Polygon Studios' Ryan Wyatt talks Web3's core principles and fairer internet

The 12 months 2022 in crypto was eventful in some ways. Nevertheless, the adverse impacts of a bear market dampened the thrill across the blockchain upgrades that considerably introduced crypto ecosystems nearer to the way forward for finance.

For Bitcoin, it was the Taproot delicate fork improve, which was geared toward bettering the scripting capabilities and privateness of the Bitcoin community. Ethereum underwent the Merge improve to transition from a proof-of-work to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism.

Main decentralized Ethereum scaling platform Polygon kicked off the 12 months with mainnet upgrades primarily based on Ethereum Enchancment Proposal (EIP)-1559, in any other case often called the London exhausting fork. The improve was accompanied by Polygon (MATIC) token burning and higher price visibility.

On Jan. 25, Ryan Wyatt joined Polygon Studios because the CEO after resigning from YouTube as international head of gaming. Chatting with Cointelegraph, Wyatt mentioned the significance of well timed blockchain upgrades and his imaginative and prescient for Polygon.

Cointelegraph: What’s your perspective on blockchain upgrades with regards to Polygon? What are some key factors of consideration when discussing modifications to the community?

Ryan Wyatt: As with every part we do, Polygon takes a holistic strategy to upgrades. There are all the time a number of totally different options to each situation, so it’s extra productive to discover as a lot of them as attainable. There are numerous paths to discover with regards to Ethereum scaling, and aggregating a number of options collectively symbolize essentially the most promising strategic strategy.

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For instance, our newest improve, zkEVM — the primary zero information rollup totally suitable with Ethereum Digital Machine (EVM) — is principally designed to deal with Ethereum’s excessive transaction charges and latency. Whereas Polygon Avail, which we introduced shortly earlier than zkEVM, addresses the info availability downside by taking a modular strategy (decoupling transaction execution from knowledge availability).

It’s already clear that there can’t be a “one answer to rule all of them,” a full suite of scaling merchandise must be developed to carry mass adoption to Ethereum and Web3 basically.

CT: How do you suppose most of the people perceives blockchain upgrades? And, what affect does it have on the decision-making course of for the devs, if any?

RW: Decentralization, usability and user-centricity are among the many core ideas of Web3, so community upgrades usually replicate these beliefs. We consider that individuals often admire upgrades that intention to extend the general utility and usefulness of blockchains. Equally, builders are likely to prioritize their communities’ wants when discussing and implementing upgrades, in order that’s a mutually useful relationship.

CT: What implications do blockchain upgrades such because the Merge have on the opposite ecosystems which can be straight or not directly linked to the Ethereum ecosystem?

RW: Earlier than the Merge, virtually all carbon emissions on Polygon — roughly 99.9% — emanated from sensible contracts and holdings on the Ethereum community. Subsequently, because the Merge has now massively decreased Ethereum’s personal vitality consumption and ensuing carbon emissions, this constructive impact has additionally rubbed off on Polygon and associated platforms, making them way more sustainable as nicely.

The scaling situation, nonetheless, nonetheless persists. Whereas the transition to PoS laid the groundwork for sharding and different scaling methods, it did little to remediate points with excessive charges and sluggish transaction speeds. As such, layer-2 options like Polygon nonetheless maintain invaluable utility. As Ethereum turns into extra scalable and environment friendly, so will Polygon; each enchancment made to Ethereum enhances Polygon’s present strengths.

CT: What’s Polygon’s secret to changing into one of many largest names within the crypto area. Additionally, how do you propose to keep up a dominant place sooner or later?

RW: Polygon’s major mission is to assist in collaborative constructing towards a fairer web, the place anybody can discover alternatives anyplace. We offer the infrastructure for a brand new world the place individuals and expertise collaborate and trade worth globally and freely, with out gatekeepers or intermediaries.

To this finish, Polygon is onboarding world-class new expertise from Web2 and Web3 to offer each the tech stack and the infrastructure wanted to make sure long-term success for tasks. Polygon’s recruitment drive contains top-tier expertise from main firms corresponding to EA, Amazon and Google.

In the meantime, Polygon’s developer community is continually increasing and now exceeds 37,000 decentralized functions (DApps), whereas greater than 60 metaverse platforms help Polygon, together with Sandbox, Decentraland and Somnium Area.

Polygon can be serving to many Web2 firms, together with Starbucks, Adobe, Clinique and Stripe, to combine Web3 performance and has raised $450 million in February to additional gas its Web3-focused initiatives.

CT: Does Ethereum’s newest improve assist enhance Polygon? 

RW: All DApps within the Polygon ecosystem now profit from considerably decrease vitality consumption/carbon emissions because of the Merge. That is coupled with our personal sustainability efforts, which noticed the community go carbon impartial this 12 months — benefiting hundreds of Polygon DApps with a negligible carbon footprint.

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By the top of the 12 months, Polygon goals to go carbon-negative because it continues to onboard tasks that cater to Web3. Companies in crypto have taken the lead in constructing Web3 options and blockchain networks like Polygon are ready to onboard, allow cross-compatibility with different ecosystems and enhance the general efficiency of such choices.