A Beginner’s Guide to Polygon

Polygon is a layer-2 protocol that runs parallel to the Ethereum blockchain, allowing for faster transactions and lower fees to address Ethereum’s scaling challenges.

In this beginner’s guide to Polygon, you will learn what Polygon is, how it works, and how to securely buy, send, receive, and send Polygon using Trust Wallet.

What Is Polygon?

Polygon was created to help fix the scalability issues faced by the Ethereum blockchain. The network does this by handling transactions on a different Ethereum-compatible blockchain.

Once the transactions have been processed on the respective blockchain, Polygon then bundles them up and returns them to the main Ethereum blockchain.

This technique helps to reduce the network load on the Ethereum blockchain, thus lowering transaction fees to less than a cent, all while speeding up transactions. This makes it easier for developers to build their decentralized applications (dApps) on the Ethereum blockchain without having to worry about scalability issues.

Simply put, Polygon improves the Ethereum ecosystem for developers and users.

Jyanati Kanani, Sandeep Nailwal, and Anurag Arjun developed the Polygon network back in 2017. At the time, it was known as the Matic Network. In 2019, Polygon raised nearly $5.6 million in ETH. This was after it sold 1.9 billion MATIC tokens over a 20-day period. In February 2021, the Matic Network rebranded to the Polygon Network.

After the rebrand, the Polygon Network went ahead to maintain the ticker MATIC for its native cryptocurrency.

What’s Polygon’s MATIC token?

Polygon’s MATIC token ranks among the top cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. The token has a limited supply of 10 billion tokens with a current total circulating supply of over 9 billion tokens.

The role of the MATIC token is to help secure the Polygon system and to enable holders to take part in governance decisions for the network. MATIC is also used to pay for transaction fees on the Polygon network.

As an ERC-20 token, MATIC is also compatible with Ethereum-based applications and can be used in the DeFi ecosystem on Ethereum, for example.

Now that you have an understanding of what Polygon is and how the MATIC token fits in, let’s take a look at how Polygon really works.

How Does Polygon Work?

The Polygon Network runs parallel to the Ethereum blockchain and helps to connect Ethereum-based applications.

As a developer using the Polygon Network, you can expand the flexibility, sovereignty, and scalability of your blockchain application while still enjoying the interoperability and structural security of the Ethereum blockchain.

However, the Ethereum blockchain can handle nearly 14 transactions per second (Polygon can process nearly 65,000 per second) with transaction fees - known as gas fees - costing several dollars per transaction, making Ethereum expensive to use when engaging with dApps, NFTs, and DeFi protocols.

Additionally, Ethereum also struggles with high network congestion which makes the blockchain relatively slow, affecting users who are interacting with smart contracts.

To help solve the issues faced by Ethereum, Polygon processes transactions on sidechains with transaction fees costing a few cents in comparison to Ethereum’s fees that, on average, cost $15 per transaction.

Polygon utilizes a modified Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism to efficiently run the platform. With the PoS method, participants on Polygon have to stake their MATIC tokens to validate transactions on the Polygon blockchain. Those who successfully verify transactions on the network earn rewards in MATIC, which can be securely stored in a crypto wallet such as Trust Wallet.

In addition, Polygon also incorporates a variety of protocols such as zero-knowledge (zk) rollups and proofs that bundle up several transactions, process them off-chain, create validity proofs for them, presenting them as one single transaction to the main chain, the Ethereum blockchain. This technique, thus, lowers the gas fees and reduces the time required to verify a block of transaction.

What Is Trust Wallet?

Trust Wallet is a decentralized, multi-chain, secure, self-custody crypto wallet that allows you to manage and store 10M+ crypto assets, including NFTs, across 70 blockchains.

As a self-custody wallet, Trust Wallet users have full control over their private keys and crypto assets.

With over 60M+ downloads, Trust Wallet aims to make Web3 accessible to all. As a Trust Wallet user, you can easily buy, receive, send, stake, store, or trade various digital currencies and tokens using the Trust Wallet mobile app or browser extension.

Users can access decentralized applications via its built-in DApp browser. And to ensure a seamless experience for users, Trust Wallet has also partnered with third-party platforms such as MoonPay, Ramp, and Simplex to allow for the seamless purchase of cryptocurrencies.

Using WalletConnect, users can also access dApps that typically don’t support natively Trust Wallet. WalletConnect is an open-source protocol for connecting dApps to mobile crypto wallets with QR code scanning or deep linking.

In addition, Trust Wallet has also just integrated zkEVM into its browser extension. zkEVM, which stands for zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine, is a virtual machine that enables users to execute smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain with zero-knowledge proofs.

Now, let’s take a look at how you can get started with Polygon using Trust Wallet.

Getting Started With Polygon in Trust Wallet

You can download the Trust Wallet app on your Android or iOS device from the Play Store or App Store respectively. Trust Wallet also has a browser extension for those who would prefer to use it on their desktops and not as an app. For purposes of this guide, we will use the Trust Wallet app on Android.

To start, go to the Play Store app on your smartphone, type ‘Trust Wallet’ on the search bar, and click on the original Trust Wallet app as shown below.

To install the app, click on ‘Install’, and once the app has been successfully downloaded to your smartphone, click ‘Open’. Then, click ‘Create a New Wallet’ to begin the process of creating your wallet on the app.

Next, proceed to accept Trust Wallet’s ‘Terms and Conditions’ and ‘Privacy Policy’ as shown below and click on ‘Continue’.

Next, you will have to create a six-digit password or passcode that will offer your wallet and crypto assets an extra layer of security. Proceed to confirm the password you’ve keyed in and follow the prompts to continue with the setup process for your wallet.

Next, Trust Wallet will request you to back up your recovery phrase also known as a secret or seed phrase.

A recovery phrase is typically made of 12 random words automatically generated to help you recover control of your wallet in the event you lose or change your device. Never share your recovery phrase with anyone as you can easily lose access to your digital assets and wallet.

Trust Wallet offers two backup options for your seed phrase. You can either choose to back up your recovery phrase manually or via Google Drive.

To back up your secret phrase via Google Drive, choose a Gmail account and give Trust Wallet access by ticking the checkboxes provided. To back up your recovery phrase manually, which is the option we opted for, tap on ‘Back up Manually’, and read through the instructions about losing your recovery phrase.

Next, check all three warning boxes provided and click on ‘Continue’. The app will display your 12-word secret phrase. Proceed to write them down in the exact order given and click on ‘Continue’. Then, confirm your see phrase by keying in all the 12 words in the exact order as displayed to you and click ‘Done’.

And that’s it! You have successfully created your Trust Wallet account.

Now that your wallet account is all set up, the next step is to enable the MATIC token in your wallet. To do this, tap on the icon on your right-hand corner, and on the search bar, type Polygon. Next, click on the slider icon to enable the MATIC token in your wallet.

Now that you have successfully added MATIC to your Trust Wallet, you can proceed to buy, send, receive, and store your Polygon tokens.

Let’s look at how you can do all these using Trust Wallet.

How to Buy Polygon Directly in Trust Wallet

You can easily buy MATIC tokens using your Trust Wallet account with just a few steps.

To start with, open your Trust Wallet, click on ‘MATIC’, and then on ‘Buy MATIC’.

Next, type in the amount of MATIC you wish to buy and click on ‘Next’. Please note that the minimum amount of Polygon that you can buy on Trust Wallet is $50.

Once you click ‘Next,’ Trust Wallet will redirect you to one of their third-party on-ramp providers with the best market rate for MATIC at the time of purchase. Ramp had the best offer at the time of writing this article.

Next, tap on ‘Proceed’ and follow the instructions given by the app. You will be required to add your personal and card bank details to complete the transaction.

Once your transaction is successful, your MATIC tokens will be deposited to your Trust Wallet account. Please note that the transaction can take anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes.

Next, let’s take a look at how you can withdraw Polygon tokens into your Trust Wallet from a crypto exchange.

How to Withdraw Polygon Into Your Trust Wallet

Withdrawing MATIC tokens from a crypto exchange into your Trust Wallet is just as easy a process as buying MATIC tokens using Trust Wallet.

We will use Binance as our crypto exchange of choice to detail the step-by-step process of how you can withdraw Polygon into your Trust Wallet from Binance.

Go to your Trust Wallet app and click on MATIC then click on ‘Receive’. Trust Wallet will redirect you to a page with a QR code. Click on the ‘Deposit from exchange by direct transfer from your account’ option.

Next, a prompt will appear where you will be required to choose which exchange you would like to withdraw Polygon from. Click on ‘Binance’.

If you already have Binance set up on your smartphone, you will automatically be redirected to the Binance app with your Trust Wallet MATIC token address auto-entered for you.

Ensure that you whitelist your MATIC wallet address. To do this, copy your MATIC wallet address and on the Binance app, go to ‘Settings’, click on ‘Crypto Withdrawal Settings’, then ‘Address Management’ and ‘Add New Address’.

Choose the Polygon token and paste the wallet address then select the wallet address origin, in this case, select Trust Wallet, label your token, enable the ‘Add to Whitelist’, and click on ‘Save’.

Next, enter the amount of MATIC tokens you wish to withdraw. Binance will show you the network fee cost and the amount of MATIC tokens you will receive in your Trust Wallet account. Click ‘Confirm’ to process the transaction.

And that’s it!

Once your transaction has been finalized, you can sit back and relax and wait for the Polygon tokens to be deposited into your Trust Wallet account.

How to Send Polygon From Trust Wallet

Sending Polygon from your Trust Wallet account to another exchange or another wallet is quite easy.

For starters, you will need to have the recipient’s wallet address. If you are sending Polygon from your Trust Wallet account to an exchange, log in to your account in that exchange and copy your Polygon wallet address. If you are sending it to a person, request their Polygon wallet address.

Once you have the wallet address, open your Trust Wallet app, search for Polygon, and click on the ‘Send’ option as shown below.

Next, paste the recipient’s wallet address and enter the amount of Polygon you want to send, then click on ‘Continue’.

Next, your screen will display all the details of your Polygon transaction. Review the transaction details and proceed to confirm the transaction. Remember, you need to have enough Polygon in your wallet to also cater for the network fee.

Once the transaction has been successful, your recipient will receive their Polygon tokens in their crypto wallet. And that’s how you can send Polygon to anyone using Trust Wallet!

Download Trust Wallet today to buy, send, receive, and use MATIC with ease.

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Note: Any cited numbers, figures, or illustrations are reported at the time of writing, and are subject to change.