Every major crypto nation has its own Ethereum, it seems. China’s is NEO, while India’s is tipped to be Matic Network, a project that has emerged from nowhere to catapult into the top 100 by market cap, aided by a string of partnerships and a Binance IEO. Unlike NEO, Matic is not an aspiring Ethereum killer, it should be noted. Rather, it is a scaling solution that uses sidechains, based on a modified version of Plasma. It works with, not against, Ethereum.
Decentralized apps have a lot going for them, but running at speed on the congested Ethereum network is not one of them. The number of Ethereum scaling solutions that have been proposed to combat this problem almost rivals the number of ICOs that have launched on Ethereum. Only a handful of proposals have garnered enough acclaim and momentum to be taken seriously however: Raiden Network, Plasma, various sharding implementations – and now Matic.
From obscurity to ubiquity
In less than three months, Matic has captured the attention of the crypto community, from traders to developers, inked partnerships with the likes of Chainlink, Ankr, and Decentraland, and completed a slew of integrations including the DAI stablecoin, which is now running on the network, as well as Plasma implementations for PoS sidechains. It’s a prolific workrate for a nascent crypto network, made all the more impressive given the team’s origins. Matic boasts a wholly Indian team. While the skill set of the tech-savvy nation has never been in dispute, politics has impinged upon the industry, impacting India’s vast well of homegrown talent, and forcing some crypto projects to relocate. This hype was solidified with Coinbase’s announcement it is looking into listing Matic in the near future.