Polygon is one of the more popular blockchain development platforms.
In recent years they've raised a tonne of funding and had industry heavyweights throw their support it's way.
In essence, it's a layer 2 scaling solution for the Ethereum blockchain and has some impressive
Proof-of-stake
Polygon is a Layer 2 solution that is designed to scale the Ethereum blockchain and reduce traffic load.
Founded by Jaynti Kanani, Sandeep Nailwal, Anurag Arjun, and Mihailo Bjelic in 2021, it was created to address one of Ethereum’s main challenges – scalability.
With an ever-increasing number of users on the Ethereum platform, Layer 2 networks like Polygon minimize transaction costs and latency while increasing throughput.
They allow developers to build complex apps on top of Polygon without congesting the main chain with too much data or transactions.
In addition to being a network, Polygon also has its own native token called MATIC (Matic Network Token).
As of July 2021 it had a market capitalisation of $15.6 billion US dollars and is available for trading through several exchanges such as Binance and Coinbase.
The Matic token provides access to various features on the Polygon ecosystem such as staking, decentralised finance applications, asset swaps, and more.
If you want the absolute best dApp for your specific needs, you're going to have to research te full list higher in this page.
Use case will determine which dApp is best for you.
However, to try and save you some time I've included a couple of the most popular dApps on Polygon below.
Rainbow is a leading Ethereum wallet with an easy-to-use interface and robust security features that make it ideal to store and manage digital assets. Launched in 2019 by Christian Baroni, Jin Chung, and Mike Demarais, the Rainbow Wallet enables users to manage ether, hold ERC tokens associated with decentralized finance protocols, and explore non-fungible tokens associated with the Ethereum.
It is perfect for beginners who want to get started with Ethereum as its user experience is designed around simplicity rather than advanced configurations.
In addition to basic wallet functions like sending/receiving crypto (ETH/ERC20) and displaying token balances, Rainbow wallet also has direct integration with popular platforms used in NFTs and DeFI space such as MakerDAO, Aave and Compound Finance, allowing users to take advantage of these features from within the app.
The native support for Ethernet Domain Name System (ENS) names allow users to easily send ether or erc20 tokens just by entering the name of an ethereum address owner instead of long strings of numbers.
Rainbow wallet also reported having active bridges connecting them to layer 2 scaling solutions such as Polygon, Arbitrum, and Optimism which suggest that not only easy on
Collab Land is a modern bot designed to help streamline community management and engagement. It can be added to either Telegram or Discord platforms, giving them simple yet powerful tools for creating and engaging with their communities.
Collab Land's most unique feature is that it has a built-in NFT (non-fungible token) system which offers memberships only to those who hold certain tokens, automatically kicking out anyone who sells them.
The NFT system can be used to assign members exclusive roles with special access to certain communications or content.
For example, an online discussion community may create an NFT so that new members need to have that token in order to participate in the discussion. This helps ensure only active and engaged members are able to take part in activities within the group, increasing engagement of its longtime supporting members as well as help organizing each discussion more efficiently.
With its comprehensive suite of features and cutting-edge technology, Collab Land looks set to become a staple tool for managing modern day communities.
QuickSwap simplifies and safeguards token swapping.
Decentralized exchanges, unlike centralized ones, facilitate peer-to-peer trading without the involvement of a third party operator, and thus are more secure.
Transactions on QuickSwap tend to be much faster than what one experiences on centralized exchanges, giving users an optimal solution for token trading.
Aave is an open-source, decentralized lending protocol that provides users with a variety of different debt functions.
It allows users to lend, borrow, and stake their Ethereum-based assets as well as offering flash loans. Aave also provides pools for real-world asset such as real estate and invoice payments by partnering with Centrifuge.
The governance token AAVE allows users to vote on Aave Improvement Proposals (AIPs), allowing them to take an active role in developing Aave’s platform and DeFi applications.
This distributed voting process enables the collective stakeholders of the Aave protocol to govern its development and environment while still maximizing decentralization.
By using this governance system, it helps ensure that Aave remains autonomous so it can stay within its original framework into the future.
Dfyn is a designed to bring together multiple blockchains and provide users with secure, fast, and seamless access to cryptocurrency trading activities.
Dfyn’s decentralized liquidity pool enables users to trade even when there are no liquidity providers available on order books or cross-chain networks. Further enhancing the platform’s performance and security is its gasless transactions protocol, which takes place on Layer 2 for more efficient transfers of digital assets between parties.
With intelligent market-making tools integrated into the platform, Dfyn allows users to maximize their liquidity potential while taking advantage of fee-free trades and improved market efficiency.
This technology also provides enhanced order types that aid in achieving better pricing results than any traditional centralized exchange would offer.
Plus, since it operates without relying on third-party centralized service providers, users can be sure that their digital asset transactions remain confidential and secure at all times. All these features make Dfyn one of the best DEX solutions available today.
Polygon has caught the attention of some of the world’s top investors and venture capital firms, including Sequoia Capital, Softbank, and Tiger Global.
The investor interest stems from Polygon’s plans to revolutionize the web3 ecosystem, which currently comprises cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFT).
In particular, Polygon is targeting the gaming and NFT ecosystems with ambitious goals. To this end, they recently hired Ryan Wyatt—the former head of gaming at YouTube—as Chief Strategy Officer.
The investments in Polygon are part of a larger effort among investors to compete with Andreessen Horowitz who have taken a lead role in investing in the web3 ecosystem.
For firms such as Sequoia Capital, Softbank, and Tiger Global, betting on companies such as Polygon could be quite beneficial.
Not only will it help them gain a foothold in an emerging space widely seen as having enormous potential for growth, but their bet may also pay off handsomely due to Polygon's mission and its success until now.
Polygon has grown to become one of the go-to layer 2 scaling solutions for Web3 developers.
Through its complete compatibility with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), a powerful suite of tools, and industry-leading transaction rates, Polygon has become the destination for thriving Web3 projects.
This is evident from the massive growth in teams building on Polygon - jumping 100-fold in less than a year - bringing increased efficiency and lower costs to their work.
As more and more decentralized applications are developed on Ethereum, Polygon’s important role as a high performance Layer 2 scaling solution will continue to be invaluable to Web3 developers.
As proven by its extraordinary growth this past year, Polygon offers all the necessary features needed to bring their projects to fruition without compromising on speed or usability.
It allows Web3 developers to migrate their work easily between the Ether network and other blockchains with no additional setup required, making it an optimal choice for any developer looking to take advantage of Ethereum’s unique capabilities.
Polygon, with its underlying philosophy that Ethereum scaling is a spectrum, takes a very open-minded approach to scalability.
This allows for support of secured chains such as Layer 2, as well as stand-alone chains like appchains or sovereign sidechains.
The former provides superior data integrity and network privacy while the latter allows for operational flexibility but lowers the emphasis on security.
The Ethereum Layer helps facilitate a range of internal operations including checkpointing, dispute resolution, staking, finality and messaging between all participating Ethereum and Polygon chains.
To make these complex operations more user-friendly and accessible, Polygon implements an array of tools and services such as scalers to scale particular transactions up or down depending on how much decentralization is needed at that given point in time.
It also uses meta accounts to smooth over the process of transitioning between different POA/PoS networks or EVM compatible ones.
Finally, token bridge implementation facilitates interoperability by giving users the option to move tokens back and forth across different networks without having to pay for expensive redeployment events on the main chain.
Polygon is taking advantage of the latest developments in blockchain technology to overcome Ethereum's issues with scalability.
At the forefront of this effort is the use of Proof of Stake (PoS), a consensus algorithm that consumes far less energy than Proof of Work (PoW). This PoS consensus system offers substantially higher transaction throughput, making it a significantly more efficient and scalable option.
In addition, Polygon has implemented Optimistic Rollups (ORs) as an additional scalability solution.
These are an upgraded version of ZK-rollups, which rely on fraud proofs.
ORs offer better smart contract capabilities and increased DeFi potential due to their ability to group multiple transactions into one “checkpoint” for faster validation.
By introducing these technologies, Polygon has been able to increase network speed, reduce transaction fees and improve scalability for its users.
1. Work with a premier network of dApp developers, institutional players and international partners.
2. Create secure, user-friendly experiences with Ethereum layer 2 technology.
3. Access unique economic incentives to power your application, incentivizing users and creator networks for sustainable growth.
4. Benefit from unlimited scalability and freedom using the Polygon SDK, a powerful set of tools to build on Ethereum without any complex programming knowledge required.
5. Transition smoothly from Ethereum's mainnet to Polygon’s sidechains with flamechain support for off-chain functionality across multiple networks.
6. Enjoy fast, low cost transactions and secure smart contract development on Polygon's Layer 2 solution for the Ethereum blockchain faster than ever before with millions of transactions per second in production use today!
1. Steep Learning Curve - The platform, although powerful has a very steep learning curve for newcomers.
2. Code Redundancy - As you build out your app and when developers need to use multiple services from Polygon, there is potential for code redundancy in the project.
3. Vulnerability - Network-specific smart contracts can contain serious vulnerabilities that can only be found once they are deployed to the mainnet.
4. Limited Services - Although most fleshed-out, the scope of support and services offered are comparativey limited compared to other blockchains platforms like Ethereum or even Tron.
5. High Gas Fees - With increased demand on transacitons, gas fees have seen huge increases recently causing faster transaction times at extra costsm if users don't specfiy an appropriate gas fee amount and/or tokens with specific discounts like MATIC/CHI/OMG on Ethereum network and bandwidth on EOS network).
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