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Polygon, formerly known as the Matic Network, is a sidechain built to help scale the Ethereum blockchain and support infrastructure development. While Polygon largely aims to help scale the Ethereum blockchain and make it more efficient, it offers a vast array of development tools that can help increase the speed and reduce costs on blockchain networks in general by reducing the complexities associated with transactions. 

As Polygon’s name suggests, it has many sides, shapes, and use cases that are put together to offer a simple framework for anyone who wants to build a highly composable blockchain network. As a result, using the many tools offered by Polygon, developers can create blockchain networks such as Optimistic Rollups, ZK Rollups, or any other type of blockchain infrastructure.

Even after the rebranding to Polygon from Matic Network, the native token of the ecosystem, MATIC, retained its name. MATIC is used as fuel in the Polygon ecosystem and plays a key role in all the network activities such as gas fees and the governance and security of the network.

Polygon essentially is a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchain with a modular architecture, a native token (MATIC), dApps, and a set of validators in the ecosystem. The validators are key players that help in the functioning of the Polygon as a PoS blockchain, where MATIC token holders can stake MATIC to run new blockchains of transactions and add them to the network.

Moreover, Polygon has many technologies, such as Polygon Hermez in its suite of Ethereum-scaling solutions. These solutions enable the Polygon network to build a much faster and cheaper blockchain than Ethereum, but use the Ethereum network’s security.

From a purely technological perspective, the Polygon blockchain has three layers:

• Staking and Plasma smart contracts on Ethereum – Polygon controls staking functions and rewards for its PoS layer via a set of smart contracts on Ethereum. 
• Bor (Block Producer Layer) – Polygon’s block producer layer, which groups transactions into blocks. 
• Heimdall (PoS Layer) – The layer responsible for assembling the blocks produced by Bor into a Merkle tree. It updates the Merkle root in the root chain regularly.

To make Polygon’s tools available as a flexible and modular framework for developers to launch new blockchain networks, it offers a Software Development Kit (SDK). The Polygon software development kit (SDK) is at the core of the network and gives developers an easy way to build a new blockchain network. 

Polygon was originally launched as Matic Network in 2017 by Jaynti Kanani, Sandeep Nailwal, and Anurag Arjun to tackle blockchain scaling and usability issues. 

In 2017, it was launched as a testnet, which later turned to the Mainnet. The Matic Network went live in 2020 and quickly attracted attention from many applications in the world of Decentralized Finance (DeFi), including Decentraland and MakerDAO. Moreover, the Polygon team also worked closely with giants such as Binance and Coinbase, which helped them raise funds to grow the team.

The Initial Exchange Offering (IEO) of the MATIC token took place in April 2019, where the Polygon team raised $5.6 million in ETH with the sale of 1.9 billion MATIC tokens. The ICO took place over a period of 20 days.

The team later rebranded Matic Network to Polygon in February 2021, and it offered the network a significant marketing push, and many more decentralized applications showed interest in building on the network. In 2021, major DeFi applications like AAVE were introduced to Polygon, and the ecosystem has been constantly growing since.

The Polygon network uses a proof of stake consensus mechanism. It is secured by its own set of validators and delegators who stake their MATIC via the validator pools. The more MATIC staked in the network, the more secure it becomes.

The validators in the network are responsible for verifying all the transactions, publishing proof that the transactions are genuine, and then adding them to the Polygon blockchain. Validators receive a percentage of the transaction fee and MATIC tokens as rewards. To become a validator, one needs to run a full-time node and stake a large amount of MATIC. Individuals who do not hold such large quantities of MATIC tokens can participate in staking by delegating their tokens to validator pools. Such individuals are known as delegators.

Online theft and fraud are often conducted not by attacking the blockchain network but by targeting users’ online/hot wallets to expose their private keys. Such malicious actors trick users into revealing their private keys or attack their system with malware.

Hardware/cold wallets overcome this vulnerability by storing private keys in physical storage devices cut off from the web and, therefore, out of the reach of malicious actors.

Prominent cryptocurrencies like MATIC are available on many centralized exchanges and decentralized exchanges (DEXs). CEX users compromise complete ownership over their crypto assets, as they do not have access to the private keys of the wallets holding their funds. Most CEXs also require KYC information these days, which is not ideal for people seeking privacy over their online activity.

DEXs are ideal for investors who prefer privacy and ownership over their assets. However, there are still some loose ends in the security front when online wallets are used, as they may expose private keys and result in thefts and frauds. 

A Ledger hardware wallet saves your private keys offline and thus makes your crypto assets inaccessible for anyone except you in the event of a computer hack. 

Ledger Live app gives the option to manage 1800+ coins and tokens from a smartphone or desktop, making the system extremely convenient. The provision to use a PayPal account or Debit/Credit Card to purchase MATIC offered by Ledger is also extremely useful for new users. Follow the simple steps below to purchase MATIC on a Ledger wallet: 

1. Get a Ledger hardware wallet.
2. Download and install Ledger web or mobile application.
3. Connect the Ledger app with the Ledger hardware wallet.
4. Install the Polygon application from the app catalog.
5. Start buying MATIC using Ledger Live.

Users also can swap or trade MATIC on Ledger Live for other cryptocurrencies for a dynamic and diversified portfolio that maximizes returns. The hundred of swap pairs available on Ledger can be accessed as follows:

1. Get a Ledger Hardware Wallet. 
2. Download Ledger Live.
3. Install the ‘Exchange’ application on Ledger Live, along with the applications for the coins you wish to swap.
4. One must have MATIC in the linked hardware wallet to facilitate the swap. 
5. Once there are sufficient assets in the wallet, swapping is possible.