OCLUB AMA RECAP: Orbiter X Polygon (06/03/2023)
Having invited Polygon, one of the world’s largest blockchain ecosystems, we had a great time discussing about Polygon’s latest updates and roadmap with their BD manger Francis at this episode of OCLUB AMA.
Full Recording
Click to play our AMA recording on Spotify.
AMA TLDR
- The ‘WHO’ behind Polygon team. [02:17]
Francis: I started in crypto in 2017. That’s the first time I got into the space. Then during the De-Fi summer, when I was able to discover Uniswap and a lot of the other protocols, then I discovered that polygon is really working towards scaling Ethereum. It’s pretty clear to me that the number one ecosystem is going to be Ethereum. Polygon is doing the best work in scaling it and we’re very likely to be the first zk-EVM.
2. Walk through of the Four tools in identity infrastructure released by Polygon ID team. [04:13]
Francis: The Polygon ID team is using zk proof to bring identity to places which do not have access to an identity stack. We know that how digital technology can improve access to financial services in multiple countries. But not all countries have the capability to build one or two. And it’s also really important that decentralised version of an identity exists, where people have control over their own data. But at the same time, they are able to prove to applications that they are human, they’re unique. That’s the objective of Polygon ID. I believe we have launched the open source, I think many teams will be building on top of it. But I think pretty exciting updates coming on partnership for polygon ID also. And I think in the following weeks, you would be hearing more about this.
3. Updates of Polygon zk-EVM: launch date, milestones and roadmap. [06:17]
Francis: We all know that polygon started out by scaling Ethereum to what is now qualified to. But the origin goal was to scale it through Plasma. I believe everything came together by the acquisition of Polygon, Polygon Hermez and Polygon Zero. 3 billion teams who are working independently to scale EVMs. Now at the time when the acquisition was announced, I believe around one and half years ago, the general consensus among the market was that a working model of zk-EVM will be at least 4 to 5 years away. But each of those teams who are able to bring individuals in the layer2s because of which on zk-EVM launch time, launch zk-EVM was expected to be launched in one and half years. I think Polygon is really proud of that. What we see with zk-EVM is that zk-EVM offers as much security as Ethereum and under the DEFI team, I think zk-EVM should be the natural home of DEFI applications. And we want to have a situation where assets, security is paramount. And I believe in the zk-EVM.
4. In terms of the finality of Polygon zkEVM: what are the different phases along the road to the mainnet? What’s ahead? [08:50]
Francis: Currently, we are on our final testnet, teams are building on it. And Polygon zkEVM miannet Beta will be launched on March 27. When it launches to the public, any developers can build on it. So it’s open and it’s open to the public in every sense of work. The code is also public, anyone can review the code as a whole. We are trying to improve the documentation of the company. So that’s what’s happening and its working progress.
5. Polygon placed a bet on ZK technology as the long-term solution for scaling Ethereum. How far have those efforts come? Why bet big on ZK? [10:22]
Francis: I think the reason for ZK is that ZK as a technology is very superior, as compared to other ones, and it solves scaling problem. We know that the gas fees on the mainnet are very high so it’s pretty much about solving the problem of security. There is a trilemma with respect to security, transaction fees, and speed. So we believe that the reasons why we are betting big on zkEVM are that Polygon already has an existing ecosystem of gaming, NFTs, even web2 applications. We have already seen the PoS being full of activity. We see a future where zk-rollups might be the one that is taking away load from the existing chain as well. So that is why we see a future that zk-rollup can even support dApps specific applications. The zkEVM serveing as a general-purpose chain; the PoS chain, as you know, is something that will be focused on NFT and gaming. So I think it’s a bet on technology that the team has taken, and we believe we have the ecosystem to make it happen.
6. Vision of how Polygon is becoming an outstanding scaling solution. [13:04]
Francis: Polygon is going to have multiple scaling solutions. So Polygon sees itself as offering multiple scaling solutions depending on any dApps requirements. Currently, we are seeing the zkEVM on the testnet. Now all of them have improvements in terms of tech, and the dApps will be able to decide what is suitable for them, and the general underlying idea is that Ethereum is the main L1. And there is, the most active developer ecosystem is around Ethereum L1, and any dApps which is going to be in DeFi, NFT is going to be on Ethereum. Polygon will be able to provide the solution to scale. So that’s the product and the vision of this.
7. Envision on the development of Polygon’s ecosystem, what matters the most for the thriving of a Dapp or infrastructure in the ecosystem? [14:49]
Francis: The idea is that anyone who is building on Ethereum should also be on Polygon. That’s that’s how the building team works. And the way we think about that is that Dapps should concentrate on users, and Polygon is the best place where you will have the most amount of users, so if you would see Polygon is the one who has been going out and acquiring users for the ecosystem. So for example, if you see Instagram, Reddit, and Starbucks, they are all bringing new users to the ecosystem. So currently, almost all the DeFi native people, the crypto native people, they’re all on Polygon and other chains also. What we need if we were to take it to more countries is that we need to get new users through new normal use cases. And because we are keeping on expanding on the entire universe of users, we believe that Dapps will also find their unique set of users also within the Polygon ecosystem. So that is how we plan to work on that slightly. We accumulate all the users’ DApps that are able to find their core set of users here. Once a Dapp is able to find a core set of users here, the composability of the ecosystem allows more projects to come. So that is the effect we are targeting.
8. Visions on the innovation and awareness in terms of the non-custodial wallets or on-chain credits?[17:15]
Francis: On-chain credit is still evolving because I believe the last three to six months have not been really great for uncollateralized lending. But if we would see, the way in which value is created in the real world, it is through uncollateralized lending that is how we develop new projects, etc because that’s how it happens. In Polygon, we are seeing the development of new protocols and can give you some examples. And we have multiple credit rating things on Polygon. Recently, we’re partnering with big fin-techs who have the tool open. There are many projects which are going to emerging and getting projects financed through cryptos. So again, it’s an ecosystem that is developing. I think over a period of time, we will see a strong ecosystem.
About Polygon
Polygon is the most proven way to build and scale your projects on Ethereum, the world’s largest blockchain ecosystem.
About Orbiter Finance
Orbiter Finance is a decentralised cross-rollup bridge for transferring the Ethereum native assets, which is the infrastructure of Layer 2, we offer low cost and almost instant transfers.
