Scaling Ethereum with Polygon chains

Since it started as the plasma sidechain in 2017, Polygon has been taking an Ethereum-centric approach to its product strategy. Contrary to Binance and Avalanche, Polygon has never considered building its own layer 1 blockchain. Instead, it has built a wealth of L2 scaling solutions on top of Ethereum to augment Ethereum’s scalability solutions, including sidechains, ZK rollups, and optimistic rollups.

In Chapter 2, Ethereum Architecture and Ecosystem, we introduced you to the concept of modular blockchain architecture, where modern blockchain implementations are moving away from monolithic design to more modular architecture design. With modular blockchain architecture, the execution layer, consensus, and blockchain data are separated into different modules but can still integrate and work seamlessly as a whole. Any of those layers and part of those layers can be supplemented by components at L2 or other higher layers. With rollups and...