Polygon

About Polygon

Polygon, previously known as Matic Network, aims to provide an easy-to-use platform for Ethereum scaling and infrastructure development. The project seeks to address some of the major issues facing blockchain technology like Ethereum today – lack of scalability, poor user experience and issues with interoperability.

History of Polygon

Polygon was founded in 2017 by Jaynti Kanani, Sandeep Nailwal and Anurag Arjun. The Polygon team recognized early on that scalability would be a limiting factor preventing mainstream adoption of blockchain technology. Ethereum can only process 15 transactions per second, far below the needs of any system with global ambitions.

In 2018, Polygon raised funds through a successful Initial Coin Offering (ICO) and launched their network in 2020. Since then, Polygon has seen strong growth and adoption from hundreds of Ethereum-based decentralized applications who require a scaling solution to support their users.

Polygon Layer 2 Scaling Solution

At its core, Polygon is a Layer 2 scaling solution, meaning it works on top of an existing blockchain. Polygon specifically provides scaling solutions for Ethereum, allowing large amounts of transactions to be grouped together and validated on Polygon while still ultimately being recorded on the Ethereum blockchain.

This helps address Ethereum’s throughput issues that currently inhibit real-world usage. Polygon is able to achieve transaction speeds of up to 65,000 per second and significantly lower transaction fees for users.

How Polygon Works

Polygon uses multiple key components in its network to deliver an improved experience over the Ethereum mainnet while leveraging Ethereum’s security model:

Plasma chains are separate companion chains that run in parallel to the main Ethereum chain. Polygon’s plasma chains bundle hundreds of transactions together, allow them to be processed quickly, then report the collective proof of those transactions back to mainnet.

Polygon validators confirm transactions on plasma chains using a Proof-of-Stake consensus model. Replacing energy-intensive mining with staking allows for greener and faster blockchain operation. There are over 1000 validators helping to secure the Polygon network.

Polygon has bridges which provide interchange connectivity between Polygon and Ethereum networks. These enable assets transfers between the two chains, an essential component that helps leverage Ethereum’s security.

MATIC – Polygon Native Token

The MATIC token is Polygon’s native cryptocurrency used for paying gas fees for transactions and interacting with smart contracts on Polygon. MATIC also plays a key role in Polygon’s Proof-of-Stake consensus and acts as an economic incentive for users to become validators.

As adoption of Polygon grows, increasing usage should intrinsic value to the MATIC token. There is currently around 7 billion MATIC tokens in circulation out of a 10 billion maximum supply.

Accelerating Growth of Solutions Building on Polygon

Hundreds of Ethereum-based applications including decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms, NFT marketplaces, and metaverse worlds have integrated with Polygon to use its scaling technology. These applications can leverage Polygon’s fast transaction speeds and low fees to drive mass adoption.

Major brands like Starbucks, Instagram and Reddit are also building virtual goods and communities on Polygon. And enterprise blockchain adoption on Polygon is rising through integrations with Ernst & Young, Meta and Stripe.

Polygon is establishing itself as a critical Layer 2 infrastructure provider in the rapidly evolving web3 ecosystem.

Navigating Regulatory and Technical Challenges

While Polygon has demonstrated impressive technological capabilities, it must continuously evolve to address new challenges emerging in this young industry:

• Compliance with tightening government policies on cryptocurrencies globally
• Fierce competition from other Layer 2 solutions like Optimistic Rollups or ZK Rollups
• Potential for security issues derived from Polygon’s complexity
• Significant influence of core team over the network’s governance

Polygon seeks to address these through its open-source community, security audits and an adaptive long term plan balancing decentralization with usability.

Realizing the Promise of Blockchain

Polygon provides a blueprint for how Layer 2 scaling can help Ethereum and blockchain technology broadly overcome obstacles to reach mainstream adoption.

By addressing chronic issues with transaction throughput, fees and user experience, Polygon allows applications leveraging blockchain tech to focus on innovation that drives real utility rather than wrestling with underlying platform limitations.

If blockchain is to have profound impact across industries such as finance, healthcare, supply chain and governance, performant and usable solutions like Polygon will be a key driver making that achievable.