Thread by @stacy_muur

L2 wars are the narrative of 2023.
ZK ↔ Optimistic rollups.
Arbitrum ↔ Optimism.
Polygon's zkEVM ↔ zkSync ↔ Scroll ↔ Starknet.

Polygon entered the L2 dominance battle with the release of its zkEVM's mainnet beta and has good chances to win the race.

Why & How? 🧵 1/16

First and foremost, @0xPolygonLabs is a well-established ecosystem.

It is the second most popular EVM blockchain and the most common L2 for Metaverse projects. Polygon is very close to Ethereum in terms of the number of active users and sometimes even outperforms it.

🧵 2/16

As of today, Polygon is the 5th largest protocol in the world, with over $1 billion in TVL and $MATIC is the 8th largest cryptocurrency with a market cap of over $10 billion.

Becoming the best blockchain scaling solution is vital to Polygon.

🧵 3/16
defillama.com/chain/Polygon

A few years ago, L2 networks lured users away from the Ethereum ecosystem due to low fees. However, in the confrontation between L2s, fees were not a decisive factor, and the focus shifted to speed, scalability and security.

So, Polygon started building their ZK Rollup.

🧵 4/16

Polygon's zkEVM got $1 billion funding. Its first public testnet was in October 2022.

Two months later, the #MATIC team released the second and final public testnet.

In March 2023, zkEVM was released on the mainnet.

🧵 5/16
polygon.technology/blog/the-polyg…

I'm not tech savvy, so I won't dive deep into the technical side of Polygon's zkEVM. But if you're a techie, I can recommend this awesome theme by @expctchaos.

https://twitter.com/expctchaos/status/1639322773872070656

🧵 6/16

The bottom line is that Polygon zkEVM basic development experience is THE SAME as building on Ethereum.

EVM equivalence allows Polygon zkEVM to seamlessly scale the entire Ethereum ecosystem, something no other ZK project can claim to do yet.

7/16

And now we have a very simple equation:

The SECOND LARGEST L2
releases the BEST-FUNDED and EVM-EQUIVALENT ZK Rollup
in the VERY MIDDLE of L2 HYPE...

... and it's the leading L2 by the number of active developers.

PS: Thanks to @tokenterminal for your awesome charts.

🧵 8/16

The release of Polygon's zkEVM Beta was beautiful. The fact that @VitalikButerin made the first transaction on the new network clearly speaks to the ambition of the Polygon team to become the Ethereum scaling leader.

🧵 9/16

https://twitter.com/sandeepnailwal/status/1640363226973065218

Now Polygon's mission is to onboard first-class cross-chain dApps AND to attract a few teams to create zkEVM-native DeFi, NFT and GameFi dApps.

If they succeed, and only start pushing zkEVM after the ecosystem is well established, user influx won't be a problem.

🧵 10/16

The fact that Polygon doesn't have a universal airdropabra spell to attract users doesn't mean they don't have tools for highly efficient marketing.

They are the best-funded L2 which has allocated $1 billion to build zkEVM, c'mon.

🧵 11/16

Now imagine that every valuable dApp transaction on the new zkEVM chain is a lottery ticket (requires some anti-bot measures ofc).

The lottery is held every week and let's say 3% of all valid tickets (transactions) receive a special NFT of the week.

🧵 12/16

Let's say the event lasts 8 weeks.

When it ends, users who have collected all 8 NFTs are eligible to receive vested $MATIC rewards, which are credited to them in proportion to their 8 weeks activity index.

🧵 13/16

Now imagine the FOMO effect of the event if users don't know the rules. Lucky NFT recipients (3% is a lot, btw) start tweeting about the weird airdrop, rumors and speculation spread, and the whole CT starts wondering what's next.

Beautiful, nah?

🧵 14/16

Thus, to become the leading Ethereum scaling solution, Polygon only needs a well-formed and diversified ecosystem and some FOMO-based incentives. They already have the rest.

So if you, as a founder, are wondering which L2 chain to build on, consider Polygon's zkEVM ;)

🧵 15/16

Does it sound like a plan, @0xPolygon team?
@jdkanani
@sandeepnailwal
@anuragarjun
@MihailoBjelic
@jkattula
@Fwiz
@khanhamzah
@0xKhan1
@bobbinth
@0xAishwary
@Crypto_Texan
@sourcex44
@amandatylerj
Preparations are always as important as the journey ;)

🧵 16/16