What is Polygon?
Polygon (POL, formerly MATIC) is the ecosystem of scaling solutions built around Polygon Labs. It began in 2017 as the Matic Network, an Ethereum scaling project, and has since evolved into a broader 'value layer of the internet' encompassing the Polygon PoS chain, zkEVM rollups, a coprocessor called AggLayer, and custom chains built with Polygon's CDK.
POL is the new token standard for the ecosystem, enabling the same token to stake across many Polygon chains simultaneously. It replaced MATIC in a 1:1 migration and anchors Polygon's multi-chain security and fee model.
How does Polygon work?
Polygon PoS is a sidechain to Ethereum with a validator set that stakes POL to produce blocks and periodically checkpoints state back to Ethereum. Polygon zkEVM is a zero-knowledge rollup that posts succinct validity proofs of its execution to Ethereum, inheriting its security directly.
AggLayer is Polygon's interoperability layer that lets chains built with the Polygon CDK share liquidity and state as if they were a single system. This is how Polygon plans to scale horizontally without fragmenting users across disconnected rollups.