What is Polygon? How It Works & Where to Use It

How it works

An Ethereum scaler, explained simply.

Polygon PoS keeps a shared record that a set of validators agree on, runs the same smart-contract code as Ethereum, and posts regular checkpoints back to Ethereum for added settlement assurance. Here are the four ideas that make that work.

The shared ledger

Every balance and transaction lives in one public database copied across the network's nodes. No company owns it; anyone can verify it.

EVM smart contracts

Polygon runs the same Ethereum Virtual Machine, so contracts written for Ethereum deploy unchanged. Same Solidity, lower fees.

Gas & fees

Every action costs a small fee in POL, paid to validators to process the work and stop spam. Fees are typically fractions of a cent.

Proof of Stake

Validators lock up POL to take turns producing and checking blocks. Honest work earns rewards; dishonest work risks the stake, security backed by value at risk.

How Polygon PoS secures the chain

1

Stake

Validators stake POL as a bond. That deposit is collateral, it can be partly destroyed (“slashed”) for dishonest behavior.

2

Produce & checkpoint

Blocks are produced about every two seconds. Periodically the validator set bundles them into a checkpoint and posts it to Ethereum.

3

Reward or slash

Honest validators and their delegators earn POL rewards. Attempts to cheat cost part of the stake, making attacks expensive and irrational.

The layers under the hood

Execution

The EVM

Runs the smart-contract code and updates balances. The same bytecode runs on Ethereum and every EVM chain.

Consensus

Proof of Stake validators

A staking layer of validators orders blocks and submits checkpoints to Ethereum for added settlement assurance.

Wider stack

zkEVM & the AggLayer

Polygon zkEVM uses zero-knowledge proofs, and the AggLayer connects chains to share liquidity and cross-chain messaging.

What you can build

ERC-20, fungible tokens & stablecoins
ERC-721, unique NFTs
ERC-1155, multi-token collections
Written in Solidity or Vyper

Because these standards match Ethereum, a token deployed on Polygon works in EVM wallets, exchanges and apps, including Zypto, on day one.

Adoption & usage

A high-throughput EVM network.

Live, on-chain numbers that show how much real activity Polygon settles, usage, security and reliability, not price.

View on PolygonScan

Network activity

Total transactions5.1B+All-time

Daily transactions3.2MLast 24h

Block height66,200,000~2s per block

Avg gas fee<$0.01Fractions of a cent

Daily transactions · last 12 months+4.8%

Steady demand. Low fees keep consumer apps, gaming and payments active, with daily transaction counts holding in the millions.

Daily active addresses540K

Unique addresses transacting each day, 7-day average, a proxy for real users and apps.

Security · Proof of Stake

Validators~105Active set

Total staked3.7B POL

~36% of supply

Staking yield~4%Annual · net estimate

CheckpointsEthereumPosted regularly

Reliability

Block production since the PoS mainnet launch (2020)

Polygon PoS has produced blocks across years of operation, with a distributed validator set and regular checkpoints anchored to Ethereum for added settlement assurance.

Mar 2022A short period of degraded block production from a node upgrade issue. Validators coordinated a fix, the network resumed, and no funds were affected.

Ecosystem

What people actually build on it.

Polygon hosts a broad range of EVM applications, deep stablecoin liquidity and a growing payments footprint. Here's the landscape, and where the value sits.

DefiLlama

DeFi

Lending, trading and yield, Aave, Uniswap, QuickSwap. About $1B in total value locked on Polygon PoS.

NFTs & gaming

Low fees suit high-volume mints, in-game items and consumer apps, a common home for brand and gaming projects.

Stablecoins & payments

USD-backed stablecoins circulate widely here, ~$2B on-chain, powering low-cost transfers and payments.

The Polygon stack

Beyond PoS, the network adds zkEVM and the AggLayer to connect chains and share liquidity.

Top protocols by value locked

1AAaveLending$340M

2UUniswapDEX$120M

3QQuickSwapDEX$95M

4CCompoundLending$60M

5BBalancerDEX · AMM$48M

Polygon and the EVM world

Polygon runs the same EVM as Ethereum and posts checkpoints to it, so contracts and tools carry across. Explore Ethereum, Arbitrum and Base.

Ecosystem at a glance

Total value locked$1.0BPolygon PoS

Stablecoin supply$2BOn-chain

In the Zypto App

Hold, swap and spend Polygon assets.

Polygon is fully integrated. Self-custody POL and thousands of Polygon ERC-20s, swap cross-chain with no separate bridge, and spend a subset through Zypto Pay.

Available in the Zypto App · 5,000+ ERC-20s · top holdings shown

PolygonPOL$0.50+1.2%

TetherUSDT$1.00+0.0%

USD CoinUSDC$1.00+0.0%

ChainlinkLINK$24.18+2.1%

UniswapUNI$13.07+1.4%

AaveAAVE$312.40−0.7%

Wrapped BTCWBTC$104,190+2.3%

DaiDAI$1.00+0.0%

Live prices link to full price pages. Any ERC-20 in the Zypto App is held in self-custody, your keys, your coins.

Get these in Zypto App

Be the reason Polygon ships next.

Polygon isn't in the Zypto App yet. Post the request to your followers and ask them to add their voice, we prioritize the chains with the most demand. Everything above stays fully live either way.

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Accepted as Payment

PolygonAccepted as Payment

TetherAccepted as Payment

USD CoinAccepted as Payment

ChainlinkNot yet acceptedRequest →

Pay bills, top-ups and 24,000+ products with these assets through Zypto Pay. Request any app-available asset to be added as payment.

Swap & cross-chain

CChangeNow LLetsExchange SSwapKit ZIn-app DEX

Chainlink CCIP supported Send tokens cross-chain to any CCIP network in one transaction, Polygon, Ethereum, BNB Chain, Arbitrum, Optimism, Avalanche and Base.

Zypto routes the swap path automatically across these providers and the in-app DEX, including cross-chain moves with no separate bridge.

History & FAQ

The story, plainly told.

Key milestones

2017

Matic Network founded

The project starts as Matic Network, focused on scaling Ethereum transactions with a commit-chain design.

2020

PoS mainnet launch

The Polygon PoS chain goes live, running the EVM with low fees and checkpoints to Ethereum.

2021

Rebrand to Polygon

Matic rebrands to Polygon, broadening the scope to a wider stack of scaling solutions.

2023

Polygon zkEVM

A zero-knowledge EVM rollup launches, adding proof-based scaling alongside Polygon PoS.

2024

MATIC migrates to POL

The native token transitions from MATIC to POL, the asset used for gas and staking across the network.

Key facts

Launched2020 (PoS)

ConsensusProof of Stake

TypeEVM · commit-chain

Block time~2 seconds

Native tokenPOL (was MATIC)

Token standardsERC-20 / 721 / 1155

SettlementCheckpoints to Ethereum

CCIPSupported

Smart contractsDeFiEVMScalingStaking

What is Polygon in one sentence?

Polygon is an EVM-compatible network that runs Ethereum-style smart contracts with low fees and fast blocks, and posts regular checkpoints back to Ethereum.

What happened to MATIC and POL?

MATIC was the original native token. In 2024 it began migrating to POL, which now serves as the token for gas and staking across the Polygon network. POL is the asset you hold, stake and use to pay fees today.

How is Polygon related to Ethereum?

Polygon PoS runs the same Ethereum Virtual Machine, so contracts and tools built for Ethereum work on Polygon. It produces its own blocks via Proof of Stake validators and submits checkpoints to Ethereum for added settlement assurance.

Why are Polygon fees so low?

Polygon PoS processes transactions on its own chain with about two-second blocks, so each transaction uses far less of Ethereum's base-layer capacity. Gas is paid in POL and typically costs fractions of a cent.

Is Polygon available in the Zypto App?

Yes. You can hold, swap and self-custody POL and thousands of Polygon ERC-20 tokens in the Zypto App, and spend a subset (POL, USDT, USDC) through Zypto Pay. For live prices and charts, see the POL price page.

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