You understand the situation when a problem's solution is so obvious after someone makes it, but before that, everyone was just struggling? That's precisely what happened with Polygon and Ethereum.
Allow me to bring you back to the period of 2017-2018. There was a developer named Sarah who wanted to build a simple gaming application on Ethereum. Ethereum was the hype and Sarah was so excited to build her app on it, because that's the world Ethereum was promising - decentralized apps. However, reality hit her squarely in the face. Each time a move was made in her game, the transaction cost was $15-20. It wasn't even entirely about the money - sometimes transactions would take quite a while, even hours, to complete. Her game required immediate responses, yet Ethereum was only capable of around 15 transactions per second. Eventually, she had to discontinue her project as users were unable to afford to play.
Not only Sarah, thousands of developers were also in the same situation. Ethereum was becoming a victim of its own success. Because of the increased demand for the Ethereum network usage, congestion followed, fees increased and the whole process slowed down significantly. It was similar to the situation where someone has an excellent idea for a highway system, but only builds a one-lane road.
The core problem was quite clear: Ethereum's blockchain needed every transaction to be verified by numerous computers spread all over the world. While it provided security and decentralization, it was also very slow and costly. On the one hand, DeFi applications were charging users $100 for token swaps. On the other hand, NFT artists were spending more in minting fees than they were in selling their art. The idea of blockchain being easily accessible to all was slowly fading away as only wealthy users could afford to participate.
This is the point at which Polygon came into the picture, and honestly, their approach was brilliant by its simplicity. Rather than going against Ethereum or trying to persuade everyone to move to a different blockchain, they took a different approach, "how about if we keep all the security and trust of Ethereum, but perform transactions at a faster and cheaper place and then account everything back on Ethereum?".
Imagine it this way. Ethereum is like the main courthouse where all the official records are kept. It is secure, trusted by everyone, but there is only one judge and the line is extremely long. Polygon set up several smaller courthouses in different neighborhoods. Folks can do their routine business there quickly and at a low cost, and only the final, important summaries get forwarded to the main courthouse for official recording.
The formal expression for this is a "Layer 2 scaling solution," but in fact, it indicates that Polygon carries out transactions on its own network - which is capable of thousands of transactions per second - and then it intermittently sends these transactions in bulk to the main chain of Ethereum. Just like that the transaction that costs Sarah $20 on Ethereum now costs less than a cent on Polygon. Also, instead of waiting for several minutes, the transaction takes place in a matter of seconds.
The change was phenomenal. Developers, who had given up on their projects, started returning. Gaming applications were feasible again as there were no players who would be bankrupt after a hundred moves. DeFi protocols at Polygon became widely popular as it was now possible for the common people to participate. The farmer in the Philippines who wanted to engage in yield farming but couldn't afford the fees? Now he can experiment with just a few dollars.
What made Polygon especially clever was their timing and strategy. They didn't try to antagonize or fight Ethereum. Instead, they saw themselves as Ethereum's companion, the enhancer. Not only that, but they also changed their name from "Matic Network" to "Polygon" to reflect this broader vision of creating numerous scaling solutions rather than just one.
Major companies got involved. Corporations such as Starbucks, Nike, and Disney began to launch on Polygon as they were in need of a blockchain technology capable of handling millions of users without exorbitant costs. Instagram picked Polygon for their NFT integration. The moment you see big companies accepting blockchain, there is a high probability that Polygon is quietly working behind the scenes.
However, what might be the biggest effect is democratization. Prior to Polygon, blockchain was more and more turning into a playground for the rich. After Polygon, a student with $10 could learn, experiment, and build real applications. That is not just a technical accomplishment - that is opening the doors to an entire generation of developers and users who otherwise would have been priced out.
Now the network has processed billions of transactions, saved users billions of dollars in fees, and demonstrated that blockchain technology doesn't have to compromise between decentralization, security, and scalability. The latter can all be had if the architecture is cleverly thought out.
Of course, there are challengers now, and the blockchain industry is in a constant state of flux. However, at the right time Polygon solved a very critical problem. They didn't take the vision of centralized world by Ethereum and made it happen for the common people.
Sometimes, that's all it takes to change everything.
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