the Polygon ecosystem. 

‍Website | Twitter | Developer Twitter | Telegram | Reddit | Discord | Instagram | Facebook | LinkedIn