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April 5, 2024 • 47 mins

Brendan Farmer, Co-Founder of Polygon, gives an overview of Polygon's Ecosystem and its adoption and benefits of the Ag Layer.


This episode is sponsored by the Stellar Community Fund

Follow the show here for more.

In this installment of "The Protocol," hosts Brad Keoun, the founding editor of The Protocol Newsletter, and tech journalists Sam Kessler and Margaux Nijkerk, dive into 

the strategy and vision behind the Ag layer, which aims to solve the problem of L2 fragmentation on Ethereum with Brendan Farmer Co-Founder of Polygon.

Polygon is focused on building a unified environment for value, liquidity, and state in the Ethereum ecosystem. The Ag layer connects different mini-ecosystems within Polygon and allows chains to plug into the liquidity and value that already exists.

Takeaways

  • Polygon's strategy is to build a unified environment for value, liquidity, and state in the Ethereum ecosystem.
  • The Ag layer connects different mini-ecosystems within Polygon and allows chains to plug into existing liquidity and value.
  • The Ag layer includes a builder marketplace where builders can simultaneously build blocks across multiple chains, providing users with a seamless experience.
  • The goal is to create a positive-sum outcome for all chains involved and avoid fragmentation in the ecosystem.


Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Guest Introduction

01:19 Polygon's Strategy and Tech Shift

06:50 Analogies for Understanding the Ag Layer

07:26 Adoption and Benefits of the Ag Layer

09:36 Overview of Polygon's Ecosystem

10:54 Polygon Today: POS Chain and ZKVM Chain

12:28 Polygon's Technological Innovations

14:35 POS Chain and the Future of Polygon

19:42 The Ag Layer as a Connector

22:02 Competition and Collaboration in the Industry

23:36 Avoiding Fragmentation and Rent-Seeking

25:23 The Challenge of Monetizing Users in Crypto

27:44 The Builder Marketplace and Block Building

28:16 MEV and the Ag Layer

32:16 Addressing Outages and Ensuring Stability

34:44 Precautions and Warnings for Users

38:27 The Eigen Layer and L2 Vision

40:17 The Den Koon Upgrade and the Blob Market

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EPISODE LINKS | 

Polygon Acquires Ethereum Scaling Startup Mir for $400M 

Polygon Plans 'AggLayer,' in Bid to Synthesize Modular, Monolithic Blockchains 

Polygon Releases 'Type 1 Prover,' Claiming Milestone Set by Ethereum's Vitalik Buterin 

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