What is the Polygon Network?
“Ethereum’s Internet of Blockchains,” a multi-chain scaling solution, according to the team at Polygon Network.
A blockchain scalability platform, the Polygon Network intends to develop Ethereum-compatible blockchains’ network (infrastructure). Polygon is Ethereum’s top scaling solution, a protocol and a framework for building and connecting Ethereum-compatible blockchain networks. It aggregates scalable solutions on Ethereum, whilst supporting a multi-chain Ethereum ecosystem. The essential component of the Polygon Network is Polygon SDK—a modular, flexible framework supporting development and connecting Secured Chains, viz. Plasma, Optimistic Rollups, zkRollups, Validium, etc. Whereas the Standalone Chains like Polygon POS
are designed to access enough flexibility and independence.
The “foundation for the Internet of value and people,” Polygon, provides the core components and tools to access the new, borderless economy and society. “Built by developers, for developers,” with the Polygon Network, you can scale your decentralized app’s performance in no time. Polygon assimilates the finest the Ethereum network and sovereign blockchains has to offer, to create a full-fledged multi-chain system. ETH compatibility, scalability, security, sovereignty, interoperability, seamless user and developer experience, and modularity are Polygon Network’s core features.
What is the History of the Polygon Network?
Launched in October 2017, the Polygon Network (formerly MATIC Network – rebranded in 2019) is a brainchild of two vetaran blockchain developers and a business consultant. Jaynti Kanani, Sandeep Nailwal, and Anurag Arjun envision an open and borderless world wherein people and machines collaborate and exchange value globally and freely. A world wherein communities thrive, seamlessly without artificial borders and complex regulations. The Polygon Network is a Layer 2 scaling solution supported by Coinbase and Binance. Polygon has contributed considerably to the Ethereum ecosystem. The Polygon founding team worked on the Plasma MVP, Web3, the WalletConnect protocol, and Ethereum’s Dagger event notification engine. The founders previously worked in well-known companies, viz. SNL Financial, Cognizant Technologies, Welspun Group, and Housing.com.
How Does the Polygon Network (Technology) Work?
Polygon performs on a single sidechain close to 65,000 transactions in a second. Whereas its respectable block confirmation time is below two seconds. The framework also permits the creation on a single foundational blockchain of globally available DeFi applications. The Plasma framework equips Polygon with the capacity of hosting an unlimited number of dApps on their infrastructure minus the regularly occurring setbacks on proof-of-work (PoW) blockchains. The seamless UX of the Polygon Network permits working even with no protocol level knowledge, no token fees, deposits, or permissions. Polygon’s scalability offers scalable consensus algorithms and custom WASM execution environments. There’s modularity which permits customization, upgradeability, reducing time-to-market, and community collaboration.
The Polygon Network’s Ethereum compatibility allows custom implementing (Solidity, Vyper, etc.) EVM via its SDK (comes with pluggability). Users can use the METAMASK wallet and developers can use Ethereum tools and libraries, etc. Consensus mechanisms also exist alongside standard and extensible core components (libp2p, gRPC, etc.).
By now, over 50 dApps are operational on Polygon’s PoS-secured Ethereum sidechain. Its native token, MATIC, is an ERC-20 token running on the Ethereum blockchain. It’s used as a payment service and as a settlement currency among users operating inside the Polygon ecosystem.
Legacy Problems’ Novel Solutions on the Polygon Network
Polygon provides fitting solutions to some of the well-known issues surrounding Blockchains, e.g., high gas fees, slow speeds, etc. Polygon solves various legacy issues whilst also preserving security. Ethereum’s legacy issues, viz. excessive fees, poor UX (gas issues, PoW finality delayed), congestion risk, non-customizable tech-stack, governance dependence, low transactions per second (TPS), and low throughput would cease to exist with the Polygon Network. The Polygon Network prevents the development of an ecosystem fragmentation.
The Polygon Network’s three core upsides are;
- Capable of fully benefiting from Ethereum’s network effects
- Inherently more secure
- It is more open, yet powerful enough
The Polygon Network offers these novel solutions;
- Preset blockchain networks’ one-click deployment
- Custom networks developing modules are rising
- Offering interoperability protocol for exchanging arbitrary messages with various
blockchain networks - Modular and optional “security as a service”
- Adaptor modules meant to enable interoperability for current blockchain networks
Which Projects Already Use the Polygon Architecture?
A number of projects have already begun using the Polygon Network;
- PolyCrystal decentralized exchange and yield farm
- Jetswap AMM made by the Jetfuel Finance team
- Polymarket (prediction market with smooth UX)
- Aavegotchi (DeFi-based crypto collectibles game allowing players to stake NFTs with
interest generating tokens in the Aavegotchi Metaverse) - Casino-style Decentral Games
- SportX (betting on sporting events)
- Easyfi (lending, borrowing, and staking via DeFi products under one roof)
- Neon District (Cyberpunk RPG gaming to win in-game NFTs)
Who in the Crypto World Supports the Polygon Network?
Polygon is providing revolutionary solutions to the buzzing cryptocurrencies areas, such as DeFi (Decentralized Finance), DApp (Decentralized Application), DAO’s (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations) and NFT’s (Non-Fungible Tokens). It’s leading towards faster and cheaper transactions via Polygon’s side chain architecture
Polygon Network is supported by billionaire investor Mark Cuban, who is fond of its Transaction Per Second (TPS) feature, lowering the usage cost for users. The Polygon Network is on a mission to achieve its vision.