Matter Labs Rejects Polygon’s Open Source Plagiarism Report

Key Points:

• Matter Labs responded to Polygon’s allegation of plagiarism of open-source code as “an untrue statement”.
• Polygon alleges against a new product called Boojum because it contains some code copied from the Plonky2 library that is not clearly annotated with the original author.
• Matter Labs denied it and said its code only uses 5% of Plonky2.

According to CoinDesk, Ethereum scaling solution Polygon said in a blog on Thursday that development firm zkSync Matter Labs copied some of Polygon’s open-source code but did not provide attribution.

Earlier, Polygon stated in a blog post that Matter Labs recently released a proof-of-work system called Boojum, which contains some source code copied from performance-critical components of the software library Plonky2.

In particular, this code is not original copyright and is not explicitly attributed to the original author. It also alleges that copying the source code without attribution and making false claims about the original work violates the spirit of open source and harms the ecosystem. In its article, Polygon notes that Matter Labs marketed Boojum 10 times faster than Plonky2.

CEO Alex Gluchowski followed up with a detailed tweet expressing frustration with Polygon’s allegations. Matter Labs denied the allegations in a statement, saying the code was “clearly marked” above one of the related documents.

“The new Boojum high-performance proof system leverages 5% from Plonky2, which is prominently attributed in the first line of our module,” The told CoinDesk in a Telegram message.

It is known that blockchain projects often release their code under an open-source software license, which means that external developers can read, copy, and even contribute to the code. However, community standards and most open-source licenses often require third-party developers to provide credit for using code sourced elsewhere.

The tension between Polygon and Matter Labs shows the fierce rivalry as both companies rush to deliver the first Zero-Zero Ethereum Virtual Machine (zkEVM) to provide cheaper and more efficient transactions on the Ethereum network.

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