How to develop a dApp on Polygon?

Ethereum is one of the most popular blockchain protocols. It has unique features like its built-in programming language, Ethereum Virtual Machine and solidity smart contracts. Despite these features, Ethereum has drawbacks like low throughput, congestion, costly transactions and scalability issues. To address these problems on the Ethereum platform, a team of four expert software developers built the Polygon network.

Polygon functions with the proof-of-stake consensus and is powered by layer-2 scaling solutions. The network uses Ethereum’s core technologies and adds value to it. By doing so, Polygon powers Ethereum with high throughput, low-cost transactions and improved development on Ethereum network and other blockchains compatible with Ethereum.

Let us now understand the limitations of the Ethereum blockchain and how Polygon addresses these limitations in the next section.

What are the major limitations of Ethereum?

Ethereum blockchain has been developed to serve as a powerful decentralized network for various enterprises. However, it has some specific limitations, as mentioned below:

• One of the main challenges for the Ethereum network is its low throughput. It can only manage 30 transactions every second and has comparatively low throughput concerning the other second-generation blockchain.
• The average transaction fee is dollar 51.45 on the Ethereum chain. Although, the accurate fees are calculated via the supply and demand mechanism of the miners functioning on-chain.
• Ethereum does not have interoperability because of which it is not entitled to allow the Ethereum compatible blockchains to communicate with each other.
• With no particular protocol to link these blockchains, Ethereum has major development issues and thus leads to fragmentation of the ecosystem.

Now that we are familiar with the problems that Ethereum has in its ecosystem let us then explore the ways in which Polygon solves these issues.

How does Polygon solve the Ethereum limitations?

Polygon behaves like a protocol and framework that helps in the development process of the Ethereum compatible blockchains and links all of these networks to the Ethereum platform. Following are the ways in which the Polygon addresses the Ethereum limitations:

• Polygon facilitates the single-click deployment of the encoded blockchain networks.
• It provides an evolving set of modules to build custom networks.
• With the help of its interoperability protocol, Polygon permits Ethereum and other blockchain networks to interact and share messages between them.
• It improves the security layer on the blockchains with the help of its modular ‘security-as-service’, which also functions as an option.
• Polygon has adaptor modules that help boost the interoperability in the existing blockchain networks.

Polygon is one of the best dApp development platforms. Developers on Polygon use Polygon’s SDKs and tools to build business-specific dApps.

Let us now unfold why one should consider Polygon for dApp development in the next section.

Why should you consider dApp development on the Polygon Platform?

Polygon has surfaced as one of the leading platforms that facilitates the development of Ethereum scalable solutions and different decentralized infrastructures. With time, the network continues to grow with the various project partners and ingenious tools.

Polygon has high-level infrastructure support for its developers, and it is a go-to scaling solution for developers worldwide. Polygon has unique tooling projects, such as its decentralized cloud storage, RPC providers, and other attractive developer packages available on the Tenderly and Gelato platforms. Polygon also helps enterprises avail discounts on security audits while selecting top auditing firms in the market.

Let’s now understand the process of dApp development on Polygon in the next section.

dApp development on Polygon

Polygon allows users to develop a wallet with their email address and then connect to various networks within the application. In the steps mentioned below, we will be using Magic as an authentication system based on keys.

Magic is an SDK for the developers that integrates itself with your current application. It allows passwordless verification using Magic links similar to Medium and Slack.

Developer Quick Start

If you are know how to do development on Ethereum, then working on Polygon is not a difficult task. Each tool you have used on Ethereum is also Polygon compliant like te Remix, Truffle, Webejs and so on.

Shift to Polygon’s RPC and start building your dApp.

Step 1

Connect to Polygon with the help of Magic.js. You will need two Web3 and two Magic instances for each network. This feature allows the users to switch between two networks.

Use the same API key for both the Magic instances. This will help you in keeping the users’ public addresses intact without changing them.

Step 2

Switch between the networks with the help of the ‘select element drop-down list’. One Magic instance points towards Polygon and the other towards Ethereum. Hence, you can update the instances for the dApp depending upon the users’ network selection.

Step 3

Then view your user balance with the help of web3.eth.get balance. As the native token of Polygon is MATIC and Ethereum is ETH, we will display relevant token symbols depending on the network we are connected with.

Step 4

Send transactions by providing the amount to send, sender and receiver addresses. About the gas fee, if not passed, then the overall gas limit and the fee are estimated automatically.

Step 5

Lastly, deploy separate smart contracts on Ethereum and Polygon. This will let the users interact with them independently.

By combing the base attributes of Ethereum and the scaling advantages, Polygon comes up with a robust solution to transform your dApp into a scalable and fast application. With various Polygon chains residing on the Ethereum network, you can explore the utility of Polygon with the Ethereum platform.