Polygon: Ethereum’s knight in shining armour
Polygon was created in 2017, originally called the Matic Network. It was created in India by native Ethereum developers namely Jaynti Kanani, Sandeep Nailwal, and Anurag Arjun.
The Polygon platform operates on the Ethereum blockchain connecting Ethereum-compatible blockchain networks. Ethereum innovated the use of on-chain smart contracts which enabled the development of a vast range of economic activities such as the rise of Decentralized Applications (dApps), Decentralized Finance (DeFi) Ecosystem, NFT games and so much more. The rise in popularity and usage of the Ethereum Blockchain has brought the issue of network congestion and increased Gas fees to the forefront often making it economically unviable for a user to use the Ethereum blockchain.
Enter Polygon. Polygon is a secondary Layer 2 scaling solution or a sidechain, which means it is an add-on layer to the primary Ethereum blockchain. It aims to improve Ethereum’s functionality and efficiency. It uses the security, interoperability, and structural benefits of Ethereum while improving its speed, scalability, and flexibility through different scaling and sidechain solutions. Polygon seeks to solve some of Ethereum’s major shortcomings such as delayed transaction speed, poor user experience, lack of flexibility, and poor scalability through novel sidechain solutions & deployments.
To achieve optimal scalability, Polygon deploys scaling solutions such as Plasma chains, ZK rollups and optimistic rollups.
Polygon employs a modified Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism where network participants can stake MATIC tokens to validate transactions and vote on network upgrades. The polygon network is powered by its native governance token MATIC. The Matic token is used for paying network transaction fees, voting on Polygon governance proposals, and helps in securing the Polygon network. It is an ERC-20 token which means it is compatible with other Ethereum-based digital currencies. It has a capped supply of 10 billion tokens. The Matic token is available on most of the popular decentralized and centralized trading exchanges, such as Binance, Uniswap, Coinbase, Kraken, etc.
Polygon aims to transform Ethereum into a complete, multichain system and to become “Ethereum’s Internet of Blockchains.”
Polygon’s Functionality & Utility
Polygon is a layer 2 scaling solution that works on the Ethereum Blockchain with an aim to address its various limitations and has now evolved into a multi-purpose and multi-chain ecosystem that enables greater functionality and utility of the Ethereum blockchain. Polygon uses a Proof of Stake consensus mechanism for validation of transactions on the chain allowing users to stake their Matic tokens, the native currency of the polygon protocol, to participate and secure the network.
Polygon’s network architecture and structure can be broken down into 4 layers i.e Ethereum layer, Security Layer, Polygon Networks, and execution layer. Out of which, there exist two mandatory layers of the network. The first mandatory layer, The Polygon networks layer handles the local consensus and block production. It is Polygon’s ecosystem of blockchain networks. The second mandatory layer is The Execution layer and it is Polygon’s Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) that is used for the execution and deployment of smart contracts.
The multi-layer system allows Decentralized applications and services, that are looking to scale, to choose the best scaling solution and option that perfectly fits their needs.
Illustrating Polygon’s flexible four-layer functionality with examples –
# A DeFi protocol that aims at storing millions of dollars locked within smart contracts would prioritize security and hence would optimize its protocol by using the Ethereum Layer.
# Another project, An NFT marketplace would ideally prioritize ultra-low transaction costs and therefore chose to rely on the Security layer thereby skipping the Ethereum layer.
# A blockchain-based game would optimize for ultra-fast block time and therefore skip both the above layers and focus on the Polygon networks layer.
As illustrated, Polygon provides multiple options for developers to pick the network layer most suitable to their requirement and makes it easy to migrate from one scaling solution to another in case the circumstances behind a project happen to change.
Polygon addresses some of the key problems on the Ethereum blockchain like network congestion, low transaction output, high gas fees, and poor user experience. Polygon’s scaling mechanisms efficiently tackle’s these challenges by making Ethereum faster, cheaper, and a highly efficient multi-chain ecosystem. Polygon aims to facilitate Ethereum’s expansion in size, utility, efficiency, and security and seeks to further solidify Ethereum’s reputation as the market leader in dApps, DeFi and the Web 3 ecosystem.
dApps :
Polygon’s flexibility enables developers to build truly interoperable and secured dApps that can benefit from the features of a multi-chain interconnected ecosystem. Polygon is the only solution that enables scalability while fully supporting the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) making it possible for developers to create dApps. The polygon network is accessible and developer-friendly as it uses Solidity, a programming language widely used on Ethereum for writing smart contracts. The network provides an exhaustive set of tools for developers to create high-performance, high-scaling blockchain protocols, and dApps while maintaining complete interoperability with the primary chain of Ethereum.
Games :
Polygon’s Layer-2 sidechain scaling solution aims to make blockchain-based gaming faster and perform better. Efficient on-chain games can further boost Polygon’s ability to help grow NFTs and NFT marketplaces as many gamers buy in game NFTs and thereby boosting the entire crypto industry at large.
Exchanges :
Polygon enables many other use cases, such as the fast settlement times needed to allow decentralized exchanges (DEXs) to offer users faster and cheaper trading. DEXs like Droidex, Comethswap, Quickswap, Uniswap, are some of the platforms that support Polygon which have high trading and user volume. Polygon ensures low-cost slippage in stablecoin swaps thereby making DExs more user friendly.
Polygon’s long-term goal is to empower an open, interconnected, borderless world of blockchains where users and developers can seamlessly access different decentralized products and services without the complexity of various intermediary chains and bridges.
Similar to a geometrical polygon’s different sides and shapes, The Polygon network has many scaling solutions, frameworks, and use cases. It promises a simpler framework for building multi-chain networks within the Ethereum ecosystem.