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Polygon, beforehand often called Matic community, is a well-established cryptocurrency that’s well-recognized amongst crypto buyers and fans. Nonetheless, not as many individuals know that it’s really a layer 2 resolution to a different digital asset — Ethereum.
Why is that necessary, it’s possible you’ll ask? Effectively, for one, it makes this cryptocurrency extra future-proof. Based on the creator of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin, many post-Merge enhancements to the primary community will probably be achieved utilizing layer 2 options like Polygon.
Polygon does extra than simply make the Ethereum ecosystem extra environment friendly — it permits cross-chain communications for various blockchains within the community. Additionally it is the most effective platforms for creating interconnected blockchain networks. Polygon’s crew refers to their mission as “Ethereum’s Web of blockchains.”
Who Сreated Polygon?
Polygon was created in October 2017 by India’s first crypto billionaires: Jaynti Kanani, Sandeep Nailwal, and Anurag Arjun. Again then, it was often called the “Matic community.”
The Polygon ecosystem has all the time been envisioned as an “assistant” to the Ethereum community, aiming to resolve and deal with its key points, resembling excessive gasoline charges and lack of correct scalability options. Regardless of that, it does have its personal unbiased proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain.
The Founders of Polygon
Jaynti Kanani, the CEO of Polygon, has a background in software program engineering. He had labored at firms like Microsoft, Amazon, and Adobe prior to now.
Anurag Arjun, the CTO of Polygon, is a polymath who has expertise in fields like machine studying, arithmetic, and physics.
Sandeep Nailwal, the COO of Polygon, has over 15 years of expertise within the monetary sector. He beforehand labored at Deloitte as a administration guide. Nailwal can be the co-founder of Aave, one other well-liked cryptocurrency mission.
Polygon’s Rebranding
In 2021, the crew behind Polygon determined to rebrand the mission as a way to higher replicate their imaginative and prescient of a polychain scaling platform that helps a number of blockchains. The brand new title, Polygon, was chosen as a result of it channels the thought of a “community of many alternative chains.”
Along with altering the community’s title, new options additionally bought launched, elevating Polygon above its earlier standing as a easy scaling resolution that might solely provide plasma chains.
This rebranding has been an immense assist in rising consciousness of Polygon and its native token, MATIC. The brand new title clarified what the community meant to do and introduced a lot consideration to this cryptocurrency.
What Is the MATIC Token?
The native token of the Polygon community, MATIC is used to pay transaction charges and may also be staked as a way to earn rewards for serving to to safe the community. As well as, builders who construct on Polygon can use MATIC tokens to entry options like gas-free withdrawals and quick transactions.
You should buy MATIC token on Changelly.
How Does Polygon Work?
The Ethereum blockchain undeniably has a whole lot of points that gravely impede its development. Sluggish transaction speeds and excessive gasoline charges make it unattainable to make use of ETH for on a regular basis funds. Polygon permits customers to hold out those self same Ether transactions however in a sooner, cheaper, and total far more environment friendly method.
To do that, Polygon makes use of a modified proof-of-stake algorithm to safe its community, thus making it attainable for consensus to be reached with each single block. The Polygon community is made up of a sequence of sidechains linked to the Ethereum mainnet. These sidechains are used to course of transactions off-chain, which helps enhance the community’s scalability.
Let’s check out a number of the principal traits of the Polygon community.
Layer 2 Answer
Polygon is a layer 2 resolution that helps to scale the Ethereum blockchain. It does this by utilizing sidechains linked to the primary Ethereum blockchain. This enables for off-chain transactions which are then settled on-chain. One other perk right here is that it permits Polygon to course of transactions a lot sooner than ETH.
Builders who construct on Polygon can use MATIC tokens to pay transaction charges. Due to this, Polygon has decrease transaction charges than Ethereum. As well as, Polygon has carried out various options to scale back gasoline prices, resembling gas-free withdrawals and quick transactions.
Layer 2 options are going to play a key function in Ethereum’s improvement after the Merge. Consequently, increasingly individuals will doubtless turn out to be conscious of this amazingly progressive expertise and, by extension, Polygon.
Proof of Stake (PoS)
Having a PoS blockchain permits Polygon to reap the benefits of options like sensible contracts, which permits the creation and deployment of decentralized functions (dApps). Moreover, it lets customers who maintain MATIC tokens stake them to earn rewards. This makes the community enticing to builders and buyers alike.
Polygon’s crew additionally used the proof-of-stake nature of its consensus mechanism to implement various security measures, resembling fraud proofs.
Polygon Bridge
The “Polygon Bridge” is the answer that permits Polygon to hook up with the Ethereum community. It additionally permits the switch of NFTs and ERC-20 tokens from the MATIC blockchain to the ETH one.
Polygon has two most important bridges: the Proof-of-Stake and the Plasma Bridge. Though each of them have the identical goal — transferring digital belongings from one blockchain to a different — they make use of totally different safety strategies.
Identical to the title suggests, the proof-of-stake bridge makes use of the PoS consensus mechanism as its major safety measure. It’s what helps most buyers and dApp customers to switch tokens and ETH between the 2 chains. The Plasma bridge is extra well-liked with builders as it’s typically safer. Nonetheless, plasma chains that the Plasma bridge operates on are much less user-friendly and could be much less handy to make use of.
Polygon Protocol
The Polygon community is powered by the Polygon Protocol, which consists of a set of sensible contracts deployed on the Ethereum blockchain. The protocol is designed to supply a variety of options to customers, together with however not restricted to:
- Gasoline-free withdrawals. This function permits customers to withdraw their tokens from the Polygon community with out having to pay gasoline charges.
- Quick transactions. Transactions on the Polygon community are confirmed in only a few seconds.
- Low transaction charges. Customers solely should pay a small payment once they make a transaction on the community.
- Compatibility with a number of programming languages. This makes it a lot simpler for builders to create and deploy dApps on the Polygon community.
How Does Polygon Differ from Different Blockchains?
Polygon has fairly a number of options that make it stand out from the group of many different cryptocurrencies and/or layer 2 options. A few of them we have now already talked about above — specifically, its unprecedented interoperability with the Ethereum blockchain, low charges, excessive transaction speeds, help of a number of programming languages, and so forth. Nonetheless, that’s not all that makes it distinctive.
Most significantly, the mix of scaling options supplied by Polygon is probably full like no different: along with the plasma chains and sidechains talked about above, it additionally has zk (zero-knowledge) and optimistic rollups. Builders can choose whichever resolution suits their mission finest, which makes the Polygon community extremely versatile.
Polygon can be an EVM (Ethereum Digital Machine) sidechain, however that doesn’t make the mission distinctive in itself. Nonetheless, it really commits checkpoints to Ethereum, which considerably boosts the safety of the entire community. That’s the place the distinction between Polygon and different EVM-compatible tasks lies.
Polygon’s Software program Improvement Equipment (SDK)
The Polygon software program improvement package is what makes it simple for builders to construct dApps on the community. As we have now already talked about above, its SDK helps all kinds of various programming languages, which makes it accessible to an unlimited vary of builders.
Based on the event crew, with this SDK, Polygon goals to rework Ethereum right into a fully-fledged multi-chain system. Though many chains are already engaged on Ethereum, they’re a bit chaotic: the Polygon SDK desires to introduce that much-needed construction to the ecosystem. That is achieved utilizing two several types of options:
- Secured Chains – The Layer 2 resolution
Secured chains are layer 2 options that depend on the primary Ethereum chain for all their safety wants as a substitute of building their very own validators. The SDK provides help for the preferred layer 2 options, resembling zk-rollups or optimistic rollups. This a part of the package is ideal for each startups and extra established tasks that require a excessive degree of safety.
- Stand-Alone Chains
Stand-alone chains are blockchains which have their very own safety options and thus aren’t as depending on the Ethereum most important chain. These largely embody sidechains and varied enterprise chains. They’re much less decentralized and never as safe as different options, however they provide extra independence and suppleness, making them good for tasks with robust communities and enterprises.
Polygon SDK Structure
The structure of the Polygon improvement package was designed to supply most Ethereum compatibility, modularity, and extensibility. All of its components help the primary targets of the community. Right here’s what it appears to be like like:
You’ll be able to be taught extra about it in this article on Polygon’s weblog.
Which DApps Does Polygon Use?
Polygon at the moment helps over 7,000 dApps, with extra rising each week. Among the hottest Polygon-based decentralized functions embody:
- Sunflower land, a recreation
- QuickSwap, an trade
- Arc8, a recreation
- 1inch Community, a DeFi mission
- Uniswap V3, an trade
Based on the web site DappRadar, whereas video games make up most tasks with a excessive variety of distinctive addresses, they nonetheless herald a comparatively small quantity of revenue and buying and selling quantity. Exchanges and DeFi tasks are sometimes not as well-liked but have a a lot greater quantity of crypto being handed via the community’s sensible contracts.
Closing Ideas
The Polygon mission is already an extremely progressive and environment friendly community and dApps deployment platform in its personal proper: the truth that it’s a scaling resolution for Ethereum is only a bonus. The Ethereum-Polygon synergy attracts a lot consideration to this mission, however it additionally has followers that prefer it for what it’s: an important platform for multi-chain options and dApp deployment.
Due to loads of partnerships, together with these with main firms, resembling Disney and Coca-Cola, Polygon’s worth elevated by over 100% throughout a harsh bear market. Contemplating MATIC tokens may also be staked, it undoubtedly grew to become a really enticing cryptocurrency for all types of buyers.
General, Polygon has an actual probability of changing into one of many main options that assist scale Ethereum and of being a extensively adopted cryptocurrency that retains on getting extra mainstream. We’re undoubtedly enthusiastic about its additional improvement!
FAQ
Is Polygon a great funding?
Polygon has loads going for it and appears to be comparatively future-proof. Finally, nevertheless, what defines it as a great funding or not is the way it suits your portfolio.
What’s the Polygon crypto used for?
Polygon is a layer 2 resolution that will increase scalability and reduces charges on the Ethereum community. It may also be used to deploy dApps and stake MATIC tokens.
Does the Polygon crypto have potential?
The crypto market is extraordinarily unpredictable, however Polygon has a whole lot of issues that may assist a crypto asset guide a one-way ticket to the moon: an enormous market cap, progressive performance, prospects, and an important group.
Is Polygon the identical as Ethereum?
Whereas the 2 naturally have their similarities, Polygon and Ethereum are two totally different cryptocurrencies.
Disclaimer: Please notice that the contents of this text usually are not monetary or investing recommendation. The data offered on this article is the creator’s opinion solely and shouldn’t be thought of as providing buying and selling or investing suggestions. We don’t make any warranties in regards to the completeness, reliability and accuracy of this data. The cryptocurrency market suffers from excessive volatility and occasional arbitrary actions. Any investor, dealer, or common crypto customers ought to analysis a number of viewpoints and be conversant in all native rules earlier than committing to an funding.
