What Is Polygon
Polygon, originally named Matic, launched its mainnet in June 2020. In early 2021, the development team decided to expand the project's scope and renamed it Polygon.
Polygon is a user-friendly platform designed for Ethereum scaling and infrastructure development. Its mission is to become the leading hub for Ethereum scaling, with a strong focus on Zero-Knowledge (ZK) technology. The platform aims to build a modular, flexible, and general-purpose scaling framework while enhancing cross-chain interoperability through its upcoming AggLayer.
Currently, the Polygon ecosystem supports multiple scaling solutions like Polygon PoS, Polygon zkEVM (a ZK-Rollup based L2), and Polygon Miden (a STARK-based ZK solution). Among these, Polygon PoS supports smart contracts and is compatible with EVM. This feature allows developers to easily and quickly deploy smart contracts and build DApps on Polygon PoS. Compared to Ethereum, Polygon PoS offers lower gas fees and faster transaction settlement.
How Does Polygon Work
The architecture of the Polygon PoS chain can be roughly divided into three layers: Ethereum, Heimdall, and Bor.
- Ethereum: The Polygon PoS chain uses a proof-of-stake mechanism to ensure asset security, and its staking contract is deployed on Ethereum. Users can become validators by staking MATIC, running a full node, generating Polygon's block, verifying consensus and receiving staking rewards.
- Heimdall: Heimdall is a consensus verification layer, which keeps Ethereum running in parallel and monitors the deployed staking contracts on Ethereum. It will submit checkpoints representing snapshots of the Bor layer state to Ethereum.
- Bor: Bor is the block production layer. The Heimdall node selects a group of Bor nodes responsible to generate blocks. Bor packages the transaction into a block and submits it to Heimdall, which generates a Merkle root and publishes it to Ethereum.
Main Features of Polygon PoS Chain
- EVM-compatible
- Low transaction fee and cost-saving
- Flexible
- High scalability
How to Use Polygon on imToken
Let's take a look at how to use Polygon with imToken. First download imToken (https://token.im) to create/import a wallet and add a Polygon account.
NOTE: Please check how to download imToken safely before downloading.
If you did not add a Polygon account when creating/importing your wallet, please navigate to "My Profile" -> "Manage wallets" -> "Add", select the “Polygon” network, and confirm. Then, return to the wallet homepage to access your newly created Polygon account. Now you can transfer/receive tokens and try out popular DApps on the Polygon network.
Learn about: How to use Polygon with imToken?
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Polygon Founder
Jaynti Kanani is the co-founder and CEO of Polygon. In 2017, he observed there is congestion of the Ethereum network caused by the CryptoKitty game, which gave birth to the development of an extensible solution.
EVM Compatible
EVM is the abbreviation of Ethereum Virtual Machine. EVM is to Ethereum like what CPU is to the computer. EVM allows code to be verified and executed on the blockchain, providing assurance that code will run the same way on every device.
EVM compatibility refers to creating an EVM code execution environment that facilitates Ethereum developers to migrate smart contracts to compatible chains without having to write smart contract code from scratch.
POL(prev.MATIC) Basic Information
Issue time: 2019.04
Consensus mechanism: PoS
Issuance/ total circulation: https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/polygon-ecosystem-token/
Price of POL
Polygon Blockchain Explorer
Polygon blockchain explorer is a website to update all node information of Polygon in real-time.
More Information
- Polygon official website: https://polygon.technology/
- White Paper: https://polygon.technology/papers/pol-whitepaper