Decentralized finance was in high demand by 2020 and these cryptographic vulnerabilities were discovered within the Ethereum network. Some ventures have chosen to implement innovative solutions, rather than waiting for the long-desired Ethereum 2.0 blockchain, due to scalability issues and high gas costs.
Since companies have made efforts to minimize gas charges and facilitate Ethereum scalability by moving transactions to side-chains, the existence of second-layer solutions has recently gained prominence.
With the intention of developing a “multi-chain system” using approaches such as Positive Rollups, xkRollups and Validium, Polygon is currently under development. Polygon’s proposal is called “Being like a Polkadot on Ethereum,” which will put the company in direct competition with the Web3 Foundation, a publicly funded foundation that is developing an open-source blockchain project.
At the beginning of February 2021, the increase in the price of the Polkadot DOT token caused the fourth-largest market capitalization of CoinMarketCap to be owned by that token. Polkadot published a deployment map for their para chain and verified that the program was in the Rococo test phase.
Polkadot and Polygon tend to be two of the most common Ethereum-based solutions-two solutions that drive the Ethereum ecosystem forward by moving the Ethereum ecosystem to another layer.
It is important that people who are interested in learning more about the “complex narrative” of Ethereum consider the histories, focal points and frameworks of both projects.
Polygon & Polkadot: History & Background
Polkadot relies on a sharded multi-chain network – known as parachains – to process transactions on smaller chains in parallel. Many Polkadot projects are based on the Substrate platform, heralded by its potential to allow dApp developers to concentrate more on the business side of projects rather than constructing and running a blockchain.
According to Ethereum co-founder and former core developer Gavin Wood, the Polkadot concept came to him in the spring of 2016 while awaiting the completion of the Ethereum 2.0 sharding specifications. As of January 2016, Wood had left Ethereum and, by October of the same year, had put together the first White Paper Draft for Polkadot. Polkadot’s initial October 2017 token sales amounted to around $145 million.
In 2018, Polkadot, the Blockchain project responsible for Proof of Concept and successful on-chain protocol upgrades, launched the first Proof of Concept and successful on-chain protocol upgrades. Wood noted that the project is the “biggest bet in this ecosystem against chain maximalism” on the Proof-of-Stake network that will be officially launched in May 2020.
Polygon, formerly the Matic Network, was launched in 2017. The team aims to improve the world by building a better environment for the Ethereum.
The number of on-board applications reached more than 80, including Polymarket, Neon District and Skyweaver, for 2018, with approximately 7 million transactions each for approximately 200,000 unique user addresses.
The Matic Network began with the implementation of the Mactic PoS Chain, a side-chain for the Matic PoS Token that runs on the top of the Ethereum blockchain, as well as the Matic Plasma Chains – a production-ready Ethereum Layer2.
Following the move to Polygon, the team announced that they were “providing a clear, organized and straightforward platform for scaling and infrastructure development on Ethereum.”
The SDK of Polygon is the secret to Polygon. Secure sites quickly and easily (Layer 2 chains). This protocol is particularly well suited for applications requiring the highest level of security and teams that find it difficult to build a secure validator pool.
In addition, the SDK provides the ability to build completely stand-alone chains, providing enhanced independence and versatility, as well as the ability to gain some Ethereum network security.
Polygon is a leading cryptocurrency media organization that effectively transforms Ethereum into a fully fledged multi-chain solution.
The Polygon team noted that current Matic tools and products remain completely functional regardless of the brand name. As the basic building blocks of Polygon, more complex structures such as Matic Plasma Chains and Matic PoS Chains will continue to be developed and adopted.
Polygon & Polkadot: Multi-Chain Function
As co-founder of Matic and Polygon, Sandeep Nailwal provides a more in-depth explanation of the new approach in which Polygon incorporates multiple mechanisms, such as asynchronous messaging systems, and the possibility of a “overlay roll-up” combining Layer 2 platforms.
According to Polygon, a roll-up-based road map would have layers of second-tier solutions that would hold shards together. It would be very beneficial for DApps who want simple interoperability and scalability to embrace interoperability with Ethereum.
In an interview, Gavin Wood stated that Polkadot’s involvement helps the system as a “meta protocol,” using a lower level of abstraction than Ethereum’s smart contracts, i.e. working at a higher level of abstraction. This means that system participants can help to build and develop both off-chain and on-chain cooperation.
Using Polygon as an Ethereum-integrated part of the ecosystem, the good thing is that it is able to enjoy the network effects of Ethereum while also benefiting from the security built into the network. Polygon maintains the ability to integrate any Ethereum (already the largest multi-chain system in the world) infrastructure or scaling solution.
With DeFi’s continuous rise, a second layer can be seen as a step forward.
The value of Ether (ETH) continues to rise due to the increasing popularity of decentralized finance. Layer 2 solutions are increasing in popularity, offering a greater opportunity to add functionality and update infrastructure to the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
Polkadot and Polygon serve as powerful Layer 2 remedies for the major issues of Ethereum.
The multi-chain infrastructure of Polygon and the potential to take full advantage of the network effects of Ethereum give the project a significant upside compared to other systems.