Matic was launched on April 26, 2019. Initially, it was a Plasma bridge (from the main chain to the side chain of Ethereum, it was too slow to require a challenge period of 7 days to the withdrawal time of the main network). Later, in order to solve the problem of data availability, POS chain bridge was adopted (fast, about 5 minutes, but the security was not as good as Plasma, and there was a risk of complicity of the authenticator when the interest was high). It is also this big upgrade, matic in February 2021 brand upgrade.

Polygon Highlights

  • Two main architectures: POS verification chain (bridge, Heimdall Chain), “side chain” (block production chain, Bor chain);
  • Bor Chain: POS mechanism, responsible for the aggregate of transactions into blocks, EVM is fully compatible, 2-4 seconds a block, the swap consumption of a single transaction is <0.0004USD, a block 20 million gas limit, mainly because the block is fast, the number of transactions in a single block is limited, the transaction cost of a single coin is 5-10 times of the current HPB;
  • Heimdall Chain: Cosmos SDK was used to build POS architecture and consensus mechanism, responsible for processing the communication state changes between Bor and main chain, and verifying and protecting transactions on Bor chain. Decentralized main side chain across the chain; The Bor block producer is a subset of the validators that are periodically shuffed by the Heimdall validator;
  • The Bor chain is similar to Op rollup, but the risk is higher, which mainly comes from the consensus mechanism of Bor chain.
  • Heimdall Chain verifier needs to pledge MATIC in eth main network and forfeit if evil is done (punishment mechanism has not been used). The verifier selects the block producer on the Bor Chain and validates it (the validation cycle is approximately every 34 minutes). Even if most of the validators collude and start acting maliciously, the community can come together and redeploy contracts on Ethereum to fork;
  • Verifier: In Heimdall, at least 1Matic is pledged. Currently, about 25.8% of the circulating Matic is pledged. On average, a single verifier obtains 6800 Matic per day.
  • Checkpoints: The Heimdall layer allows bor-generated blocks to be aggregated into a single Merkle root and periodically published to the Ethereum main chain. This published state is also called a checkpoint, so the entire process is called a checkpoint. Checkpoint proposers were originally selected using Tendermint’s weighted loop algorithm.

Polygon Future goals

  • Open Heimdall one-click deployment, can select the verifier to pledge the currency;
  • “Security and Service”, modular, set different Heimdall security parameters;
  • Promote interoperability between Ethereum and other blockchains, the execution layer (like Bor), the network layer (Heimdall, responsible for collecting transactions, connecting local consensus, and interacting with other chains), the security layer (Heimdall, customizable pledge rules, but compatible, and interacting with each other through the ETH backbone), the backbone layer (Ethereum, cornerstone, All conflicts shall be subject to the main chain);
  • Fully independent side chain, capital dispersion, not ideal;
  • Layer2: Polygon plans to add Optimistic, ZK Rollups, and Validium to Layer2, which is not compatible with the current framework, but it is said that Polygon has taken on ZKsync’s team, but compatibility between different scaling schemes is very difficult. Heimdall is difficult to fit, the current progress is slow.

Polygon’s current challenges

  • Centralization problem: Currently, there are 100 verification nodes, and the smart contract multi-sign mechanism is responsible for upgrading and managing the PLEDGE of POS chain. Only 5 out of 8 private keys can be accessed, and the group of 8 people holds great power.
  • The arbitrage robot sent a lot of junk information of failed transactions. Since May, failed transactions accounted for 70% of the total Gas consumption.
  • Planning for the future is currently progressing slowly, even without a clear feasibility plan.

The advantage of the Polygon

  • The cost is extremely cheap, currently even cheaper than op, ZK;
  • 100% compatibility, unlike OP99% compatibility, or Arbitrum requires AVM conversion;
  • Ecological vitality is better than OP, large DAPP and rival Arbitrum;
  • Landing speed is the fastest, the community scale is huge, there is money;
  • Layer2 to Layer1 is much less time than OP, or even zK.

Thinking and reasoning :(asking the right question is more difficult than getting the right answer) Now is Polygon a side chain? Part 2. Now is Polygon strictly Layer2? 3. What’s the exact definition of Polygon? The Commit chain, Polygon PoS chain, provides many additional security measures based on the main ethereum chain, not just a side chain.

Author: Kris

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