While cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, etc., witnessed a slump last week, the value of Polygon(MATIC) rose nearly 35% in the same period.
The aftermath of the bear market caused many savvy investors to look out for the next big thing. Polygon(MATIC) seems to have fallen under their radar. It ranks among the top 15 biggest cryptos globally and has become a massive hit in India. A surge in user requests has led cryptocurrency exchanges like CoinSwitch Kuber to list the currency on their platforms.
So, what is Polygon?
Polygon (formerly known as MATIC) is an Indian blockchain scalability platform called ‘the Ethereum’s Internet of Blockchains’. It is the answer to some of the challenges faced by Ethereum today – such as heavy fees, poor user experience and low transactions per second (TPS). And it aims to create a multi-chain ecosystem of ethereum compatible blockchains.
Originally, the project began as the MATIC Network. Later it was rebranded as Polygon when its scope expanded. It aims to provide distinct blockchains that can freely exchange value and information.
Polygon is involved with some of the hottest areas in cryptocurrencies, such as DeFi (Decentralized Finance), DApp (Decentralized Application), DAO’s (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations) and NFT’s (Non-Fungible Tokens).
So, who built Polygon?
Polygon – an Indian origin network was built by four software engineers – Jaynti Kanani, Sandeep Nailwal, Anurag Arjun, and Mihailo Bjelic. The startup is based in Mumbai.
Although it has already captured a place among the top 15 cryptocurrencies, its founders have ambitious plans to make it the third-largest crypto project following Bitcoin and Ethereum.
At the time of writing, the price of this cryptocurrency is Rs 143. The coin has grown over 10,000% over the past year and over 125% in one month.
There are several reasons behind the substantial rise of Polygon (MATIC). It includes the growing hype around Polygon, Google BigQuery announcement, and Mark Cuban’s investment.
- Growing investor interest around MATIC
Polygon’s immeasurable growth is partly because of the surge in popularity of the Ethereum network and the adoption of its blockchain. Faster and cheaper transactions facilitated by Polygon’s side chain architecture generate a much-anticipated hype in price and public perception.
On Feb 9, 2021, MATIC announced its plans to rebrand itself as Polygon in an attempt to be recognized on a global scale. At that time, Polygon upgraded the system by bringing in promising metaverse projects and integrated Matic Plasma Chain. This enabled it to provide a layer one blockchain network with integrated scaling solutions for NFT, DeFi etc.
Amid increased congestion on the Ethereum Network and its rising costs, Polygon’s astonishingly low fees are gaining traction. With an increased demand for scalability networks, Polygon could onboard more projects.
The growing adoption of Polygon also seems to boost investors’ overall sentiment in the crypto market. According to LunarCrush, Polygon’s dominance on all the social media platforms has risen by 636% in the last three months. This means that the investors have been taking a more extensive interest in the currency than ever before.
ET Spotlight Special- Big collaborations
Recently, Polygon announced that it would be partnering with the consulting wing of Infosys Ltd. This collaboration is called M-Setu
. It aims to enable Infosys to provide disruptive technologies to its clients. M-Setu will act as an open-source bridge that allows enterprises to cross-operate using the ethereum blockchain.
The Trace Network is another one of Polygon’s notable collaborations. Currently, Trace is using it for NFT and DeFi with a hope to establish a go-to for retailers to bring NFT’s to the public. For instance, if a luxury brand wanted to make NFT’s on their products, the trace and polygon collaboration would provide them with liquidity aggregation, total transparency and supply chain traceability.
In addition to several other huge milestones, Polygon made a massive announcement on May 29. It stated that it had completed a project of integrating the Polygon assets into Google Cloud’s BigQuery. This integration allows the users of BigQuery to tap into Polygon, thus improving its accessibility and positioning.
Google Cloud’s BigQuery has included Polygon into its 1TB offering. This means that BigQuery users can run queries on Polygon and access various blockchain-related data sets on its network.
- Mark Cuban backs Polygon
Additionally, billionaire investor Mark Cuban threw his weight behind this Indian Blockchain company on May 25. He revealed that he has invested in Polygon and can be seen in his company’s portfolio on their website. Cuban is known for his advocacy of cryptocurrencies. Even after Elon Musk temporarily suspended accepting Bitcoin payments for Tesla, Cuban stated that the Mavericks (his basketball outfit brand) would continue to accept cryptos.
He stated that having a high Transaction Per Second (TPS) that Polygon provides is essential to lower the usage cost for users. Furthermore, Polygon already has many projects over the blockchain that adds to his reasons to invest.
Mark Cuban said, “Having more TPS and lower gas fees is not enough. There must be a current network effect and significant user growth. This is a challenge for most L1s and L2s because [with] few exceptions, marketing in the crypto universe is beyond awful. It is fast; it works well, and most importantly, their user base is growing exponentially.”
Cuban’s investment in Polygon has been a catalyst towards its impeccable growth. As a cryptocurrency backed by the billionaire investor who backed Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other big cryptos, Polygon can expect a higher adoption in future.
The Indian origin cryptocurrency – Polygon has swiftly risen in popularity. It has also partnered in multiple government-based blockchain projects for scaling COVID-19 related data. Its scaling solutions have been adopted by over 400 apps, 76 million transactions and nearly 790,000 unique users. Its token $MATIC is listed across various big crypto exchanges, including CoinSwitch Kuber.
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