Luxury brand blockchain infrastructure provider, Arianee, has developed a new layer 2 on Polygon to expand its digital product passport platform. The company has been working on this optimized layer 2 since early 2023, utilizing Polygon’s Chain Development Kit (CDK) powered by zero-knowledge proof (ZK-proof) technology. Arianee’s CEO, Pierre-Nicolas Hurstel, stated that the reengineered infrastructure allows brands and developers to create customizable, cost-effective, and high-performing digital passports and tokens linked to real-world assets.
Hurstel explained that Arianee exclusively builds on the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) to cater to enterprise and scalable use cases. Building on layer 1 or even on the Polygon mainnet can be challenging and risky when trying to deliver a seamless, universal, and cost-effective service. Arianee’s focus is on supporting brands engaged in scalable and high-performance projects that require precise control over efficiency in terms of costs and energy consumption.
The native protocol token of Arianee will be used for payments within the Polygon CDK application-specific chain (appchain), which is connected to the Aria20 ERC-20 token on the Ethereum mainnet. The launch of the layer-2 appchain will enable brands to launch and manage their digital product passports and loyalty tokens.
Arianee currently serves as the infrastructure provider for over 40 luxury brands, including Breitling, Moncler, Yves Saint Laurent, and Lacoste. Through Arianee’s infrastructure, brands like Breitling can issue digital passports for their products, allowing owners to manage their data and access services and products related to their assets. These digital passports, in the form of nonfungible tokens (NFTs), provide customizable utility for their real-world counterparts. Owners have full control over their data and can interact with manufacturers to arrange repairs, warranties, insurance, and other services.
The integration of Arianee’s protocol with Polygon’s CDK is expected to enhance scalability and performance through ZK-proof technology. Brands that use Ethereum’s ERC-721 token standard to issue NFTs and digital passports can seamlessly integrate their existing infrastructure with Arianee’s protocol using the Polygon CDK.
The new layer-2 functionality also provides dedicated block space for individual applications on the protocol, reducing the impact on user experience during periods of high network activity. Polygon’s scaling infrastructure reduces the operational costs associated with gas fees and smart contract execution for applications and services.
Polygon released a new Type 1 prover in February, allowing ecosystem chains like optimistic rollups to unlock the layer-2 functionality of ZK-proofs. This open-source technology enables the generation of ZK-proofs for Ethereum blocks on the mainnet at minimal cost.
Overall, Arianee’s partnership with Polygon and the development of its layer-2 infrastructure aims to revolutionize the luxury industry by providing brands with a scalable, efficient, and cost-effective solution for managing digital product passports and NFTs.