Polygon To Onboard Deutsche Telekom As Validator

Polygon, a top Ethereum scaling team, announced that Deutsche Telekom, Europe’s largest telecommunications provider by revenue, will join its PoS Chain as a validator.

“The collaboration with Polygon is an important step for Deutsche Telekom MMS to fully exploit the potential of blockchain technology and enable applications suitable for mass deployment,” said Dirk Röder, the head of the telecom provider’s Blockchain Solutions Center.

The Polygon PoS network is an Ethereum sidechain designed to offer a low-cost alternative to transacting on the Ethereum mainnet. The network is secured by 100 permissioned validators.

Michael Blank, the COO at Polygon Labs, said the partnership paves the way for more businesses to embrace blockchain.

Deutsche Telekom MMS, a subsidiary providing digital services to large and medium-sized enterprises, will also provide staking and validation services for Polygon Supernets. Supernets allow enterprises and applications to launch application-specific blockchains on Layer 3 while retaining the security guarantees of Ethereum.

This is the latest partnership with a global enterprise meant to strengthen Polygon’s PoS Chain, indicating the team remains committed to maintaining the network despite recently launching a number of new Layer 2 scaling solutions.

Polgon’s MATIC token has underperformed ETH in recent weeks after outpacing it to start the year.

Layer 2 Push

Polygon launched its zkEVM network in March, deployed the mainnet beta for Nightfall (a hybrid rollup developed in partnership with Ernst & Young) last May, introduced Supernets in April 2022, and continues to develop Miden (a ZK-STARK-based L2).

But despite Polygon’s shiny new tech, the PoS Chain remains firmly entrenched as its flagship network with a total value locked of $1B and a top 5 ranking among smart contract networks, according to DeFi Llama.

Last month, Google Cloud announced a “multi-year strategic alliance” with Polygon and expanded support for its blockchain tooling and infrastructure to include Polygon’s PoS chain alongside its zkEVM and Supernets scaling solutions.

Ethereum Fees Rise Amid Memecoin Trading Frenzy

Polygon’s moves to expand its suite of scaling solutions may have come at the right time, with average transaction fees up more than double from the depths of last year’s bear market.

The increase in on-chain congestion is largely driven by a surge in memecoin trading, with the Uniswap decentralized exchange driving 27% of burned Ether over the past seven days, according to Ultra Sound Money.

Increased activity on Layer 2 also contributed to an increase in Ethereum’s on-chain activity, with Arbitrum and zkSync Era together accounting for 5% of last week’s fees.