Since May 2021, the Polygon (MATIC) blockchain has become one of the favorite alternatives to Ethereum (ETH) for DeFi users and other NFT collectors. Now, the solution seems to be appealing beyond the boundaries of the crypto ecosystem.
DraftKings sets sail on Polygon
DraftKings is an American sports betting company valued at over $19 billion on the NASDAQ exchange.
In August 2021, the company embarked on the crypto adventure, with the launch of an NFT platform soberly named DraftKings Marketplace. Quickly, the platform made news following the release of NFT’s Autograph’s Preseason Access collection, featuring iconic athletes, such as Jamaican sprinter, Usain Bolt, or American quarterback, Tom Brady.
In a joint announcement, DraftKings Marketplace and Polygon announced a partnership between the two entities:
“This agreement provides DraftKings Marketplace with a scalable, eco-friendly blockchain solution that enables increased throughput and expanded capabilities.”
In addition, the partnership allows DraftKings to operate a validator node on the Polygon network. As a reminder, the Polygon ecosystem is based on a proof of stake (PoS) consensus. Therefore, it is the validator nodes that are in charge of verifying and validating the transactions issued on the network.
Polygon’s decentralization called into question
The addition of new players as validators of the Polygon network is good news for decentralization. However, some decisions made unilaterally by the developers are somewhat questioning some aspects of the project’s decentralization.
Recently, the project witnessed a significant increase in the number of daily transactions, which was actually caused by arbitrage bots. In order to solve this problem, the network developers decided to increase the transaction fee from 1 to 30 gwei per gas, in order to limit the propensity for spam.
Although this decision has effectively reduced the spam phenomenon, it has not been welcomed by the whole community. Indeed, some members did not appreciate the unilateral nature of the decision. In addition, it affects the entire community to restrict the activity of a handful of users.
Faced with the rise of NFTs, not all companies have the same reaction. While some are embracing this revolution with open arms, others, such as Steam, are hunting blockchain video games.
