Comparing NFT Development Platforms: Polygon vs Solana

NFTs are exploding in popularity among crypto enthusiasts in early 2022.

NFTs brought a safe and acceptable solution to selling 3D models, videos, art pieces, audio scripts, and other valuable digital assets. Several NFT marketplaces provide NFT services to a variety of users. As the demand for NFT services grows, IT firms are plunging into the Ocean of Blockchain Technology to provide NFT services. Several blockchains support NFTs, the Ethereum blockchain being the first since Polygon and Solana have been gaining popularity.

The Solana Network has offered NFT minting since January 2021; there are approximately 5 million NFTs on the platform at this time. While Polygon Network only started hosting NFT minting in August of 2021, they held over $2 million in NFT sales during December, a mind-blowing return on a new project.

Overview

Polygon and Solana are both promising projects with unique value propositions; comparing them does an injustice to both. Solana’s ecosystem is much more extensive than Polygon’s, but Polygon can boast a more robust community, though token exchange value isn’t the only factor to be considered. The key to determining the success of any project is what kind of solutions the platform provides and how much they are worth to you. The goal of both platforms is to improve the scalability of the existing blockchain.

What is Polygon?

The Polygon Network launched in 2017. Polygon initially offered services to cryptocurrencies, then began acting as an NFT marketplace in 2021. The project launched as a MATIC and was promptly rebranded to Polygon, although the native token is still called MATIC.

Here is a guideline on how the Polygon ecosystem efficiently provides services to several active users.

Consensus Mechanism

The consensus mechanism in most blockchains is through Proof of Work, which can quickly slow down the transaction process requiring multiple confirmations. Proof of Work (PoW) has considerable energy demands, raising environmental concerns; it is also time-consuming. The Polygon Network is equipped with a Proof of Stake (PoS) mechanism that is decentralized and has high throughput. The limitations are frequently imposed on a public blockchain to ensure decentralization and security as the block representing a transaction must be verified by all nodes and transported over the network to acquire completion.

Polygon utilizes an efficient consensus mechanism provided by a designated set of Block Producers selected by Set of Staker for every checkpoint. After this Proof of Stake, a layer is utilized to validate a block and publish records of blocks to Ethereum mainstream that Block Producers produce. With the help of this mechanism, the commendably speedy block confirmation time (< 2 seconds) and a high level of decentralization are achieved.

Scalability (TPS)

The Transaction per second (TPS) is a concern that limits the utilization of digital assets. The TPS of the Polygon network is 65,000, which is larger than the TPS OF VISA, which sits between 4,000-10,000. The given TPS data is for a single side chain. In the future, Polygon will add more side chains horizontally, ultimately increasing the number of TPS operating on the same decentralized PoS layer. Theoretically, the Polygon Network can handle millions of transactions per second quickly and efficiently, possible with additional chains.

Multiple Micropayment Channels

The Polygon Network doesn’t need open payment channels between two parties because they utilize a state-based framework on Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). Every authentic Ethereum address is valid on the Polygon network, letting users receive cross-chain payments. The only thing required is a Matic Wallet when you utilize the payment on the main chain or the Polygon network.

Lower Transaction Fees

All blockchains have transaction fees given to validators to keep them motivated for their work. On the Ethereum network, making a “gas fee” is required, and it increases with an increase in transactions. The high gas fee is a barrier for many, limiting minor transactions.

The Polygon Network maintains a low-cost transaction by doing a number of transactions simultaneously on the Block Producer layer that ultimately ensures lower fee for transactions after this combing the Matic block proofs by utilizing the blocks’ Merkle root to highly decentralized mainstream blockchain such as Ethereum with the help of a decentralized layer of PoS Stakers.

What is Solana?

Solana’s architecture is unusual; it is an out-of-the-box project. It has evolved as a secure and decentralized blockchain in a short period. To solve the ‘Blockchain Trilemma’ of scalability, decentralization, and security, Solana is equipped with crucial innovations with the help of which it works efficiently.

Consensus Mechanism

The Solana blockchain utilizes a series of computations that allow time validation between two events. For the anticipation of output, Solana uses cryptographically secure functions. The consensus mechanism of Solana is not PoW; instead, it’s a hybrid of Proof of Stake and Proof of History.

There is a Solana cluster at the core of the framework; it is the set of validators who continuously work together to maintain the record and proceed with the transactions initiated by customers. Among all validators, their role keeps rotating because a leader is specified for this purpose. With the help of the Proof of History algorithm, the leader of the cluster timestamps and bundles all incoming transactions. On each Transaction, the state of Solana is required to be updated to make it stateless. This feature makes Solana highly scalable.

Mempool-less transaction forwarding protocol

The Solana blockchain utilizes the improved version of pBFT (Practical Byzantine fault tolerance) that is tBFT (Tower Byzantine fault tolerance). This feature improves efficiency by eliminating the requirement of real-time communication between nodes. Solana pushes transactions to the edge with GulfStream, a Mempool-less transaction forwarding protocol found within the Solana Network. Gulf Stream can process well over 50,000 transactions per second.

Solana utilizes a high-performance protocol to resolve the issue of scalability; it uses a highly efficient consensus mechanism, advanced time architecture, and fast processing of transactions that make it one of the high-speed layer-1 networks.

The Sad Solana Solstice 2021

Solana Solstice is the giant step for the Solana network. When 2021 started, the network had only 70 projects; 5,145 projects are now live. There is presently congestion related to the widespread use of the network. Various projects are in the process of waiting to be implemented, thanks to the traffic jam. The Solana network was to launch Soul Sisters NFTs and the Sol Shamans NFT project, though with Solana being down on Winter Solstice and over a week later. Several projects have been unable to launch their NFTs. The set of ‘Sol Shamans,’ a Spiritual helping DAO that gives back to needy NFT community members, has been forced to delay their launch merely related to the congestion on the network.

Travis Wright, Oz Sultan, and I had to delay the launch of our project, Sol Shamans until March 21st on the Spring Equinox; this delay has prompted the Sol Shamans community to release their NFT set through Polygon.

Is Polygon Better than Solana?

Polygon and Solana are pretty different projects but have the same goal of solving the Blockchain Trilemma, and both use different ways to solve it. Polygon network is efficient for the release of NFTs because, on this network, there is no crowding. In December 2021, it hosted a sale of 2 million NFTs, which is substantially larger than Solana, which has hosted 5 million NFTs in a year.

The Polygon network is unbeatable in transactions as it proceeds 65,000 transactions per second, much more than Solana, which supports 50,000 transactions per second. Polygon has an available token supply of (7,162,890,000) compared to Solana’s (311,207,000). While deeply observing the charts of 24h volume, Polygon dominates Solana.

Final Thoughts

The demand for NFTs is increasing, and the coming years will be the significant growth years for digital artworks, collectibles, painting, 3D images, and many more. Both blockchains provide feasible solutions and should play pivotal roles in building backbones for DeFi endeavors. Polygon and Solana strive hard to be best equipped to serve the NFT community.

NFTs are a long-term game, and who will win is hard to say, but at the moment, Polygon is best at serving NFTs in the best way. Don’t miss the chance of investing in NFTs, as they are a revolution in the digital world and will go far this year.

Author

Alyze Sam is a refreshing blockchain strategist, a novel educator, multi-award-winning author, serial co-founder, and a vehemently driven advocate. Sam wrote the first crypto dictionary and published the first books on stablecoins. Her book ‘Stablecoin Economy’ was published by Don Tapscott at The Blockchain Research Institute in January 2021. Sam’s newest book, ‘Stablecoin Evolution’ is currently the number one new release on Amazon in Computers & Technology. The Bad Crypto Podcast developed a Blockchain Hero NFT inspired by her work: Mz. Stability. After nearly losing her life a few times, Sam is a retired nurse and owns Tech & Authors with her best friends and soulmates, where they spend their days being grateful as they joyfully produce unbiased poetic technical education.

Co-Author

Fizza Saleem has been an M.Phil Scholar in digital media and content for the last three years. She has over 100,000 sapient words on numerous subjects. She is a talented social media manager and an academic researcher. Saleem enjoys her 5 beautiful siblings, novels, and films for life's simple pleasures.

You can reach out to Saleem at [email protected]