Author: Bitcoin Realm; Translation: Plain Blockchain
Are you curious why MATIC has rapidly risen to become one of the most popular cryptocurrencies recently? What is Polygon, and what is its relationship with MATIC? How does Polygon work? Let’s dive in for more information.
What is Polygon (MATIC)? Polygon, previously known as Matic Network, is a scaling solution platform designed to connect and construct Ethereum-compatible blockchain networks.
What problems does Polygon solve, and is it a helper or a killer to Ethereum? Polygon is like adding a hard drive to Ethereum, providing a scalability solution to alleviate congestion on the Ethereum blockchain.
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You may wonder why Ethereum is congested and needs to be scaled. With the rapid development of the cryptocurrency industry and various new projects emerging, the number of users in the DeFi field has reached new highs. Currently, about 70% of DeFi projects run on Ethereum, and the number of global DeFi and Ethereum wallet users exceeds one million, which has brought unprecedented pressure to Ethereum.
Currently, Ethereum has only one chain, and all projects need to run equally on this chain, consuming a lot of resources and causing congestion. Ethereum’s TPS (transactions per second) is only 15 transactions per second at its highest, which is not enough to meet the growing needs of users, resulting in extreme congestion on the Ethereum blockchain.
For example, the popular CryptoKitties at the time, because of its high user traffic, once accounted for 25% of the entire Ethereum transaction volume, causing Ethereum to crash.
Transactions were stuck on the chain, so in order to get faster transaction speeds, gas fees began to increase, as miners would certainly prioritize transactions with higher gas fees. As a result, everyone started raising gas fees to increase transaction speeds, causing Ethereum’s gas fees to become more and more expensive.
Additionally, in 2016, The DAO was hacked, and the hacker stole about 3.7 million ether (ETH). Ultimately, Ethereum had to use a hard fork to recover the loss, which had a huge impact at the time.
After experiencing these problems, it is not difficult to see that Ethereum currently has several main problems:
– Low transaction throughput: Ethereum’s TPS currently maxes out at only 15 transactions per second, which is far from meeting user demand.
– Poor user experience: Currently, Ethereum only has one chain, and all projects run on this chain, causing significant congestion and increased gas fees.
– Lack of autonomy: All projects rely on a unified network.
To address these issues, many teams have begun exploring solutions, hoping to develop Ethereum-compatible blockchains to alleviate scalability issues while still being able to use Ethereum’s ecosystem. This includes Polygon.
Polygon aims to add value to the Ethereum blockchain and its goal is to help Ethereum grow and strengthen its ecosystem, not replace it.
1. Development history of Polygon
In 2017, three cryptocurrency enthusiasts from India, Jaynti Kanani, Sandeep Nailwal, and Anurag Arjun, recognized Ethereum’s scalability problem and founded Matic Network to help solve this problem.
Matic Network is a Layer 2 scaling solution that uses sidechains for off-chain computation to achieve scalability, while leveraging the Plasma framework and decentralized Proof of Stake (PoS) validators to ensure asset security.
The network includes:
– Plasma Chain : A sub-chain based on Layer2 scaling solutions, responsible for handling token transactions and providing secure and instant transaction experiences.
– POS Chain: A decentralized PoS validator that ensures asset security.
On April 21, 2019, Matic Network launched on Binance Launchpad and raised $5.6 million after the release of its token, MATIC.
Due to Ethereum’s transaction congestion and high gas fees, users urgently need to find a solution, and Matic is in a favorable position to meet this demand. After two and a half years of effort, the Matic network was officially launched and quickly gained attention in mid-2020.
As the market developed, the team recognized the limitations of using the Plasma chain for scaling, as it could not solve all of Ethereum’s scalability problems. Existing scalability solutions on the market can only solve some of Ethereum’s problems, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. To continue helping Ethereum solve various problems, the team realized that all of these solutions must be integrated into a framework and interconnected to achieve cross-chain interoperability.
Therefore, in 2021, Matic Network was renamed Polygon to build a universal framework that makes all scaling solutions easy to integrate, interoperate, and be compatible with Ethereum. The goal is to create a multi-chain network around Ethereum that resembles a polygon.
Polygon’s vision has shifted from “Blockchain Internet” to “Ethereum-compatible chain Internet”, aiming to provide scalability and aggregation solutions around the Ethereum ecosystem. This not only helps to address the high transaction costs and congestion on Ethereum, but also keeps users on the platform.
2. What innovations are there after Matic Network is renamed Polygon?
Matic is just a single scaling solution and cannot solve all scaling problems on Ethereum, while Polygon is a Layer2 aggregator that allows all scaling solutions to easily and seamlessly integrate with Ethereum, while also supporting more functions.
Polygon is a modular and flexible framework that supports building and connecting two main types of solutions:
1) Independent Chains
Independent chains rely on their own security, have their own validating nodes, and can have their own consensus models, such as Proof of Stake (PoS) and Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS).
Independent chains are independent blockchains that do not use Ethereum’s consensus mechanism, so they can provide the highest level of independence and flexibility, but sacrifice some security and need to balance flexibility and security in use.
The architecture of these chains can be flexibly adjusted to inherit some of Ethereum’s security. The Matic PoS chain uses this architecture, using Ethereum for validator staking and regular checkpoint termination.
Independent chains are usually very suitable for:
-Enterprises
-Projects that do not require the highest level of security
-Projects with a strong community (able to build a sufficiently decentralized and secure validator pool)
2) Secured Chains
Secured chains rely on Ethereum’s security rather than building their own validator pool.
In addition to the Plasma chain currently supported, Polygon will also support other major Layer 2 solutions such as Optimistic Rollups, zkRollups, Validium, etc. to become a unique “Layer 2 aggregator”.
Security chains are particularly suitable for:
-Applications that require the highest level of security
-Start-up companies, i.e. young projects and communities (that cannot establish a sufficiently decentralized and secure validator pool)
-Using independent chains and security chains, Polygon is compatible with almost all Ethereum extension solutions, just like Ethereum’s internet, Ethereum can easily access Polygon’s existing extension solutions.
3.How does Polygon work?
For developers, the deployment of standalone chains and security chains is simple, providing developers with more flexible solutions to meet the needs of different users, benefiting from Polygon’s infrastructure.
Polygon’s infrastructure consists of four parts:
-Ethereum layer
-Security layer
-Face network layer
-Execution layer
1) Ethereum layer
Polygon uses the Ethereum layer as the foundation layer of its architecture, consisting of a set of smart contracts on the Ethereum network. By using Ethereum as its final checkpoint, Polygon inherits top-level security similar to Ethereum, but with lower flexibility.
The Ethereum layer, as an optional component, is responsible for:
-Verification node
-Staking node
-Dispute resolution
-Information transmission and settlement between Polygon and Ethereum
2) Security layer
Polygon uses the security layer to provide “validation-as-a-service” functionality. This layer allows Polygon validation nodes to act as on-chain consensus mechanisms. Developers can utilize a variety of security solutions to validate transactions, such as utilizing PoS sidechains or fraud proofs to ensure transaction safety.
Currently, PoS sidechains are the preferred security solution. PoS sidechains use a set of about 100 validation nodes to protect the blockchain (which requires some validation fees) and manage validation nodes. In addition, this layer can also rely on Ethereum miners (the ultimate validators) to achieve consensus.
The security layer is the second optional architectural layer, providing greater flexibility than the Ethereum layer and significantly improving transaction throughput while addressing congestion issues. But its security may be slightly lower.
Not all projects require the highest level of security. For example, game projects prioritize user experience, and settlement speed is crucial to them, and they are often willing to sacrifice some security.
3) Polygon Network Layer
The Polygon Network Layer is a network of independent blockchains responsible for completing transactions, block production, and consensus within their respective chains.
These chains can be either independent or secured chains. The block producers of these chains group their transactions and, based on secure solutions, the network layer issues the Merkle root as the first checkpoint.
4) Execution Layer
Finally, there is the Execution Layer. The Execution Layer interprets and executes transactions determined by the Polygon Network Layer. This layer consists of two components:
– Execution Environment: Implemented by a virtual machine similar to the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) that can track the state of the blockchain.
– Execution Logic: Implements specific state transitions for a particular Polygon blockchain. This logic is used to define the transition to the next blockchain state, where Ethereum can be viewed as an “infinite state machine” (as opposed to a finite state machine or FSM, a mathematical computing model that represents a finite number of states, transitions, and actions).
However, among all these layers, the security layer is the key value proposition for developers as it implements the true flexibility of the Polygon framework. Developers can choose a security solution that suits their project and can switch solutions as needed. The goal is to provide developers with a toolkit to customize their blockchain projects.
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