What is Polygon (MATIC)? An Overview
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Polygon, beforehand referred to as 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 vital, it’s possible you’ll ask? Nicely, for one, it makes this cryptocurrency extra future-proof. In response to the creator of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin, many post-Merge enhancements to the primary community might be performed 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 among the best platforms for creating interconnected blockchain networks. Polygon’s staff 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 referred to as the “Matic community.”
The Polygon ecosystem has at all times been envisioned as an “assistant” to the Ethereum community, aiming to unravel and handle its key points, resembling excessive fuel 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 advisor. Nailwal can be the co-founder of Aave, one other fashionable cryptocurrency mission.
Polygon’s Rebranding
In 2021, the staff behind Polygon determined to rebrand the mission with a view to higher replicate their imaginative and prescient of a polychain scaling platform that helps a number of blockchains. The brand new identify, Polygon, was chosen as a result of it channels the concept of a “community of many various chains.”
Along with altering the community’s identify, new options additionally received launched, elevating Polygon above its earlier standing as a easy scaling resolution that would solely supply plasma chains.
This rebranding has been an immense assist in rising consciousness of Polygon and its native token, MATIC. The brand new identify 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 with a view 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 quite a lot of points that gravely impede its progress. Sluggish transaction speeds and excessive fuel charges make it inconceivable 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 general far more environment friendly approach.
To do that, Polygon makes use of a modified proof-of-stake algorithm to safe its community, thus making it doable 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 among 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 permits 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 quite a few options to cut back fuel prices, resembling gas-free withdrawals and quick transactions.
Later 2 options are going to play a key position in Ethereum’s improvement after the Merge. Consequently, increasingly more individuals will doubtless turn into conscious of this amazingly progressive know-how and, by extension, Polygon.
Proof of Stake (PoS)
Having a PoS blockchain permits Polygon to benefit from options like good 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 engaging to builders and buyers alike.
Polygon’s staff additionally used the proof-of-stake nature of its consensus mechanism to implement quite a few 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 important bridges: the Proof-of-Stake and the Plasma Bridge. Though each of them have the identical function — transferring digital belongings from one blockchain to a different — they make use of completely different safety strategies.
Identical to the identify 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 fashionable with builders as it’s usually safer. Nonetheless, plasma chains that the Plasma bridge operates on are much less user-friendly and might 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 good contracts deployed on the Ethereum blockchain. The protocol is designed to supply a variety of options to customers, together with however not restricted to:
- Fuel-free withdrawals. This function permits customers to withdraw their tokens from the Polygon community with out having to pay fuel charges.
- Quick transactions. Transactions on the Polygon community are confirmed in just some 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 now have 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 provided 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 equipment is what makes it simple for builders to construct dApps on the community. As we now have already talked about above, its SDK helps all kinds of various programming languages, which makes it accessible to an enormous vary of builders.
In response to the event staff, with this SDK, Polygon goals to remodel 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 performed 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 an alternative of creating their very own validators. The SDK provides help for the most well-liked layer 2 options, resembling zk-rollups or optimistic rollups. This a part of the equipment 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 important chain. These principally embody sidechains and numerous enterprise chains. They’re much less decentralized and never as safe as different options, however they provide extra independence and adaptability, making them good for tasks with sturdy communities and enterprises.
Polygon SDK Structure
The structure of the Polygon improvement equipment was designed to supply most Ethereum compatibility, modularity, and extensibility. All of its parts help the primary objectives of the community. Right here’s what it seems to be 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 present 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
In response to 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 fashionable but have a a lot larger quantity of crypto being handed by way of the community’s good contracts.
Ultimate 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 ideal 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 value elevated by over 100% throughout a harsh bear market. Contemplating MATIC tokens may also be staked, it positively grew to become a really engaging cryptocurrency for every kind of buyers.
Total, Polygon has an actual likelihood of turning into one of many main options that assist scale Ethereum and of being a broadly adopted cryptocurrency that retains on getting extra mainstream. We’re positively enthusiastic about its additional improvement!
FAQ
Is Polygon a great funding?
Polygon has lots going for it and appears to be comparatively future-proof. In the end, nonetheless, 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 quite a 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 ideal neighborhood.
Is Polygon the identical as Ethereum?
Whereas the 2 naturally have their similarities, Polygon and Ethereum are two completely different cryptocurrencies.
Disclaimer: Please observe that the contents of this text aren’t monetary or investing recommendation. The data offered on this article is the writer’s opinion solely and shouldn’t be thought of as providing buying and selling or investing suggestions. We don’t make any warranties concerning 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 acquainted with all native rules earlier than committing to an funding.
