10 Aug 2023
Polygon Monthly Report - July 2023
Your monthly recap on everything happening in the Polygon ecosystem!
TL;DR
This summary is AI generated, want to learn more? Read here.
Introduction
The month of July was full of exciting news and growth throughout the Polygon ecosystem. The Polygon network continues to thrive, even in the bear market, and the Polygon Labs team has released many announcements on what’s to come in the future. In this month's report, we’ll discuss all of the things you may have missed and the things that are so exciting, you’ll want to hear about again. Let’s dive in!
Biggest News of the Month
The news of Polygon 2.0 certainly captured the spotlight this month as Polygon Labs announced multiple proposals including a token upgrade, new governance system, new architecture and more. Luckily for you, we put together a series of articles that go into each of these announcements in depth listed below.
The vision for Polygon 2.0 is to become The Value Layer of the Internet. Polygon 2.0 proposes revolutionary changes in the protocol architecture, tokenomics, and governance to achieve unlimited scalability, unified liquidity, and enhanced community participation.
Polygon Labs announced a proposal to upgrade the MATIC token to POL. Along with the ticker change, the upgrade introduces many significant changes. POL is aimed to be an enabler of security, infinite scalability, ecosystem support, community ownership, and a seamless user experience.
Polygon 2.0 architecture is presented as a layer cake with different protocol layers, including the Staking Layer, Interop Layer, Execution Layer, and Proving Layer. Each layer plays a crucial role in enhancing decentralization, enabling cross-chain messaging, managing transactions, and implementing a highly-performant Zero-Knowledge proving protocol.
Polygon Labs unveiled its final proposal for Polygon 2.0, marking a significant step towards decentralization and community-driven ownership. The new framework brings the decision-making process, along with ownership, directly under the community's control.
Launching on Polygon zkEVM
Clearpool is live on Polygon zkEVM!
This integration will bring Idle DAO yield tranches to the Polygon ecosystem and help boost transaction speed, increase security, and cut fees advancing accessibility in DeFi.
Timeswap is live on Polygon zkEVM
Timeswap, a lending and borrowing protocol that was originally launched on Polygon PoS is now deployed on Polygon zkEVM. Timeswap is the world's first oracleless lending/borrowing protocol, enabling lending/borrowing for any pair of ERC-20 & ERC-4626 tokens. With Timeswap, lenders earn fixed yields and borrowers get access to non-liquidatable loans while paying fixed yields.
PancakeSwap is live on Polygon zkEVM!
PancakeSwap v3 has officially launched on the Polygon zkEVM Mainnet Beta. With powerful features inherited from the latest version of PancakeSwap, this deployment brings lower trading fees, increased fee returns for liquidity providers, and improved capital efficiency, making it the industry's most efficient and user-friendly DEX.
Many popular projects are deciding to launch on Polygon zkEVM due to its full EVM opcode compatibility. This means developers and users can utilize the same code, tools and applications as on Ethereum. ZK-rollups are what many researchers in the industry describe as “The Holy Grail Of Scaling.”
More Exciting News
Polygon zkEVM Saga
The Polygon Labs team has unveiled an exciting new quest series, offering users the chance to earn NFTs and a variety of rewards by completing tasks. Spanning six weeks, this Saga aims to inspire users to explore the full potential of Polygon zkEVM.
Over the coming weeks, more challenges will be introduced from on-chain activities, surveys, quizzes and off-chain engagements. A leaderboard will track your journey, allowing you to measure your milestones and compete for exclusive NFTs. You can get involved in the Polygon zkEVM Saga here.
MATIC Staking on MetaMask Portfolio
MetaMask announced that they have enabled MATIC staking within the MetaMask Portfolio. Simply open your MetaMask wallet, click into the portfolio, choose your staking provider and the amount you want to stake, and you’ve done it.
Integrating staking directly within crypto wallets is a major user experience improvement. Whether you’re a newer user or a crypto veteran, you’ll surely enjoy the ease of staking within MetaMask Portfolio.
Analytics
Polygon Ecosystem Growth
July proved to be a robust month for the overall cryptocurrency markets, marked by notable increases in price across the board. Impressively, the Polygon ecosystem achieved remarkable growth, surging by an impressive 14% as evidenced by the Flagship Navigator Leaderboard.
Adoption of Polygon zkEVM
The month of July was also full of growth for the new Polygon zkEVM chain. Throughout the month, the Polygon zkEVM chain achieved unprecedented milestones, including an exceptional surge in daily active addresses, daily transactions, and total value locked (TVL), all of which culminated in new all-time highs.
Polygon NFT Activity
NFT activity on the Polygon PoS chain has been heating up, as Polygon has consistently held the #2 spot in daily NFT sales volume. Ethereum continues to be the king of NFTs when it comes to volume, but Polygon’s low cost fees are becoming more and more attractive to everyday users.
Reddit NFTs
Reddit NFTs (Digital collectables) have become one of the most successful mainstream projects built on Polygon. In the month of July, the total number of Reddit Avatar holders passed 15M. That means 15M+ unique wallets hold at least one Reddit NFT.
Polygon PoS Daily Active Addresses
The growth of the Polygon PoS chain has been nothing short of incredible over the last few years. In fact, Polygon PoS now consistently leads most popular layer 1s and layer 2s in daily active addresses.
Listed below are the daily addresses as of July 16th:
Polygon = 365K
Ethereum = 309K
Solana = 253K
Arbitrum = 170K
Optimism = 105K
Avalanche = 88K
Cardano = 57K
Conclusion
In conclusion, the month of July proved to be a pivotal period for the Polygon ecosystem, as it showcased relentless growth and groundbreaking developments even in the midst of a bear market. The spotlight was on Polygon 2.0 proposals, which outlined a path towards becoming "The Value Layer of the Internet." These proposals encompassed revolutionary changes in architecture, tokenomics, and governance to achieve unparalleled scalability and community participation. The integration of projects on Polygon zkEVM, such as Clearpool, Timeswap, and PancakeSwap, further solidified the platform's position as a preferred choice for developers and users due to its EVM compatibility and ZK-rollup capabilities. The introduction of the Polygon zkEVM Saga added excitement and incentives for users to explore the potential of the network, while the adoption of zkEVM saw significant milestones in daily active addresses, transactions, and total value locked. As NFT activity on Polygon gained traction, projects like Reddit NFTs demonstrated mass appeal. Moreover, the Polygon PoS chain's extraordinary growth in daily active addresses affirmed its prominence among other layer 1 and layer 2 solutions. Overall, the July report reflects the Polygon ecosystem's unwavering progress and prospects for continued success in the world of Web3.
Disclaimer: Nothing on this site should be construed as a financial investment recommendation. It’s important to understand that investing is a high-risk activity. Investments expose money to potential loss.
