What Is Polygon MATIC? How Does Polygon Work?

• Anshika Bhalla
• March 24, 2022

Depicted as “Ethereum’s internet of blockchains,” Polygon is emerging as a practical option for a few new exceptional projects as Ethereum 2.0 is still under development. It has gained popularity because of the great throughput and low gas expenses experienced by clients and developers in its platform. Polygon began as MATIC, a profoundly effective scalability solution created for the Ethereum network that pre-owned an adapted version of Plasma and PoS-based alt chains. 

In October 2017, Polygon MATIC was introduced as a testnet prior to turning to the mainnet later in the same year. 

Over the long run, MATIC’s proceeded with progress with projects like Maker (MKR), Decentraland (MANA). It also started working with platforms like Binance, and Coinbase which carried sufficient financing to the MATIC group to grow their administrations. They proceeded to carry out Plasma ( a system they partially employed after their rebranding in February 2021). AAVE was then introduced on Polygon’s platform to boost the Polygon network’s significance in April 2021.

In this article, we will discuss the Polygon infrastructure and about the MATIC Network. Likewise, we’ll take a gander at layer-2 solutions in the polygon system and how they work. Besides, we’ll also talk about the MATIC token and its significance in the Polygon ecosystem.

Table of content

• What is Polygon Matic?
• How does Polygon Matic work?
• What is a polygon MATIC Token?
• Closing Thoughts

What is polygon MATIC?

Polygon, previously known as MATIC network, is an interchain scalability solution that gives an infrastructure for creating blockchain networks that can interface with each other. It intends to bring the adaptability and scalability of alt chains along with Ethereum’s security, liquidity, and interoperability. Polygon is further looking forward to admitting two new roll-ups in its platform later on. One will distribute loads of off-chain exchanges together into a solitary trade, while the other will run on top of the Ethereum network to speed up transactions.

Ethereum (ETH) continues to be the most effectively utilized blockchain globally. This open-source, decentralized blockchain quickly acquired ubiquity after its liftoff in 2013. It offers smart contracts as a POS (Proof-of-Stake) framework.

However, Ethereum’s fast adoption results in exorbitant cost, with exchange charges often costing more than the transferred sum. This is because Ethereum has a great measure of clients using the network, which remarkably brings down exchange scalability. 

In such cases, Polygon MATIC is used to resolve the issues. The Polygon system comprises numerous members, including block creators, developers, clients, and stakeholders. Polygon clients utilize the MATIC Sidechain to execute and cooperate with different Ethereum-based decentralized apps. It is to be noted that MATIC is a lot less expensive and quicker than other networks.

The developers are relied upon to assemble their own sidechains or scale their apps utilizing the Polygon SDK stack and network to furnish their clients with an excellent client experience. 

The stakeholders on Polygon successfully function just like PoW miners on Ethereum. To approve and confirm exchanges on the MATIC Sidechain, stakeholders have to lock the MATIC tokens. Also, they can choose eligible block creators by utilizing their locked tokens as their voting power in order to regulate the process of block creation on the sidechain. Block creators then create the blocks and settle all exchanges on the network. In order to get chosen as block creators, stakeholders need to lock a critical amount of MATIC tokens.

Usually, the quantity of block creators is kept moderately low on the grounds that having a few block agreement producers tends to provide higher throughput and a lot quicker exchange settlements. For instance, on average, the Ethereum mainchain takes around 20 seconds to create a new block, while the Matic Sidechain produces and settles new blocks within a second.

How Does Polygon (MATIC) Work?

Polygon’s MATIC Sidechain functions like every other Proof-of-stake-based blockchains. Its structure, token, client nodes, local dapps, validator nodes, etc., are similar to other networks except the factor that exchanges are clustered and settled over the Ethereum mainchain.

Fortunately, Polygon has fostered a layer-2 network for building interoperable, Ethereum-viable blockchain networks. 

Layer-2 scaling solutions allude to off-chain solutions. This includes lessening or eliminating components with evaluation power from the prime blockchain prior to their execution somewhere else, for example, on sidechains. This builds throughput on the mainchain and spreads the evaluating proficiency across the network. Layer-2 solutions are receiving expanded fame as they play an essential role for the mass reception of cryptographic money.

The modular system of Polygon for assembling custom networks permits developers to send preset blockchain networks with just one snap. Besides, Polygon makes it simple for any blockchain to cooperate with another blockchain without any issues.

You can think about the MATIC sidechain as a valuable section of the vast universe of Ethereum, which offers clients prevalent project implementation and good working experience. Each Ethereum-based decentralized app or some other Ethereum-viable blockchain can be converted to the Matic Sidechain to work in a considerably more improved climate.

Clients who want to interface with decentralized apps that have moved to the MATIC Sidechain are required to:

• Verify the supposed Predicate Contract conveyed on the Ethereum network, bolting the tokens to be sent on the MATIC Sidechain.
• After the predicate contract gets verified, tokens will be automatically stored on the MATIC Sidechain. In this cycle, a specific smart contract named “RootChainManager” activates another smart contract known as “ChildChainManager” that creates the proper measure of bolted or stored tokens on the MATIC network.
• When clients accept their tokens on the MATIC Sidechain, they can move them quickly within the network with minor expenses. This implies that giving or exchanging liquidity utilizing a decentralized trade on MATIC will cost the client pennies rather than heavy dollars.

Steps to Pull out the tokens back to Ethereum: 

• The tokens must be scorched on the Matic sidechain.
• The verification of this scorched exchange must be delivered to the Ethereum mainchain. 

When this cycle is finished, the smart contract “RootChainManager”  will store back resources for the client’s location (wallet) on the Ethereum mainchain.

What is Polygon Token (MATIC)?

The  Polygon token known as MATIC is the base resource of the Polygon system. In addition to the fact that it is utilized for exchange payments, it is used for storing tokens to protect the Polygon network, too. Since its rebrand, the Polygon MATIC token has received an incredible cost surge following a tremendous expansion in use.

The MATIC token has a covered stockpile of 10 billion tokens, with a current circling supply of around 5 billion. MATIC token is accessible on most well-known decentralized as well as centralized-based  tradings, including some of the famous names like Binance, 1inch Exchange, and Coinbase Pro in the list. The crypto world is coming together to simplify the purchase of Polygon (MATIC) tokens by making it accessible with both fiat and crypto. CoinGecko has reported that at the time of composing, the Polygon MATIC market has an absolute market capitalization worth 1.8 billion dollars. Currently, the polygon MATIC token value is standing at approximately 0.36 dollars.

Closing Thoughts

By looking at the workings and potentials of Polygon MATIC, it can be assumed that this platform has shown considerable success in solving the blockchain scalability issues. Furthermore, different blockchain developers can enjoy building their own decentralized network in the wake of provided features and tools from the polygon platform which lets developers access customization options. 

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