Polygon is a blockchain that was built as a layer 2 solution to Ethereum. Due to its lack of scalability, Ethereum is plagued with congestion, which leads to slow transaction processing and high gas fees. Polygon solves this by tackling the bulk of the transaction execution process and only submitting data from numerous transactions to the main Ethereum chain. This way, the whole collection of transactions is treated as one, and its gas fee is distributed amongst each of the individual transactions within the collection. Additionally, Polygon runs on the far more efficient proof of stake consensus mechanism, and processes up to 10,000 transactions per second, compared to Ethereum’s 15.
Top dApps on Polygon
SportX
This sports betting application aims to revolutionize the online gambling scene. For one, rather than bet against the house, users essentially bet against each other. It uses smart contracts to ensure the trustless settlement of bets. This way, nobody is required to pay initial deposits. Instead, all staked funds are kept in escrow, and on completion of the match or tournament, the winnings are released instantly to the rightful party. These smart contracts also ensure that no central authority can contest the results.
SportX has been known to host major sports tournaments such as their very own World Tour, where participants stand to win up to $50,000 in DAI. You can also place bets using USDC, a stable coin built on Polygon.
Zed Run
This is a horse racing and breeding game, where each virtual horse is tokenized as an NFT. Each horse has unique qualities, which are classified into the bloodline, genotype, and breed. There are four bloodlines namely Nakamato, Szabo, Finney, and Buterin, in descending order of rarity. Genotypes are numbered from Z1 to Z268, and the lower the Z number of your horse, the purer it is. Breeds, on the other hand, are six in total, namely: Genesis, Legendary, Exclusive, Elite, Cross, and Pacer. Again, this is in descending order of rarity. The rarer your horse is, the higher the price it can fetch on NFT marketplaces. Winnings are distributed to horse owners’ wallet addresses in WETH coins.
EasyFi
This is a lending and borrowing platform hosted on Polygon, Ethereum, and Binance blockchains. It differs from other DeFi protocols of its kind by offering undercollateralized loans. Most other platforms will demand overcollaterization, where users put up more collateral than they intend to borrow.
To achieve this, EasyFi utilizes the TrustScore system. This system uses algorithms to determine the creditworthiness of any ERC-20 address whitelisted on EasyFi. In addition to offering loans, it supports yield farming and hosts regular airdrops for holders of its native EZ coin.
Quickswap
This is a decentralized exchange operating on the automated market maker (AMM) model. It closely resembles the famous Uniswap on Ethereum. Users provide coin pairs to the liquidity pools for a chance to earn LP tokens. This enables other users to trade any ERC-20 coins with existing liquidity pools on Quickswap. This allows the platform to operate with no order book. However, there is always the risk of suffering impermanent loss once you choose to provide liquidity to this platform. It is powered by its native QUICK token, which is used to incentivize liquidity providers, as well as a governance token.
Aavegotchi
This is a blockchain game that involves digital characters called Aaavegotchis. Derived from the Finnish term for “ghost,” these avatars resemble cartoon ghosts. Each of these avatars has unique qualities and is tokenized as a tradable NFT. You would need one of these NFTs to explore the Gotchiverse, the virtual universe of the game.
The value of these characters is determined by a rarity score. This score in turn depends on the character’s traits, its wearables, its kinship score, and the aTokens staked to the character. By playing this game, you get to participate in crypto gaming, staking, and virtual land ownership.
Decentral Games
This is a casino-based play-to-earn game built on Decentraland. In it, players can play most casino card games, including poker, blackjack, slots, backgammon, and roulette. It is governed by a DAO, which makes it community-owned. Users can earn from playing games, providing liquidity, and participating in the DAO. Interestingly, to participate, you need only purchase an NFT wearable.
1inch
This decentralized exchange aggregates and compares swap rates across all major DEXs, then offer the best rates to its users. It does so by comparing the prices of coins in over 50 liquidity sources hosted on Ethereum, 20 on BSC, and 8 on Polygon. This way, it ensures its users are getting the best prices across the market. Its native token powers it by the same name. Holders of 1inch also get to vote on the protocol’s governance decisions.
Beefy.finance
This multi-chain platform enables its users to earn compound interest on their crypto assets. It aims at providing users with the highest APYs in the market by boosting their rewards from several liquidity providers and AMM-based dAPPs.
Users can stake their coins on this platform using its Vaults feature. It also has its own native token, which users can utilize to vote on governance decisions on the platform. It is backed by Trust Wallet, which is a product of Binance, the largest crypto exchange globally.
Conclusion
Polygon is a network that was built as a scaling solution to Ethereum. Its fast transaction execution and low gas fees have become a popular destination for dApp developers. Several decentralized apps are built on this network, including DeFi protocols, blockchain games, metaverse projects, and much more.
