The Ethereum blockchain supports a wide variety of economic activity, from NFT markets and games to the expanding DeFi ecosystem. Ethereum was designed for this function using smart contracts, which can be used to create a wide variety of applications. 

Polygon is an EVM-compatible blockchain that was created to offer users faster transactions and lower costs. It functions as a parallel blockchain that runs alongside Ethereum rapidly processing transactions. Polygon maintains its own consensus, and inherits no security from Ethereum, making it a "sidechain".

This article will explain in more detail how Polygon works, and list the top reasons developers choose Polygon for blockchain development. In doing so, it will offer guidance on how to get started developing on Polygon.

What is Polygon?

Previously known as the Matic Network, Polygon is an Ethereum sidechain that maintains its own consensus.

As opposed to other Layer 2 solutions, like zkSync and StarkNet, Polygon is developing a suite of blockchain netoworks optimized for different classes of applications. These networks include Miden, Edge, Zero, Nightfall, Avail, Hermes, and zkEVM scalability solution.

Polygon currently functions with two structurally distinct Layer 2 solutions: Polygon PoS Chain, and Plasma. While both Plasma and the Polygon PoS Chain attempt to deliver cheaper and faster transactions, they operate and are designed differently.

Polygon PoS Chain is a proof-of-stake sidechain that conducts Ethereum checkpoints to improve security. Plasma is anetwork of sidechains that process transactions off-chain. These sidechains submit periodic checkpoints to the Ethereum mainnet.

Polygon aims to help the Ethereum ecosystem increase in size, efficiency, security and usefulness. To achieve this, it encourages developers to produce appealing solutions as rapidly as possible. Polygon’s own cryptocurrency token, MATIC, is used for staking, paying fees, and performing transactions between participants who interact within the Polygon network. 

Why Do Developers Choose Polygon?

1. Speed and scale

On a single sidechain, the Polygon Network can obtain a hypothetical transaction speed of less than 2 seconds. The use of numerous sidechains helps the network handle millions of transactions per second. This mechanism enables the Polygon network to scale the number of transcations that it can process, and it does so quickly.

2. Lower Costs

As a venue for processing transactions, Polygon is often preferred over Ethereum for lower-value applications because the gas fees are lower. As a proof-of-stake sidechain, Polygon can quickly process "batches" of transactions, resulting in lower fees.

According to some cryptocurrency analysts, the Polygon Matic gas fees could return to $0.1 in the near future. This is due to Polygon's efforts to minimize gas utilization on its network, including as the implementation of Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP)-1559, which attempts to lower the volatility of gas fees.

Polygon is also working on scaling solutions such as Zk Rollups, which could increase network scalability and lower gas expenses. To calculate the average price of a single transaction, total transaction expenditure is divided by the total volume of transactions.

3. Solid Security

Although Polygon's proof-of-stake chain is not as decentralized as Ethereum, it has a solid reputation for security.

As one of the top layer-two blockchain companies, Polygon is well-funded and employs many of the most talented Web3 developers.

4. Ease of Development

A commit-chain like Polygon provides 100% EVM compatibility, which means that the same code used on Ethereum can be published on Polygon without modification. This means that all current Ethereum tooling and infrastructure is Polygon-compatible out of the box.

In contrast, the barriers to entry for a ZK-rollup developer can be much higher, because such systems often depend on frequent code changes and they lack a complete tooling infrastructure.

Polygon also providers developers with a wide range of tools. Some of the most commonly used tools include: Alchemy, OpenZepplin, Remix, Hardhat, Chainstack, Truffle, Ganache, Ether.js, and Polyscan.

These tools help developers experiment with Polygon by providing a more interactive learning experience. They also help developers write smart contracts with ease while and increasing your understanding the Polygon Ecosystem.

5. Large Ecosystem

Polygon has a large ecosystem of builders, developers and protocols, including decentralized non-custodial asset bridges, synthetic farming protocols, AMM decentralized exchanges, and open-world games.

According to DeFi Llama (a TVL aggregator for DeFi) Polygon currently ranks sixth among all blockchains for total value locked (TVL), with a TVL of over $2 billion. Although its TVL is down more than 80% on its peak of over $9 billion in July 2021, Polygon still has one of the most vibrant ecosystems of all the Ethereum Layer 2 solutions.

6. Templates 

The Polygon ecosystem’s community of builders have created amazing templates to help developers get started with new projects, including smart contract templates that can be used as building blocks for custom business logic.

For example, Directual is a low-code development platform that provides templates for Web3 marketplaces, to help developers get started with NFT development. The boilerplate code provided by Polygon Labs serves as a Web3 website template, simplifying the development process and making it possible to quickly build Polygon dApps. 

7. Education

Polygon Labs launched the beta version of Polygon University to make developer education more widely accessible. The goal is to enable any motivated learner to learn to create in Web3 and contribute to scaling Ethereum's public infrastructure. Developers can learn everything about Polygon by working through the material on the Polygon University website.

Polygon University is just the beginning of Polygon's larger plan to onboard tens of millions of developers into Web3 and equip them with the tools, mentoring, and knowledge they need to flourish.

8. Comprehensive Documentation

Polygon Wiki provides comprehensive documentation, community resources, and guides for developers interested in learning about or building on Polygon.

Polygon documentation provides resources on a range of topics including creating a scalable business logic, creating scalable applications, issuing and verifying claims, creating gaming recipes and creating a DAO. The Wiki also provides information on how to send EIP-1559 Transactions and the concept of Account Abstraction.

How Do You Start Developing on Polygon?

Using a node provider such as Alchemy makes it easy to deploy your project on Polygon testnet, the Mumbai testnet, and the Polygon Mainnet. To deploy on the Mumbai testnet you need to access the Mumbai faucet.

To get started, visit the Alchemy Polygon API Quickstart guide—it provides detailed code samples and easy to understand tutorials that will help you get going.

More resources 

• Becoming a Blockchain developer: What you need to know
• Getting started with Polygon development