Introduction

Polygon, formerly known as MATIC network, is a layer-2 scaling solution built in 2019 to solve several limitations in the Ethereum blockchain, such as transaction speed, throughput, and gas fees. It was originally designed as a scaling solution, but it rapidly evolved into a multi-purpose ecosystem that’s been receiving a lot of attention. MATIC, its native token, debuted on the Binance Launchpad in 2019 amid the Initial Exchange Offerings (IEO) boom. A layer-2 solution is a blockchain that runs parallel to a Mainnet — in Polygon’s case, Ethereum — but processes transactions outside of the Mainnet, resulting in an increased throughput (transaction speed) and lower gas fees. In other words, what layer-2s do is to build a communication channel between the two blockchains and send the information package (the transaction data) from the mainnet to the parallel blockchain to execute the transaction for a fraction of its cost and at a much higher speed, without compromising the Ethereum Mainnet.

Use Cases of Polygon Network

Polygon allows us to do pretty much everything we can do on Ethereum, but without the high gas fees or the low throughput. Polygon went from being a simple scaling solution to becoming a more broad and complex ecosystem where users and developers alike have a wide set of use cases, including launching Ethereum-compatible blockchains, use Ethereum-based decentralized applications (DApps), mint non-fungible tokens (NFTs), become node validators, delegators, stake MATIC, and much more. There are numerous successful projects that work on Polygon, for example, yield generating protocols like Aave or Curve Finance, decentralized exchanges such as SushiSwap, and the most popular decentralized NFT (Non-Fungible Token) marketplace, OpenSea. You can use Polygon as the base blockchain on these protocols instead of Ethereum. For example, OpenSea allows us to choose Polygon instead of Ethereum as the main network and use it every time we trade NFTs —we just need to have a Polygon-compatible wallet like MetaMask or Coinbase Wallet and connect it to OpenSea. It’s also worth noting, though, that not all protocols that are built on Ethereum have their Polygon iterations, and to this extent, there are certain limitations.

Analysis

In this analysis, we will look into the number of daily transactions and unique addresses on Polygon, beginning July 1, 2022. Also, we will discuss whether Polygon is still growing or reaching a plateau based on the statistic we find out.

1. Count and plot the number of daily transactions and unique addresses on Polygon, beginning July 1, 2022.

Refer to below bar graph on the left, we can observe that the transaction volume is decreasing gradually over time from 1 July to 13 July from a broad perspective. However, it is spotted that there is an increment in the transaction volume from 2 July to 5 July. Afterwards, the transaction volume is going lower and lower until 10 July. And then we start to see the transaction volume spikes again on 11 July until now. Also, from below line graph on the right, the number of unique address starting from 1 July to 13 July is correlated with the transaction volume showing in the bar graph on the left.

2. In your estimation, discuss whether Polygon is still growing, has reached a plateau, etc.

In my estimation, Polygon is still growing although the volume transactions and new unique address starting from 1 July until now is facing a downtrend in Polygon Network compared to the days before July 2022 as we can spot that the price of the Polygon’s native token, Matic is still surging. Hence, it is believed that the Polygon network is still getting support from its existing users which they buy in more and more Matic token and hold them in wallets. Thus, it explains why there is an increase in the price of Matic over time starting from 1 July. Also, we can see that there is collaboration happening between Polygon Network and the popular social platform such as Reddit and Facebook. Moreover, Polygon Network also have a partnership with HTC phone on the metaverse theme. Not forgetting to mention that Woofi , a popular Dex also starts to launch on Polygon Network. Hence, based on the several major events happening on Polygon Network based on below pics, I strongly believe that Polygon Network is in midst of growing and developing their network.

Conclusion

Though Polygon Network has a decreasing transaction volume and new unique address since 1 July, but it is still growing which we can spot on the major events that are currently happening on its network and the surging price of its native token, Matic starting from 1 July until now.