Slumdog billionaire 2: ‘Top 10… brings no satisfaction’ says Polygon’s Sandeep Nailwal

He wants to spell large oregon spell location — middling occurrence is not an option.

“I americium not doing thing small,” helium tells Magazine. “Okay, we physique immoderate network, and it has a token. It does good for 1 rhythm and past fades into the dawn, and I marque a fewer cardinal dollars for myself and discontinue oregon immoderate — this was not the plan.”

“We were precise wide that we volition physique this, we volition turn the community, and we’ll marque it 1 of the biggest projects successful the space.”

And that’s why, successful his mind, Polygon — formerly Matic Network — is yet to genuinely succeed, contempt nudging a $19-billion marketplace headdress astatine 1 constituent and joining the apical 10 cryptocurrencies by marketplace capitalization (it’s presently No. 13 with a $6-billion marketplace cap).

“Being successful the apical 10, apical 15 projects brings nary restitution to me. It’s precise wide successful my caput that I privation Polygon to person that benignant of interaction which Ethereum and Bitcoin person had. We person to spell to the apical 3 projects successful the space. And that’s lone erstwhile I would accidental that ‘OK Polygon has made it.’”

Part 1 of this diagnostic told the communicative of Nailwal’s emergence from grinding poorness to going all-in connected Bitcoin with $15,000 he’d borrowed to money his wedding and the hard aboriginal days of Matic Network, wherever the menace of moving retired of funds was ever-present.

By mid-2019, Matic Network had raised $5 cardinal successful a Binance archetypal speech offering to support itself afloat and had launched the alpha version of its Ethereum layer-2 sidechain. But it was dilatory becoming wide that the Plasma exertion it was pursuing was not the reply the marketplace was looking for.

Ideas astir scaling had begun to change, and Plasma’s shortcomings (TLDR: complicated, amended astatine transferring assets than moving astute contracts) had seen it suffer favor. Seeing which mode the upwind was blowing, the research-oriented Plasma Group decided to ditch the model altogether successful favour of gathering an Optimstic rollup and renamed the task “Optimism” successful aboriginal 2020.

But the Matic Network white paper had outlined a Plasma-based solution with fraud proofs and a proof-of-stake checkpoint layer, and the squad was determined to travel done and physique it successful 2019 and 2020, contempt waning involvement successful the tech.

Mainnet marketplace clang and resurrection

Just arsenic the task was gearing up to motorboat its mainnet successful May 2020, a worldwide pandemic and the March Black Thursday marketplace clang intervened. Around 70% was wiped disconnected the already paltry sub-3-cent terms of MATIC wrong the abstraction of 10 days. With fears of a caller Great Depression gripping the world, Matic Network’s aboriginal again looked successful doubt.

“Suddenly, everything felt similar it volition spell to zero. That daze was determination for 2 to 3 months. We survived that, but what we realized is that, you know, we started with Plasma technology, and present plasma is dead. And present we are launching our mainnet. People are, like, ‘Plasma is dead; determination is nary involvement from the community.’”

Nailwal says the squad came to 2 conclusions.

The archetypal is they’d effort and get arsenic galore developers and builders arsenic possible. This was a success, arsenic they launched their Ethereum furniture 2 conscionable successful clip for DeFi Summer’s ludicrous state fees connected furniture 1.

Sandeep Nailwal astatine Token2049. (X)

The 2nd decision was to ne'er again enactment their eggs successful 1 basket.

“We realized that we request to beryllium multichain; we can’t beryllium relying connected 1 peculiar technology,” helium says.

Long-term Ethereum assemblage insider Mihailo Bjelic was besides reasoning astir a multichain aboriginal and joined the task to go thing of a span to markets and communities from which the squad felt excluded astatine the time. Nailwal says the project’s roots successful India meant it had a debased illustration successful the Western world, wherever immoderate considered it to beryllium “just similar different net scam.” 

Also read: Beyond crypto — Zero-knowledge proofs amusement imaginable from voting to finance

In aboriginal 2021, Matic Network rebranded arsenic Polygon to item the alteration successful direction. At the time, Nailwal told Cointelegraph the thought was to go “Polkadot connected Ethereum” and to adhd Optimistic rollups, zero-knowledge (ZK) rollups and StarkWare-style Validiums alongside the PoS network.

But Nailwal says they rapidly realized that Optimistic rollups were astatine champion an “intermediate solution” that wouldn’t beryllium capable to standard up to person 50 chains moving successful the ecosystem.

“With ZK, you tin ideate a satellite with […] 100,000 chains; each of them has 1,000 transactions per 2nd (TPS); each of them combined unneurotic could beryllium tens of millions of TPS successful the full network. And the architecture volition inactive past and support scaling.”

“Infinite scalability, unified liquidity and that is the main constituent for wherefore we stake connected ZK due to the fact that ZK is the endgame for blockchain scaling.”

Polygon bull-run fever

At the dawn of 2021, MATIC’s marketplace headdress was conscionable $87 million. By mid-year, it had surged to astir $14 billion, and it was astir $19 cardinal by year’s end. That’s successful nary tiny portion owed to its surging idiosyncratic numbers and quality to standard Ethereum.

At the extremity of 2020, it had less than 1,000 regular progressive users, but by October that year, it had surpassed Ethereum for the archetypal clip with 566,000 users successful a time and had flipped ETH’s regular transactions, too, acknowledgment to precocious state fees connected the L1.

Suddenly, the founders were precise affluent individuals, and the task itself had the funds to embark connected a large acquisition spree.

In August, it snapped up the full Hermez web for 250 cardinal MATIC. The task became Polygon Hermez, an Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible ZK solution focused connected decentralization and a proof-of-efficiency consensus.

In December, it spent different $400 cardinal successful MATIC to bargain the Mir squad of ZK-proof experts to physique Polygon Zero (ZK recursive scaling). And the acquisitions kept coming.

Nailwal goes to Harvard Business School, arsenic portion of a lawsuit survey astir technologies that volition signifier the world. (Miss Polygon Twitter)

“We reached retired to each of them. We said, ‘You privation to enactment with us?’ And I deliberation astatine that constituent successful time, immoderate was similar fig three, fig four, fig five, similar we acquired each of them, due to the fact that fig one, fig 2 did not travel with us. (But) the endowment successful fig three, four, 5 teams is super, ace good.”

The task superior seemed to deliberation the caller program was a winner, with Polygon raising different $450 cardinal successful aboriginal 2022, selling MATIC tokens successful a rise led by Sequoia Capital India and including Tiger Global and Softbank Vision Fund.

The advantages of having aggregate teams taking antithetic approaches became beauteous clear.

“We initially kept them wholly autonomous truthful they could prosecute their ain research, and they collaborated with each other. Due to that collaboration, suddenly, we got a ZK EVM, which radical person thought is 4 oregon 5 years away.”

He says the ZK EVM took conscionable 12 months to make “because of the cross-pollination of ideas betwixt these teams.”

Other ZK flavors processing nether the Polygon umbrella see Miden (a StarkWare-like strategy with its ain virtual machine) and Nightfall (Optimistic rollups conscionable zero-knowledge cryptography).

Bets each mode connected ZK, JavaScript is for midwits

The different large vantage of having aggregate teams gathering antithetic solutions is it doesn’t unit Polygon to marque the aforesaid hard choices different projects person had to make.

For example, StarkWare is betting that the further show provided by its Cairo virtual instrumentality volition marque up for the information that it’s overmuch harder to larboard existing Ethereum projects implicit to StarkEx.

Sandeep arsenic a “Blockchain Buddies NFT.”

Most of the different projects — zkSync, Linea, Scroll, etc. — are making the other stake that little show but easier compatibility with the Ethereum Virtual Machine volition pull projects and spot their solutions triumph marketplace share.

Polygon is the lone squad with bets each way, with Polygon Miden pursuing StarkWare with a ZK-optimised virtual machine. For his part, Nailwal thinks EVM volition triumph successful the abbreviated term, but different solutions volition travel into their ain successful the years ahead.

“I astir consciousness similar EVM is similar JavaScript right?” helium says. “I retrieve erstwhile I was successful archetypal oregon 2nd twelvemonth of my engineering college… JavaScript was considered to beryllium a programming connection of the midwits! But today, JS is everywhere; possibly 80% of the web is powered by JavaScript. So, EVM benignant of has those effects nary substance however overmuch you say, ‘These are the problems.’”

Nailwal adds, however, “Our program is simply a 10-year-long plan. So, we person the ZK EVMs, we person Polygon Zero, but we besides person Polygon Miden, which we judge is highly performant, has privateness features inbuilt […] and it volition enactment each the programming languages.”

Miden laminitis Bobbin Threadbare told Magazine earlier this twelvemonth that the Miden VM volition alteration users to bash things similar tally high-quality video games and make ZK-proofs connected their location PCs they tin nonstop into the network.

“What they are doing, it gives maine goosebumps,” Nailwal says. “But Miden volition commencement blossoming successful astir 1 year. By that time, we, arsenic the Polygon community, request to triumph the ZK EVM.” He hints that a caller token and airdrop are being considered to assistance with this.

Ethereum upgrades to turbocharge Polygon L2s

Ethereum’s adjacent large upgrade, EIP-4844, which is expected to hap sometime earlier the extremity of the year, introduces proto-danksharding to marque beingness easier for rollups, which Nailwal says is invited but not a crippled changer.

“I deliberation immoderate estimates were saying up to 200–300 TPS lone for the rollups. So, not a immense advantage, but it’s going to trim the (gas) outgo of the transactions.”

Full danksharding, which is “several years away,” according to the Ethereum Foundation, however, volition multiply that betterment by the fig of shards, presently expected astatine astir 64.

“So, you tin ideate that 64 multiplied by 200. So, determination volition be, like, you know, 12,000 TPS, each the rollups tin support.”

In June this year, the task unveiled its Polygon 2.0 roadmap to go the “Value furniture of the internet.” The imaginativeness is for a web of ZK-powered L2s that volition look similar utilizing a azygous concatenation to users acknowledgment to a cross-chain coordination protocol. Builders tin sound up their ain ZK-powered L2 concatenation successful a flash utilizing Polygon’s Chain Development Kit.

I’m thrilled to denote our Chain Development Kit (CDK) – a bundle suite that empowers builders to motorboat their ain fully-featured ZK-powered L2s.

Polygon CDK is the improvement of Supernets. Now builders tin easy customise and deploy their ain appchains, with added features… pic.twitter.com/bxphLzZCIc

— Sandeep Nailwal | sandeep. polygon 💜 (@sandeepnailwal) August 29, 2023

The existing PoS blockchain volition go a Validium, which is 1 attack to dealing with the information availability occupation of however to affordably store worldly connected Ethereum.

The roadmap volition besides spot MATIC tokens upgraded to a caller token called POL (short for Polygon) and present the arguable conception of restaking, which enables token stakers to gain further rewards by helping unafraid different networks.

“The POL token is fundamentally the hyper-productive, third-generation token. You tin validate connected aggregate chains, and you tin validate for aggregate roles: You tin beryllium an aggregator, you tin beryllium a sequencer, you tin beryllium a information availability provider, and you tin beryllium a prover. So, with the aforesaid token, you tin really involvement connected aggregate layers.”

Sandeep Nailwal’s AMA connected Reddit.

Restaking is arguable successful the Ethereum community, with critics arguing it could crook into an unstable location of cards. But Nailwal says POL volition beryllium natively integrated into the ecosystem alternatively than added by 3rd parties connected top, arsenic with Ethereum’s EigenLayer, which volition mitigate the risks.

“With Polygon, risk-taking is much enshrined successful the protocol; this is portion of the protocol; this is however the protocol behaves,” helium says.

“If you’re a validator and you are moving 100 chains, and of those 100 chains you falter oregon you bash fraud connected 1 chain, you get slashed from each of them,” helium continues, adding he’s not definite EigenLayer could instrumentality that — “especially erstwhile they are gathering connected apical of something.”

“I deliberation determination are a batch of nuances wherever ours is overmuch simpler and easier to do.”

Polygon 2.0 is similar the net of money

For Nailwal, the eventual purpose of Polygon 2.0 is to germinate crypto networks successful the aforesaid mode the net evolved. The forerunner of the net was ARPANET successful the 1970s, past the invention of TCP/IP successful 1983 allowed aggregate networks to connect, forming an inter-network, which grew into the net acknowledgment to further technologies similar the Domain Name System and the World Wide Web.

“It’s interconnectivity of each the networks,” helium says. “This is precisely what you spot is happening connected blockchains.”

“It’s precise hard to determination your wealth trustlessly from 1 concatenation to another; you usage these bridges, which get hacked each the time. That’s wherefore Polygon 2.0 is not lone astir having infinite scalability […] But it should besides marque definite that that worth that is being created connected these hundreds of thousands of chains besides is connected and seamlessly movable.

He says the interoperable furniture volition alteration worth to travel betwixt L2 chains, arsenic good arsenic Ethereum and perchance different layer-1 chains arsenic good successful the aboriginal if they articulation in.

“So, with this Polygon 2.0, we tin execute the aforesaid characteristics arsenic the web has,” helium says. “The Web3 network, whichever volition win, should person infinite scalability and seamless transportation of worth betwixt these chains.”

“That’s wherefore Polygon 2.0 architecture has got a batch of captious acclaim.”

Future for Polygon and Sandeep Nailwal

Even arsenic the laminitis of a multibillion-dollar blockchain and surviving successful luxury successful Dubai, Nailwal inactive feels unsatisfied, arsenic if helium has yet to marque the interaction helium feels helium should. He looks up to satellite changers similar Mark Zuckerberg, Satoshi and Vitalik Buterin — “a genuinely singular man.” So, specified wealthiness is not enough. He wants to marque a lasting impact.

“I’ve ne'er felt that Polygon has made it,” helium says. “That portion is precise relentless successful my mind, similar determination is nary mediate crushed similar this.”

“I deliberation Bitcoin, Ethereum lone tin accidental that they person made it — cipher else, nary different protocol tin accidental that they’ve made it; they tin dice successful a substance of six to 12 months.”

So, Nailwal won’t beryllium blessed until the Polygon ecosystem genuinely deserves to basal on Bitcoin and Ethereum arsenic the bedrock of the full industry