- Sei has been at the center of the growing parallelization narrative.
- Polygon has disputed Sei’s claim of becoming the first parallelized EVM.
- Polygon claims to have been executing parallel transactions for months.
Promising to unlock a new level of scalability for EVM chains, EVM parallelization is dominating conversations in several crypto circles with Sei in focus. Developers have asserted that the blockchain will become the first parallelized EVM chain through an update slated to go live in the first half of 2024. As the hype intensifies, however, these claims have been disputed by Polygon Labs.
Polygon Beat Sei to the Punch?
In an X post on Tuesday, January 2, Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal refuted that the Polygon PoS chain was still working on parallelization. According to the Polygon Labs executive chairman, the network was already parallelized, tipping the capability as the reason the network has been able to weather transaction spikes brought on by inscriptions with no issues.
Polygon Labs Developer Relations Engineer Jarrod Watts supported Nailwal’s assertions in an X thread on Wednesday, January 3. Watts argued that contrary to Sei’s marketing, EVM parallelization has already been in production for four months on Polygon.
Like Nailwal, Watts pointed to Polygon’s handling of inscriptions, explicitly highlighting that the network has processed about 168 million inscriptions, the highest of any blockchain with no hiccups. Other EVM networks that have processed less than half of the inscription volume that Polygon has recorded experienced outages or became unusable due to high fees in times of high demand.
How Parallelization Works on Polygon
As explained by Watts, Aptos‘ Block STM engine inspired Polygon’s parallelization implementation. The engine executes multiple transactions in parallel with the assumption that no transactions depend on or conflict with each other, handling these conflicts or dependencies when they arise by revalidating affected transactions.
To bring this functionality to the EVM, Watts noted that Polygon Labs employed a “minimal metadata approach.” This approach entails attaching metadata to discovered dependent transactions after parallel execution. The metadata informs validators on how they should process these transactions.
"The participants in the network can read and react to this dependency metadata inside the block. Block builders can also optimize by taking dependencies into account, meaning they can propose blocks with fewer transactions that conflict, filling blocks for maximum efficiency," Watts noted.
EVM parallelization has been hailed for its ability to combine Solana-level speed with Ethereum‘s robust smart contract capabilities. In a December 2022 blog post, Polygon Labs’ showed that its initial testing saw the Polygon network process transactions nearly two times faster.
On the Flipside
- Several influential members of the crypto space remain in disbelief, arguing that Polygon is only trying to gain traction as the narrative takes off.
- Sei and Polygon are not the only blockchains in the EVM parallelization race. Projects like Monad are also in the running.
Why This Matters
If proven correct, claims from Polygon Labs could douse excitement around Sei while sparking renewed interest in the Polygon PoS network.
Sponsored
Read this to learn more about EVM parallelization:
What Is EVM Parallelization, and Why Is It Driving Sei Hype?
Read this for more on Polygon:
Analysts Eye Polygon (MATIC) Price Explosion Post-2023 Lag
