A Closer Look At Polygon (Matic) Ecosystem

In the world of blockchain and cryptocurrencies, the term “Polygon” has been popping up regularly in recent conversations. As the crypto winter continues to ravage the markets, Polygon (Matic) has carved a path for itself as a leader in scaling public blockchain solutions. Many industry giants have also taken a notice of Polygon’s (Matic) capability and today, the company boasts a rich portfolio of partnerships, including Starbucks, Meta Platforms, Stripe, Reuters, and Disney.

To explain how Polygon has been able to gain adulation from so many top players, it’s necessary to take a closer look at the world of blockchain and the opportunities that have opened up its use cases. Polygon, formerly known as Matic, is a Layer 2 scalability platform that is built on top of the Ethereum blockchain. It enables developers to build, deploy, and scale dApps with low fees and fast transaction speed.

The company works on the principle of layer 2 scaling which enables developers to create applications on a development environment that is similar to Ethereum, but is based on a dedicated sidechain. This not only helps reduce costs and enhance scalability of dApps, but also opens up the potential of developing unique types of applications that could be limited by Ethereum’s network issues. From a technology perspective, the underlying protocol follows a well-known model – distributed plasma and rollup. These models are based on Ethereum’s plasma and the rollup concept for scalability and security. It is easy to see why companies such as Starbucks, Meta Platforms and others have already partnered with Polygon.

With the help of its technology, Starbucks is able to launch a new rewards platform known as Starbucks Odyssey. The platform is still currently under beta tests and thus far, the demand for the product has been ‘unprecedented.’ The project will work in much the same way as other reward programs. A consumer engaging the Starbucks service will generate rewards which can be redeemed for additional perks or benefits as a Starbucks customer. Not only that, Polygon could be the gatekeeper to crypto native users to the crypto ecosystem. Besides Starbucks Odyssey, one of the most successful Polygon projects is the Reddit Avatar Collectibles.

The project churned out over 5 million collectible avatars, with 3.9 million of them coming from unique holders. At the same time, only 6.8% of the avatar holders actually have more than one avatar. This is a telling sign that the community has taken the avatars to heart – a healthy sign when it comes to the acceptance of NFTs. It is perhaps in response to such great success that companies like Ubisoft and Discord initially plan, but dialed back their plans to launch projects involving NFTs owing to the pushback from certain communities.

However, Reddit smartly named their NFTs as “Digital Collectibles” instead of NFTs which helped them get past the current stigma associated with them. Moreover, Polygon has experienced a steady number of its daily active users, often surpassing Ethereum’s DAU in a few weeks time. This is mainly due to the fact that people are indirectly buying MATIC without realizing it. In the current crypto climate, networks have experienced severe drops in DAUs since the Terra collapse in May and June, but Polygon has managed to keep the engagementlevels stable, often churning out between 2 and 3 million transactions daily. Going forward, Polygon will be an integral component in the world of NFTs. Digital assets such as usernames, websites domains, and content can all theoretically live on large public blockchains such as Polygon (Matic).

This will not only allow developers to have more flexibility in terms of creating new apps, but also get past some of the issues faced by Ethereum such as scalability and transaction speed. In conclusion, Polygon has been the standout prodigy in the world of blockchain and cryptocurrencies in the current year. With its promise for scalability, fast transaction speed and low fees, the company has already bagged partnerships with some leading industry players and is expected to widen its presence further as the days progress. It may well be the answer to many of the mainstream adoption hurdles in the future.