A new layer-3 (L3) prototype aimed at further solving Ethereum’s scalability issues is set to be deployed for testing as soon as Q1 2023.

zkSync, a provider of zero-knowledge blockchain solutions on Oct. 10 announced it is aiming to deploy a new EVM-compatible layer-3 prototype called “Pathfinder” on testnet early next year.

zkSync is a L2 Ethereum scaling protocol designed to bring down network usage costs. It launched a 1.0 version back in June 2020, and is now gearing up for the launch of zkSync 2.0 later this month.

In its most recent blog post the team explained that the L3 Pathfinder will be a “prototype demonstrating a ZK rollup as a fractal Hyperchain in Layer 3.” It will use recursive scaling.

“It will serve as a foundation for public experimentation, research, and development of Layer 3,” the post read.

“That's where the game is going to be had [L3] and you know, the reason why people should see us differently than Polygon really is all about by the time they get around to getting that L2 solution, which is much less performant than us,” he added.

Newcomb noted that after zkSyncs L2 mainnet launches later this month, there will be a testing period of roughly a month before decentralized applications (dApps) launch. The team expects there to be around 150 projects ready at launch.

Related: Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin shares vision for layer-3 protocols

In terms of the L3 solution adding to the L2, zkSync has noted that the team is looking to “aggressively experiment” with it to ascertain its supposed performance-enhancing potential.

The five key areas the project is looking at is performance, cost, ease of use and composability.

“Developers will be able to choose from 3 data availability options all using the same proving infrastructure for their project. Developers can choose their own trade-offs between price, performance, and security,” the post reads.