Learn what Polygon is and why it can deliver the best of Ethereum at lower gas fees.
Polygon is a platform designed for Ethereum scaling and infrastructure development. It is a Layer 2 scaling solution that allows for cheaper gas fees and faster transaction speed. This article will explain what Polygon is and how it is not the new Ethereum but more a protocol built for connecting Ethereum-compatible blockchain networks. Let’s get started!
Table of Contents
- What is Polygon?
- What are Polygon’s biggest projects?
- How does Polygon work?
- What are the benefits of Polygon?
- How does the technology behind Polygon work?
- What is MATIC?
- Ready to track Polygon with DappRadar?
- Further Polygon Resources
What is Polygon?
Polygon is a popular Layer 2 protocol solving problems already inherent with the current Ethereum ecosystem. It provides higher throughput and deals with high gas fees.
Essentially, Polygon is trying to combine the best of Ethereum with other blockchains into one solution whilst also adding a better user experience.
Polygon vs Ethereum
One major focus of Polygon is to diminish gas fees and increase transaction speed. All transaction fees on Polygon side-chains are paid in MATIC tokens (the trading ticker remains as MATIC for now) which are significantly lower than on Ethereum. The protocol has already achieved up to 10,000 transactions per second (TPS) on a single sidechain on an internal testnet which is significantly faster than the 14 TPS Ethereum can achieve.
What are Polygon’s biggest projects?
One of the first and most successful projects to launch on Polygon has been Aavegotchi, a DeFi-engrained digital collectibles game that aims to become the most innovative DeFi and NFT application in existence. Moreover, Aavegotchi wouldn’t be feasible on Ethereum due to the high gas fees making the game unplayable.
Ethereum is the blockchain development platform of choice, but it has limitations such as low throughput, poor user experience in regard to gas fees, and delayed finality.
Therefore many projects are exploring Ethereum-compatible blockchains as a way to mitigate these limitations while still leveraging Ethereum’s thriving ecosystem. However, there is no specialized framework to build such blockchains nor a protocol to connect them.
How does Polygon work?
The potential use cases for Polygon are many when you consider the central ambitions are to diminish gas fees and increase transaction speed. Integrating MATIC token payments to decentralized applications is simple and can obviously be a useful tool for developers of decentralized exchanges (DEX) looking to offer customers fast and cheap transactions.
One of the premier DEXs, Uniswap still experiences problems when it comes to speed and high gas fees with some transactions costing up to $200. Not an issue when you’re moving huge amounts of tokens but a bitter pill to swallow when you just want to buy a new outfit for an avatar in a virtual world or use the Aavegotchi dapp for example.
The theory has been put to the test in 2021 with the launch of QuickSwap. The dapp has quickly become the most popular exchange on Polygon in regards to users and transaction volume at the time of writing.
What are the benefits of Polygon?
Polygon believes it has the solution for these issues as a protocol and a framework for building and connecting Ethereum-compatible blockchain networks. It can offer a range of benefits to developers such as:
- One-click deployment of preset blockchain networks
- A growing set of modules for developing custom networks
- Interoperability protocol for exchanging messages with Ethereum and other blockchains
- Modular and optional “security as a service”
- Adaptor modules for enabling interoperability for existing blockchain networks
Overall, Polygon can deliver the best of Ethereum and sovereign blockchains into an attractive set of features built by developers, for developers.
How does the technology behind Polygon work?
Polygon can provide scalable, secure, and instant transactions using sidechains based on an adapted implementation of the Plasma framework for security and a decentralized network of Proof-of-Stake (PoS) validators.
Essentially, Polygon allows anyone to create scalable dapps while ensuring a better user experience in a secure and decentralized way.
The Polygon solution means that any project can have a dedicated, optimized iteration of Ethereum, which combines the best features of stand-alone blockchains such as sovereignty, scalability, and flexibility and Ethereum’s security, interoperability, and developer experience and support.
Furthermore, Polygon supports two types of Ethereum-compatible blockchains. Firstly, Stand-alone and secondly networks that leverage security as a service.
For the full architecture and technical breakdown of Polygon, please download the light paper.
What is MATIC?
The MATIC token is the native digital currency of the Polygon Network. MATIC powers dapps on the polygon network and it funds transactions on this Layer 2 protocol that offers the same services as Ethereum dapps for a fraction of the cost.
Learn more about the fundamentals behind the MATIC token here
How much is MATIC worth?
MATIC is currently worth $0.69, considerably increasing its value and performance over the past 30 days. Polygon has established strong partnerships with web2 brands such as Meta, and phone companies such as HTC. Also, Polygon was the only blockchain selected to participate in the Disney Accelerator Program of 2022.
Using DappRadar´s Token Explorer, we can observe Polygon’s positive performance. MATIC is trading at 69 cents, up 20% over the last day, at its highest level in a month.
Ready to track Polygon with DappRadar?
The Polygon network continues to successfully attract users. It outstrips Ethereum in terms of unique active wallets that have connected with the blockchain in the past three months.
In order to meet the user demand for Polygon capabilities, DappRadar introduced the Polygon Token Swap service. Additionally, the Polygon network has now also been integrated into the DappRadar Portfolio Tracker tool.
Learn how to set up a Polygon wallet with DappRadar
Use DappRadar now to swap tokens on Polygon, Ethereum and BSC
Further Polygon Resources
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