Polygon is leading the fight for mainstream blockchain and crypto adoption. In recent times, Polygon has played a significant role in onboarding several web2 firms and non-crypto natives into the web3 space. Several industry leaders have partnered with the blockchain to build their web3 architecture, and Polygon is using this as an opportunity to bring web3 closer to home. In this article, we will look at various partnerships which Polygon has secured, but before then, what is Polygon? 

What is Polygon Blockchain?

Polygon is a layer-2 scaling solution on the Ethereum blockchain. Layer-2 blockchains take a massive load of work off the layer-1 blockchains. E.g., Ethereum, and use a different consensus mechanism to process large batch transactions. Simply put, Polygon is a sidechain (like a blockchain within the Ethereum blockchain) that helps to improve the efficiency, scalability and security of the Ethereum Blockchain since Polygon does some of the heavy lifting by ensuring that transactions are recorded correctly.

On the other hand, users who build or perform transactions on the Polygon blockchain enjoy low transaction fees and the security that the Ethereum blockchain provides. It’s like a symbiotic relationship which benefits everyone involved. Let’s look at some exciting partnerships that Polygon has recently sealed.

Reddit

Let’s begin with the rave of the moment. Reddit has, in recent times, made gigantic strides in the web3 space through the launch of its digital collectibles and NFT marketplace and can you guess who it partnered with to launch the marketplace? Of course, Polygon! With the help of Polygon, Reddit launched its NFT marketplace, which allows Redditors to buy and sell trade-in NFT avatars created by selected NFT creators. 

Draftkings Inc.

A major highlight of Polygon’s aggressive moves worldwide is how it has been able to seal partnerships that cut across several industries. It is no surprise that Polygon was able to partner with DraftKings, a leading fantasy sports company, to build a blockchain-powered NFT marketplace for the US-based fantasy sports company. Interestingly, this partnership was secured in collaboration with Tom Brady’s NFT platform Autography which is also based on the Polygon blockchain. 

Polygon’s web3 relationship with DraftKings did not stop there as In March this year, Polygon announced that DraftKings was joining the Polygon ecosystem as a validator and node operator marking the first time a major publicly-traded firm has taken an active role in blockchain governance.

Coca-Cola

In August this year, Coca-Cola sought out Polygon to launch its second NFT collection. Last year, Coca-Cola began its web3 journey when it launched its first NFT collection. However, it is safe to say that the company realized the power of Polygon’s technology, which is why it chose to release its second NFT collectibles on the Polygon network to celebrate International Friendship Day.

Starbucks

In September this year, Starbucks partnered with Polygon to provide the blockchain technology needed to implement its Starbucks Odyssey web3 experience. Through Polygon, Starbucks customers and partners could earn and purchase digital collectible stamps in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Polygon credited its network’s low fees and transaction speeds as part of why this web3 experience was seamless and feasible. 

National Football League and Liverpool

Sports is a religion with a huge following, which is why Polygon’s partnership with two of the most famous football names in the world was monumental for mainstream crypto adoption. Polygon partnered with the National Football League (NFL) and Liverpool Football Club (LFC) to create an NFT marketplace for both entities. Last year, the NFL ended up distributing NFTs to fans attending selected games on a complimentary basis. On the other hand, Liverpool also launched its LFC Heroes Club collection on Polygon sometime in March this year.

Adobe’s Behance

Adobe’s Behance is a platform that allows developers, artists, and creators to showcase their creative works to potential collaborators and the world at large. In March this year, the company partnered with Polygon to scale its NFT marketplace by adding support for NFTs minted on the Polygon blockchain, thereby allowing its users to showcase works they may have minted on the layer-2 scaling solution. The idea is to provide creators with more opportunities to showcase their works and possibly attract potential buyers on Polygon-supported NFT marketplaces like Opensea. 

Walt Disney

Polygon took crypto adoption to Disneyland when the Walt Disney Company picked it as one of six companies selected to participate in Disney’s Accelerator program this year. Disney organizes these accelerator programs to launch new technologies in augmented reality, artificial intelligence and NFT space. The news was so huge that Polygon’s native token, MATIC, pumped by almost 21% after the announcement. Interestingly, Polygon was the only blockchain-native platform that Disney chose.

Meta (Facebook)

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp, plans to launch an NFT marketplace on Instagram, allowing creators to mint and sell their NFTs on the social media application. As part of the announcement, Instagram users could also use the site to showcase their NFTs, which are minted on the Polygon blockchain. There are also rumors that Meta is working closely with Polygon to help build Instagram’s NFT marketplace as it sees the network as a viable option because of its carbon-neutral footprint, scalability and, above all, the beauty of Polygon’s ecosystem. 

Nothing 

Polygon brought something to British consumer tech start-up Nothing when they partnered to launch Nothing’s NFT loyalty program. The NFT program, built on Polygon, will grant members special perks such as discounts on merchandise, tickets to exclusive events and much more. In the future, Nothing plans to integrate web3 applications into its phone products and other devices. 

Adidas and Prada

Earlier this year, Adidas and Prada collaborated to launch an NFT collection that featured user-generated and creator-owned art in partnership with digital artist Zach Lieberman. To achieve this and reward creators for their participation, the fashion brands collaborated with Polygon Studios to build the project on the Polygon network. 

Stripe

In April this year, fintech giant Stripe announced that it was launching a program that would allow creators to send and receive payments in USDC via its payment platform, Connect. Stripe first tested the USDC payments on Twitter as creators could receive these payments via the Polygon blockchain. Stripe notably mentioned that it was partnering with the Polygon network because of its low gas fees, broad wallet compatibility and integration with Ethereum. 

Mercedes Benz

In August this year, Polygon teamed up with Daimler South East Asia, a subsidiary of Mercedes-Benz Group to launch Acentrik, a blockchain-based data sharing platform which allows users and businesses to trade data on a decentralized protocol with intermediaries. Firms that are affiliated with Mercedes Benz can also use it to exchange data among themselves in a cryptographical way.  

It is also a great time to look at some partnerships which Polygon has secured to further boost the DeFi ecosystem.

Wyre

Last year, Wyre, a fiat-to-crypto payment getaway added support for Polygon’s native token Matic. That allowed users to pay using MATIC on the decentralized applications built by the developers. 

Nubank

Recently, Polygon announced that it had entered an agreement with Nubank, a fintech bank backed by Warren Buffet and which also happens to be the largest fintech bank in Latin America. The partnership will allow Nubank to launch its chain using Polygon Supernets and further build its digital token dubbed Nucoin on the Polygon network. With this move, Polygon isn’t only taking Nubank from web2 to web3 but also bringing along more than 70 million Nubank users into the space.

Before now, web3 gaming company GameSwift had leveraged Polygon’s technology to set up its own chain. Polygon went as far as awarding the GamSwift team a financial grant as part of the partnership, making the company the first choice when it comes to the gaming segment on Polygon. 

JPMorgan

This week, JPMorgan, one of the biggest banks in the United States, executed its first DeFi trade through the Polygon Blockchain. Furthermore, this move signified what could be for Polygon going forward as other financial institutions may look to adopt Polygon as their first-choice blockchain because of its low gas fees while also enjoying the security that the Ethereum blockchain provides. 

Polygon hasn’t limited itself to only web2 partnerships as it looks to build relationships with other web3 projects and further promote interoperability among web3 networks and protocols. It is also home to some of the biggest web3 projects including OpenSea, Uniswap, Aave Protocol and Mark Cuban’s Digital art gallery Lazy.com.

Polygon has undoubtedly accomplished a lot in the space with over 37,000 decentralized applications using the network to scale their performance. Below are some of them: 

SportX

SportX is one of the most popular dApp projects built on the Polygon blockchain. It is a decentralized sports betting platform which utilizes smart contracts for its operations. Users can place bets using USDC on Polygon and winnings are paid immediately after the result. 

ZED RUN

Zed Run is a Polygon-based gaming dApp. Gamers can breed and trade NFT racehorses with the goal of using these horses to race against other competitors. Winning races increases the horses’ values and successful gamers can earn the title of “professional” breeders or even own racecourses within the gaming ecosystem. Gaming projects are pretty popular on the Polygon network including other gaming applications such as CryptowarriorZ, Battle Racers and Chainguardians. 

EasyFi

EasyFi is a decentralized lending and borrowing platform that is contributing immensely to the DeFi space by providing liquidity across various pools at low cost and fast transaction speed. Unlike most lending platforms, EasyFi provides uncollateralized and under collateralized lending to users where they do not need to have more money than they wish to borrow. 

EasyFi also offers flexible, multiple asset yield farming services and frequent airdrops to holders of its native token EZ.

QuickSwap and DfynNetwork

Polygon is an ideal platform for decentralized exchanges (DEXs) because of its low gas fees and fast transaction speed. Quickswap and DfynNetwork are two of the most popular Polygon-based DEXs based on transaction volumes. Quickswap allows users to swap their ERC-20 tokens with almost zero-fees and in record time. It distributes its native token QUICK as liquidity mining rewards to liquidity providers. Dyfn also shares a similar automated market maker design with Quickswap. The DEX has expanded to Binance Smart Chain (BSC), Avalanche, Polkadot, and Algorand. 

Polygon’s numbers are impressive. Polygon PoS has processed 1.8 billion transactions to date with over 135 million unique user addresses and $4 billion MATIC staked. Polygon continues to build as it aims to hold its position as the foremost Ethereum scaling solution and the first-choice platform for web3 developers. 

Polygon has also shown that it is capable of attracting top Venture Capitalists to its platform. In February this year, Polygon raised $450 million in its first major financing round at a market cap of about $13 billion. Sequoia Capital India led this round that included other investors like Tiger Global, SoftBank, Galaxy Digital, Alameda Research, Alexis Ohanian’s Seven Seven Six, Variant Fund and Elevation Capital.

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