In a time of many new crypto coins, platforms, and contracts, Polygon is starting to pave a way and rise to the throne of Ethereum layer 2s. Polygon, formerly known as the Matic Network, is a scaling solution that aims to provide multiple tools to improve the speed and reduce the cost and complexities of transactions on blockchain networks.
Friend Or Foe, Polygon’s Start & How It Works With ETH…
Polygon was created in India in 2017, and was originally called the Matic Network. It was the brainchild of experienced Ethereum developers—Jaynti Kanani, Sandeep Nailwal, Anurag Arjun, and Mihailo Bjelic.
The Matic Network went live in 2020, and has since attracted some of the top names in the world of decentralized finance, also known as DeFi, including Decentraland and MakerDAO. The Matic Network rebranded to Polygon in February 2021, and in April 2019 during it’s initial offering, the Polygon team raised the equivalent of $5.6 million in ETH with the sale of 1.9 billion MATIC tokens over a brisk 20-day period. While some coins in the same field are aiming at top dog coin Ethereum, Polygon is aiming with them to help bring a new speed and software to the world.
MATIC/POLYGON Is currently trading around $1.83 | MATIC-USD on TradingView.com
In recent times, many coins have been deemed “the Ethereum killer,” while Polygon is arguably helping with the blockchain champ. At the core of the network is the Polygon software development kit (SDK), used to build Ethereum-compatible decentralized applications as side-chains and connect them to its main blockchain. While Ethereum recently reached an all time high, finally breaking the $4K mark and showing skeptics that it’s here to stay, many are left asking: could this be a future effect for Polygon as DeFi grows? Polygon has added some excellent partners to its list, and given the chains supplementary nature to Ethereum, many have sought investing in both.
Once the the rebranding was done, Polygon retained its MATIC cryptocurrency ticker – the digital coin underpinning the network. MATIC is used as the unit of payment and settlement between participants who interact within the network. Polygon’s main chain is a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) sidechain, in which network participants can stake MATIC tokens to validate transactions and vote on network upgrades. This coin is showing it has strong potential, particularly for projects around DeFi that are looking for friendlier attributes relative to Ethereum (gas fees being the most notable attribute).