Just as you see a project or crypto company come to its demise, some good things are happening in the crypto space as well. For example, Polygon, quite possibly your favorite sidechain, is adding to its employee count. Polygon has been able to raise millions in funding this year and hold on to some cash to buy the dip. Let’s look closer at the many sides of Polygon and what has led them to the recent hiring frenzy.
What is Polygon?
Initially launched as the Matic Network in 2017, it changed its name to Polygon in 2021. Polygon operates as a sidechain or layer two scaling solution compatible with Ethereum. Of course, it has been made famous by the extensive use case for Ethereum. In addition, being a reliable and speedy sidechain with low fees has made Polygon stick out and become popular amongst its users.
Polygon relies on Proof of Stake or PoS for its consensus mechanism. This system already pairs well with Ethereum, even with Proof of Work, PoW. Now with ETH moving to PoS itself, things could get interesting. With the merger approaches, Polygon will become 99.1% more energy efficient, eliminating 60,000 tonnes from Polygon’s carbon footprint.
Recently Polygon’s blog stated that Starbucks has chosen to utilize Polygon for its venture into Web3. One of Polygon’s co-founders Sandeep Nailwal, said, “Polygon is a natural choice for Starbucks as both companies place tremendous importance on diversity, accessibility, and sustainability. As a leading infrastructure provider enabling people and technology to collaborate and exchange value globally and freely, Polygon provides the ideal launchpad for Starbucks’ entry into Web3.”
Attracting Top Talent
With partnerships like Starbucks starting to spring up in addition to the many solid relationships that already exist with native web3 companies, this is only the beginning for Polygon. As of late summer, Polygon has become home to 37,000 DApps. And partnerships like these seem to be sparking up big hiring frenzies. For example, just in late August, Robinhood, the widely known stock/crypto exchange, launched support for deposits and withdrawals for MATIC.
In addition, with so many talented people losing roles at once coveted crypto companies, some headhunting is being done in the space. Voyager, Coinbase, and Gemini had massive layoffs that may have added to the hiring pool. Where there are acquisitions of companies, it also goes the same for talented individuals.
Many Sided Future
As more institutional money enters crypto, we see it considering Ethereum as its next target. Bitcoin is great at what it does, but eyes are on ETH evermore ahead of the merge. With the upgrade happening, it will speed things up, though at the rate user adoption is set to happen, sidechains will still likely play a significant role. Imagine all the network activity that will go on. Building these foundations and putting things in place now during the bear market has a good chance of seeing mass utilization as adoption picks up during the bull.
Currently, Polygon is coming in at number 12 on the list for total market capitalization. With all this hiring going on in these challenging times, they could be in a much greater position as the tides turn again and things go green. If you believe that sidechains will still be necessary as layer 1’s continue to upgrade, Polygon may be worth keeping your eye on.
