Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal is charting a brand new course for the community, backing a singular management mannequin as important to its future.
In an interview with Cointelegraph, Nailwal mentioned the shift away from board-led governance isn’t only a structural change however a strategic response to inefficiencies which have slowed Polygon’s momentum.
On June 11, he introduced he would take over as CEO of the Polygon Basis, describing the choice as essential to carry “clear course and targeted execution” to the challenge’s subsequent chapter.
Now underneath his sole management, the Ethereum scaling challenge will sundown its zkEVM chain and focus on real-world belongings (RWAs) and stablecoin funds via Polygon PoS whereas utilizing its AggLayer to pursue its dream of constructing the web of blockchains.
Nailwal on the “servitude mentality” driving Polygon
In January, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin stirred debate by declaring sole authority over selections concerning the Ethereum Basis’s management.
“It’s precisely the identical, besides I mentioned that I’m the director,” Nailwal instructed Cointelegraph, referring to his personal function.
After Polygon’s rise in 2021 and 2022, the challenge sought to “institutionalize” by mirroring the buildings of enormous corporations. The Polygon Basis was overseen by a board — a mannequin that has now been dissolved, leaving Nailwal as the only real decision-maker.
“Issues had been positively taking lots of time. Choices that ought to’ve been made in two weeks had been generally taking two months,” he mentioned.
Nailwal mentioned streamlining decision-making doesn’t imply abandoning empathy. He nonetheless has what he calls a “servitude mentality,” a management model formed by his upbringing. Each of his grandfathers had been servants in a rich family, the place they met and organized the wedding of his mother and father.
“I feel that historical past gave me this ingrained tendency to maintain everybody blissful, and I nonetheless really feel that approach. When somebody’s blissful, you get a dopamine hit — each human does — however in my case, it’s deeper.”
He credit this intuition with serving to construct Polygon’s early group. Nailwal was one of many few founders of a top-tier protocol who personally engaged with retail customers, typically replying to messages on Telegram himself. Solely lately has he put up guardrails on his private accounts.
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“With retail, if the token’s up, they’re blissful. If it’s not, they’re offended,” he mentioned. “It took me two or three rounds of that cycle to understand I can’t pour all my power into it.”
In line with Nailwal, the crypto trade is evolving, too — shifting away from valuing theoretical analysis, like early zero-knowledge proof growth, and towards rewarding real-world traction and income.
“All people thought that ultimately will occur, however I feel lately it has began taking place greater than earlier than,” he mentioned
Polygon’s zkEVM sundown and RWA drive
Following Nailwal’s announcement, questions have surfaced concerning the well being of zkEVM, which is ready to be phased out by 2026. As soon as recognized as Hermez Community and acquired in 2021 for 250 million MATIC (POL) (now POL and value about $250 million on the time), zkEVM was Polygon’s bid for Ethereum equivalence.
“It launched with lots of fanfare as a result of all of the analysis; individuals had been like, ‘That is lovely.’ Vitalik [Buterin] and all people mentioned that that is wonderful,” Nailwal claimed.
“However when the end-users got here to make use of it, it fell in need of expectations when it comes to the expertise. We didn’t incentivize lots of person development in zkEVM for the longest time,” he added.
Belongings locked on zkEVM have dropped from over $35 million in July 2023 to only $2.75 million. The chain has struggled to generate charges and has reportedly operated at a loss, in response to DefiLlama knowledge.
With zkEVM fading, Polygon’s consideration turns to its PoS chain and AggLayer infrastructure. PoS nonetheless hosts over $1 billion in complete worth locked, ranks among the many top chains for non-fungible token (NFT) transactions and is dwelling to roughly $1 billion every in USDC (USDC) and Tether’s USDt (USDT).
Although the NFT market has collapsed, Nailwal mentioned significant NFTs will proceed to endure. He in contrast speculative NFTs to memecoins, saying the “hype part” has handed, clearing house for higher-quality tasks. He added that the underlying NFT know-how stays a key participant for tokenizing belongings, which may both be fungible or non-fungible.
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“NFT know-how will completely be utilized in tokenization and in broader RWA functions,” he mentioned.
“Our focus on precise NFTs — not the speculative, faux ones — has paid off. It’s now very clear that stablecoin funds and tokenization are going to be the 2 massive use instances.”
Polygon’s guess on these two blockchain use instances aligns with international tendencies. The US Senate handed the GENIUS stablecoin invoice on June 17 as international discussions on regulation intensify. In the meantime, RWAs are drawing institutional curiosity, together with from BlackRock, which runs its tokenized money market fund across multiple chains, together with Polygon.
Polygon’s street to 100,000 TPS
Polygon tried to suit into the institutional development by forming a board after raising $450 million in a 2022 investment round that included Sequoia Capital, SoftBank and Tiger World.
However it’s now again to the zero-to-one startup part. Nailwal dismantled the board in pursuit of streamlined execution. However with zkEVM on its approach out and the trade’s consideration shifting quick, the burden of proof now rests squarely on whether or not singular management can ship real-world outcomes.
“We have to get again to precise product constructing. Your product must be good, and other people ought to be prepared to pay for it,” Nailwal mentioned.
For him, that additionally means his evolution as a frontrunner — from conserving everybody blissful to looking for Polygon’s finest pursuits.
“That can make some individuals, each in our group and outdoors, sad. However we don’t have some other alternative,” he added.
Nailwal and Polygon are betting all of it on its “Gigagas” roadmap, which goals to scale its community to 100,000 transactions per second. That matches fashionable rivals which are scaling their networks or launching sooner blockchains.
To this point, the group response to Nailwal claiming sole management of Polygon has been combined. Some reward his wartime CEO stance, whereas others level to the pricey zkEVM detour.
Nonetheless, Nailwal believes {that a} sooner decision-making course of is what the second calls for: “Life gave me an opportunity to play on the international degree. I’ve to be that 25-year-old child once more who was able to go all in.”
Whether or not that guess on himself pays off will possible turn into clear by the tip of the 12 months, as the community races to hit its TPS milestone and show its relevance in a maturing crypto ecosystem.
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