Polygon + Connext Partner to Build the Multichain Future
Plus, we’ve integrated into the Matic Wallet!
TL;DR:
Polygon’s thesis makes the case for Connext much stronger. As such, we’re partnering up to build the multichain future!
As a first step in this ongoing partnership, we’ve integrated into https://wallet.matic.network, for fast USDC and USDT transfers between Ethereum and Matic.
A Sounding Board
We first met the Polygon (then Matic) team at ETHIndia in 2018. Both of our teams were early pioneers in L2 scalability research so we developed a fast professional relationship with the org and close friendship with the founding team.
Over the past 3 years, the Matic team acted as a critical sounding board for Connext, particularly as we transitioned to solving crosschain interoperability. In fact, Matic was the first project that we ever spoke to back in early 2019 about this problem, and their thoughts around fast plasma exits + UX shaped a lot of our early thinking for Connext’s vision today.
The Polygon Thesis
We were thrilled when the Matic team rebranded to Polygon and unveiled their roadmap as an Internet of Blockchains this year.
The Polygon thesis is that Ethereum will have to scale via many different L2 systems all tied to the base chain. Polygon’s goal is use their existing experience with Matic to build infrastructure to allow developers to easily deploy their own L2 systems all with bridges to Eth.
As a key proponent of a multichain Ethereum, we think that a Polygon world with many L2s makes sense and the case for Connext much stronger.
Similarly to how the legacy financial system uses Visa/Mastercard card networks for fast, frequent payment authorization which are settled at the end of the day via slower bank-to-bank transactions, Connext will be used for fast, frequent L2-L2 interactions between Polygon chains with slower, large scale liquidity movement happening via Polygon chain/rollup exits.
Polygon + Connext = 💜
While we’ve been working closely with the team for years, today we’re incredibly excited to publicly announce our partnership with the Polygon team!
As a first step in the partnership, we’ve integrated Connext into wallet.matic.network for fast USDC and USDT transfers between Ethereum and Matic. Currently, the Matic wallet takes 6–7 minutes for onboarding and up to 3 hours for offboarding using the POS bridge. With Connext, this time is reduced to a couple of minutes at most.
Additionally, we are going to continue collaborating closely with the Polygon team to deploy more Connext routers as a utility to Matic ecosystem applications (and eventually dApps built on new Polygon chains!). Using Connext, these applications will be able to enter and exit Matic with fast, simple UX and will also be able to interact directly with other EVM-compatible systems like xDai and BSC.
Lastly, in the longer term we expect to work with the Polygon team on researching more generalized communication between Polygon chains, with the goal of creating a Polygon/Ethereum equivalent to IBC.
About Connext
Connext is a crosschain liquidity network that enables fast, fully-noncustodial transfers between EVM-compatible chains and L2 systems.
