Polygon

Polygon (MATIC) is a modular ecosystem of Layer2 scalability solutions for Ethereum (ETH) and EVM-compatible blockchains. Technically, it acts as a separate blockchain with its own Delegated Proof-of-Stake consensus rules.

Polygon was introduced as Matic Network in October, 2017 by CEO Jaynti Kanani, COO Sandeep Nailwal, and CPO Anurag Arjun. Primarily, the project was attempting to unload some transactional data from Ethereum (ETH) mainnet by partially processing it off-chain.

In 2018-2019, Polygon (MATIC) designed an architecture based on so-called Plasma technology. It indexed the transactional data and broadcasted only part of it to Ethereum (ETH) mainnet. Thus, it allowed to reduce transactional pressure on Ethereum (ETH) and to save on gas costs.

The process of broadcasting was secured by validators who were motivated by periodical MATIC rewards for their work. Delegators were allowed to support this or that validator by their MATIC stakes.

Now Polygon is offering two types of chains: Secured Chains and Standalone Chains. The networks of the first type are actually Layer2 constructs on Ethereum (ETH) mainnet.

Standalone Chains are independent EVM-compatible systems secured by their own set of validators. This solution is way more flexible as Standalone Chains don’t rely on each other while processing transactions.

Polygon Software Development Kit (Polygon SDK) is a modular and extensible framework for developing EVM-compatible blockchains. It is written in Golang while more implementations are to be released. Thus, Polygon demonstrates full compatibility with Ethereum in terms of development experience.

Polygon advances the process of development on Ethereum (ETH) which remains the most popular and secure smart contract platform. Meanwhile, Polygon (MATIC) itself evolved into the fourth largest programmatic ecosystem surpassed by Ethereum, Tron and Binance Smart Chain only.

Polygon is among the first blockchain projects that strives to merge scalability (bandwidth boost, gas efficiency etc.) with interoperability. After rebranding as Polygon in February, 2021, the project’s strategy is focused on interoperability between different Layer2 solutions. Besides its inaugural Plasma model, it’s working on integrating Validium Chains, Optimistic Rollups and zk-Rollups.

Thus, Polygon Network (MATIC) attempts to build ‘Polkadot on Ethereum’ or ‘Internet of Blockchains’ starting from the global ‘Layer Two Hub’.

With perennial congestion of the Ethereum (ETH) network, Polygon evolves into a new holy grail for developers. Its decentralization is secured by the DPoS network of validators, so it is not criticized as aggressively as Binance Smart Chain (BSC).

That said, the developers community of Polygon has been growing at an impressive pace in recent weeks. As Ethereum (ETH) is fully compatible with Polygon, every Ethereum (ETH) dev is also a Polygon (MATIC) dev: plenty of dApps can migrate to Polygon seamlessly.