Thank you, @bgdlabs.
Hey everyone, Michael from Chainlink Labs here. I appreciate the community’s drive and excitement to expand to new networks.
Chainlink Labs has been actively working on deploying Chainlink Data Feeds on the Polygon zkEVM network, with additional zk-rollups such as zkSync and Starknet also being high priorities as well.
Chainlink Data Feeds are currently planned for deployment on zkEVM in Q2 of this year, pending a rigorous security and validation process and clearance of any technical issues, which is standard for new network launches. This would align with Aave’s roadmap and timelines for launching on the network.
As with every chain integration, Chainlink Labs always takes a methodical and security-focused approach, demonstrated by the proven track record of Chainlink Data Feed deployments on other blockchains, including those used across all existing Aave market deployments. Each blockchain and L2 has its own nuances, including differences in the EVM implementation, gas markets, consensus, finalization, and more. It is also not uncommon for new chains to iterate and modify how the chain operates, which may impact how oracles operate on that network. We are simply not willing to compromise on security.
We believe Aave shares a similar security-focused mindset, given the many decisions that have been made to protect the protocol. These initiatives include a robust and continuously improving Safety Module, adding Chainlink Proof of Reserve circuit breakers to Avalanche V3 Markets, onboarding two risk managers (@Gauntlet and @ChaosLabs), running the V3 protocol through six separate audits, and more plans on the way like Aave Forest.
As noted by @bgdlabs, zkEVM is still a very new network, so extra caution must be taken when deploying any DeFi-related infrastructure on a new network. It often takes time for a blockchain to become battle-tested once in production and address any potential issues not discovered in testing. A security-first approach is essential to ensuring Aave market deployments are robust against exploitation across a variety of verticals.
We are excited to continue supporting Aave’s multi-chain strategy and look forward to deploying Chainlink Data Feeds on zkEVM in the coming months.