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What is Polygon ($MATIC)?
Polygon is a decentralized Ethereum scaling platform that allows developers to build user-friendly DApps with low transaction fees without ever sacrificing security. Polygon Lightpaper describes Polygon as a protocol and framework for building connections to Ethereum-compatible blockchain networks.
On May 18, 2021, Ethereum educator, investor, and independent advisor Anthony Sassano took to Twitter to address some of the confusion surrounding Polygon (e.g., some people call Polygon a Sidechain of Ethereum, while others call it blockchain L2). Here are some highlights from that Twitter thread:
- “There are Matic Plasma chains and Polygon PoS chains. Much of the activity is taking place on the PoS chain. “
- “The PoS chain is called the ‘sidechain’ for Ethereum because it has its own authenticator (more than 100 people are Staking MATIC), which means it doesn’t use Ethereum’s security (aka Ethereum PoW).”
- “The PoS chain goes beyond a standard sidechain and commits itself to Ethereum (what some might call a commit chain). It is based on Ethereum because all validator/staking logic for a PoS chain acts as a Smart contract on Ethereum. “
- “This means that if the Ethereum network is offline, then the Polygon PoS chain will also be offline.”
- “This has 2 benefits: it provides an Ethereum-based end product for the PoS chain, and it can help the chain recover in the event of a problem. This also means that Polygon is paying Ethereum to use the space.”
Price action of $MATIC
According to data from TradingView, at 1 a.m. UTC on September 6, $MATIC reached $0.9168, meaning the price of $MATIC has risen (against the USD) by more than 170% since its June 18 low of $0.3392.
On Monday (September 5), renowned New Zealand-based cryptocurrency analyst Lark Davis pointed out that Polygon has reached an important milestone:
$matic network has now passed 2 billion lifetime transactions!!!
— Lark Davis (@TheCryptoLark) September 5, 2022
Data from Dune Anaytics confirms that as of September 6, 2022, Polygon’s total transactions are more than two billion:
On August 31, the Polygon team announced that the popular free trading platform Robinhood has launched support for MATIC deposits and withdrawals on the Polygon Proof-Of-Stake (PoS) chain. This benefits Robinhood users for the first time, with faster transactions and lower fees than Ethereum.
And earlier today, Polygon Studios CEO Ryan Watt summed up some recent good news:
Big couple of weeks for @0xPolygon:
🌱 ETH Merge (FAQ: https://t.co/M6pnbwHZiz) look at the carbon footprint.
🎮 $MATIC highest weighted in @ballmatthew Multicoin Bitwise Metaverse Index.
💻 More on ramps w @RobinhoodApp.
⌨️ Improved user journeys with @0xPolygon Wallet. pic.twitter.com/xtT9rP62Mn
— Ryan Wyatt (@Fwiz) September 5, 2022
