About the episode
Polygon Ethereum side chain co-founder Sandeep Nailwal joins Kevin to discuss what makes Polygon so unique, the secure mobility of NFTs minted on Polygon, future fixes to bridge assets to Ethereum, the future of the MATIC token, and much more.
About our guest

Sandeep Nailwal
Sandeep Nailwal is a co-founder and the COO of Polygon. Sandeep discovered the revolutionary nature of blockchain in 2017 and set his sights on solving for scalability issues with the founding of Matic Network (now Polygon) alongside Jaynti Kanani and Anurag Arjun. His main responsibilities include spearheading branding, marketing, adoption, operations, and stakeholder partnerships in service of pushing forward the vision of Polygon.
Topics covered
EPISODE LINKS
- Ethereum’s Internet of Blockchains | Polygon (Formerly Matic Network)
- Polygon Official Community | Telegram
- Polygon (MATIC) and Why It Matters for Ethereum | Decrypt
- What is Plasma and How Will It Strengthen the Ethereum Blockchain? | Investopedia
- Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) | Ethereum
- Layer 1 vs. Layer 2: What You Need to Know About Different Blockchain Layer Solutions | Medium
- Optimistic Rollups | EthHub
- ZK-Rollups | Ethhub
- Build Crypto Apps That Scale | Solana
- Polygon PoS in Numbers | Polygon Blog
- Polygon and Hermez Merge | Hermez Blog
- EY and Polygon to Co-Develop Ethereum Scaling Solutions for Enterprises and Launch Polygon Nightfall – A Privacy-Focused Rollup | Polygon Blog
- Polygon Announces Polygon Miden – A STARK-Based, Ethereum-Compatible Rollup | Polygon | Blog
- Polygon SDK
- DeFi (Decentralized Finance) | Investopedia
- Be a DeFi Chef with Sushi | SushiSwap
- Decentralized Trading Protocol | Uniswap
- Open Source DeFi Protocol | Aave
- QuickSwap
- Buy NFTs and More on Ethereum | OpenSea
- Coinbase
- What Is the Metaverse? | The New York Times
- The First-Ever Virtual World Owned by Its Users | Decentraland
- User-Generated Crypto & Blockchain Games | The Sandbox Game
- True Ownership of in-Game Assets on Ethereum Blockchain | Somnium Space
- Cryptopolis
- Hop Exchange
- What Is Sharding? | CoinDesk
- Transatlantic Communications Cable | Wikipedia
- What Does Ethereum 2.0 Mean for Scaling Solutions Like Polygon? | Decrypt
- Understanding the Polygon Scaling Suite | DeFi Pulse
- Validity Proofs vs. Fraud Proofs | StarkWare, Medium
- Validium | Ethereum.org
- Lazy Minting | NFT School
- How Do I Purchase NFTs on Polygon? | OpenSea
- Polygon Announces Scalable Data Availability Infrastructure Avail | Cointelegraph
- Blazingly Fast, Low Cost, & Eco-Friendly | Avalanche
- Performance Matters | Fantom
- The Technical Benefits of EIP-1559 | The Coinbase Blog
- Polygon MATIC Price Chart | Coinbase
- Developer Platform + Smart Wallet | Sequence
SHOW NOTES
- How did Polygon — a protocol and framework for building and connecting Ethereum-compatible blockchain networks — come together, and what advantages does it bring to the table? [02:44]
- Where are Polygon’s active users coming from? [09:43]
- What efforts are being made to ease Polygon’s use for the average consumer? [11:52]
- Thoughts on Ethereum’s scalability once it converts to proof of stake and data sharding. [16:26]
- How does scaling work on Polygon? [20:35]
- How does Polygon decrease the likelihood of fraud? [25:00]
- How does scaling affect speed of transactions? [26:30]
- Could an NFT artist mint a piece through Polygon and later migrate it to the main Ethereum chain if they so wish? Why might they want to do such a thing? [30:05]
- Why an NFT collector might be hesitant to buy an NFT through Polygon right now. [33:43]
- What do the next six months to the next two or three years look like for Polygon? What functionality can the user come to expect? [34:38]
- Thoughts on the trend of new EVM-compatible, cloned chains launching as alternatives to their longer-lived contemporaries. [38:26]
- Why Sandeep believes Ethereum will eventually usurp Bitcoin’s cryptocurrency dominance. [44:06]
- Use cases for the MATIC token and how it secures the Polygon network. [47:40]
- How flexible is the Polygon team when it comes time to course-correct (or change course entirely) from a decision that didn’t quite pan out? [52:43]
- Parting thoughts and Sandeep’s shout-out to the Sequence wallet — “an Ethereum wallet anyone can use.” [54:04]
PEOPLE MENTIONED
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