According to reports, for 2023, the layer-2 (L2) scalable network Polygon (MATIC) recorded almost the same number of new users as Ethereum (ETH).
Last year, the number of new accounts in the Polygon blockchain reached 15.24 million. Meanwhile, the Ethereum figure was 15.4 million. This is evidenced by data from the analytical platform Flipside.
Polygon or Matic was the Leader in the First Half of the Year
According to Flipside experts, new users were considered to be wallets that made at least two transactions on a specific network. Moreover, one of the transfers was supposed to take place in 2023.
In the first half of the year, Polygon was the leader in this indicator, but in the second half it was behind Ethereum.
“Polygon started 2023 with an impressive 2.8 million new users, which accounted for more than 40% of the network’s total in 2023,” the experts noted.
The third place in the number of new users was taken by the Bitcoin (BTC) network with 10.65 million accounts. Solana (SOL) and Arbitrum (ARB) also rounded out the top five.
What about other blockchains?
Collectively, the researchers registered 62 million new users across the eight networks they tracked, including Optimism (OP), Avalanche (AVAX) and Base. The peak of activity, according to Flipside, occurred in May, coinciding with the collapse of the Silicon Valley bank.
Experts say the event has undermined trust in centralized financial institutions and prompted people to look for alternative ways to store their assets. After this, the rate of new users in blockchains declined steadily. Flipside specialists also noted that after its launch in August 2023, the Base network began to actively develop. However, in recent months the number of accounts has only been decreasing.
Earlier, Polygon founder Sandeep Nailwal summed up the past year, saying that his blockchain was a loser. According to the developer, 2023 was a very painful year for the project.
About Polygon (MATIC)
The project is designed to solve the scalability problems that are currently noticeable in most Ethereum-based cryptocurrencies. Here, these problems are planned to be eliminated by using side chains. The consequence of increased scalability is a reduction in commission fees and an increase in the speed of payments.
The goal of the developers is to create an efficient decentralized network with instant secure transactions. Transactions are validated using the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) principle. Decentralized applications are gradually becoming more sophisticated, but the current blockchain economy cannot yet provide the level of scale that would meet demand. Blocks are confirmed slowly and have a limited size. All these problems need to be addressed in order to move towards mass adoption of cryptocurrencies by users.
