Sandeep Nailwal’s Polygon takeover is his chance to ‘go all in’

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Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal is charting a caller people for the network, backing a singular enactment exemplary arsenic indispensable to its future.

In an interrogation with Cointelegraph, Nailwal said the displacement distant from board-led governance isn’t conscionable a structural alteration but a strategical effect to inefficiencies that person slowed Polygon’s momentum.

On June 11, helium announced helium would instrumentality implicit arsenic CEO of the Polygon Foundation, describing the determination arsenic indispensable to bring “clear absorption and focused execution” to the project’s adjacent chapter.

Now nether his sole leadership, the Ethereum scaling task volition sunset its zkEVM concatenation and absorption connected real-world assets (RWAs) and stablecoin payments done Polygon PoS portion utilizing its AggLayer to prosecute its imagination of gathering the net of blockchains.

Nailwal connected the “servitude mentality” driving Polygon

In January, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin stirred statement by declaring sole authority implicit decisions regarding the Ethereum Foundation’s leadership.

“It’s precisely the same, but I said that I americium the director,” Nailwal told Cointelegraph, referring to his ain role.

After Polygon’s emergence successful 2021 and 2022, the task sought to “institutionalize” by mirroring the structures of ample companies. The Polygon Foundation was overseen by a committee — a exemplary that has present been dissolved, leaving Nailwal arsenic the sole decision-maker.

“Things were decidedly taking a batch of time. Decisions that should’ve been made successful 2 weeks were sometimes taking 2 months,” helium said.

Nailwal said streamlining decision-making doesn’t mean abandoning empathy. He inactive has what helium calls a “servitude mentality,” a enactment benignant shaped by his upbringing. Both of his grandfathers were servants successful a affluent household, wherever they met and arranged the matrimony of his parents.

“I deliberation that past gave maine this ingrained inclination to support everyone happy, and I inactive consciousness that way. When someone’s happy, you get a dopamine deed — each quality does — but successful my case, it’s deeper.”

He credits this instinct with helping physique Polygon’s aboriginal community. Nailwal was 1 of the fewer founders of a top-tier protocol who personally engaged with retail users, often replying to messages connected Telegram himself. Only precocious has helium enactment up guardrails connected his idiosyncratic accounts.

“With retail, if the token’s up, they’re happy. If it’s not, they’re angry,” helium said. “It took maine 2 oregon 3 rounds of that rhythm to recognize I can’t determination each my vigor into it.”

According to Nailwal, the crypto manufacture is evolving, excessively — moving distant from valuing theoretical research, similar aboriginal zero-knowledge impervious development, and toward rewarding real-world traction and revenue.

“Everybody thought that yet volition happen, but I deliberation precocious it has started happening much than before,” helium said

Polygon’s zkEVM sunset and RWA drive

Following Nailwal’s announcement, questions person surfaced astir the wellness of zkEVM, which is acceptable to beryllium phased retired by 2026. Once known arsenic Hermez Network and acquired successful 2021 for 250 cardinal MATIC (POL) (now POL and worthy astir $250 cardinal astatine the time), zkEVM was Polygon’s bid for Ethereum equivalence.

“It launched with a batch of fanfare due to the fact that each the research; radical were like, ‘This is beautiful.’ Vitalik [Buterin] and everybody said that this is amazing,” Nailwal claimed.

“But erstwhile the end-users came to usage it, it fell abbreviated of expectations successful presumption of the experience. We did not incentivize a batch of idiosyncratic maturation successful zkEVM for the longest time,” helium added.

Assets locked connected zkEVM person dropped from implicit $35 cardinal successful July 2023 to conscionable $2.75 million. The concatenation has struggled to make fees and has reportedly operated astatine a loss, according to DefiLlama data.

With zkEVM fading, Polygon’s attraction turns to its PoS concatenation and AggLayer infrastructure. PoS inactive hosts implicit $1 cardinal successful full worth locked, ranks among the top chains for non-fungible token (NFT) transactions and is location to astir $1 cardinal each successful USDC (USDC) and Tether’s USDt (USDT).

Though the NFT marketplace has collapsed, Nailwal said meaningful NFTs volition proceed to endure. He compared speculative NFTs to memecoins, saying the “hype phase” has passed, clearing abstraction for higher-quality projects. He added that the underlying NFT exertion remains a cardinal subordinate for tokenizing assets, which tin either beryllium fungible oregon non-fungible.

“NFT exertion volition perfectly beryllium utilized successful tokenization and successful broader RWA applications,” helium said.

“Our absorption connected existent NFTs — not the speculative, fake ones — has paid off. It’s present precise wide that stablecoin payments and tokenization are going to beryllium the 2 large usage cases.”

Polygon’s stake connected these 2 blockchain usage cases aligns with planetary trends. The US Senate passed the GENIUS stablecoin measure connected June 17 arsenic planetary discussions connected regularisation intensify. Meanwhile, RWAs are drafting organization interest, including from BlackRock, which runs its tokenized wealth marketplace money crossed aggregate chains, including Polygon.

Polygon’s roadworthy to 100,000 TPS

Polygon tried to acceptable into the organization inclination by forming a committee aft raising $450 cardinal successful a 2022 concern round that included Sequoia Capital, SoftBank and Tiger Global.

But it is present backmost to the zero-to-one startup phase. Nailwal dismantled the committee successful pursuit of streamlined execution. But with zkEVM connected its mode retired and the industry’s attraction shifting fast, the load of impervious present rests squarely connected whether singular enactment tin present real-world results.

“We request to get backmost to existent merchandise building. Your merchandise has to beryllium good, and radical should beryllium consenting to wage for it,” Nailwal said.

For him, that besides means his improvement arsenic a person — from keeping everyone blessed to looking retired for Polygon’s champion interests.

“That volition marque immoderate people, some successful our assemblage and outside, unhappy. But we don’t person immoderate different choice,” helium added.

Nailwal and Polygon are betting it each connected its “Gigagas” roadmap, which aims to standard its web to 100,000 transactions per second. That matches modern rivals that are scaling their networks oregon launching faster blockchains.

So far, the assemblage absorption to Nailwal claiming sole enactment of Polygon has been mixed. Some praise his wartime CEO stance, portion others constituent to the costly zkEVM detour.

Still, Nailwal believes that a faster decision-making process is what the infinitesimal demands: “Life gave maine a accidental to play astatine the planetary level. I person to beryllium that 25-year-old kid again who was acceptable to spell each in.”

Whether that stake connected himself pays disconnected volition apt go wide by the extremity of the year, arsenic the web races to deed its TPS milestone and beryllium its relevance successful a maturing crypto ecosystem.

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