Polygon Monthly Rollup for Builders: August Recap

Labor Day weekend brought a chance to reflect on all the labors of love Polygon’s Developer Relations team worked on this past August. 

The team wanted to take a moment to provide a roll-up of the most important advancements and events in our continued effort to build collectively, support and expand the community in Web3, and educate developers on what’s possible in a more equitable web. 

Let’s look at the highlights.

We said goodbye to the inaugural fellows of our Polygon Fellowship

The outpouring of interest for our first official Polygon Fellowship, among the developer community in India, blew us away. Over 10,000 people registered for limited spots, with an acceptance rate of 0.7%! To put that number in context, MIT, Stanford, and Harvard have acceptance rates of 7.3%, 5.2%, and 5%, respectively. 

With partners at Devfolio, the fellowship was an immersive two months of building and iterating. Mentorship, technical how-tos, and fireside chats oriented the first class in the cutting-edge tech of Web3. Polygon DevRel gurus were on the ground to guide fellows during the waning days of an IRL hacker house, ending with a demo day that saw interest from possible investors. 

It was a joy to learn and grow with these fellows. This year, the fellowship was only available to developers in India, but we have plans to expand it to the rest of the world in the future. 

Blu3House on Polygon @ ETHMexico stole the show 

Maybe you missed it: Polygon took a huge step in supporting more women building in Web3 at our Blu3House on Polygon. The house was designed as a space for 25 women to live and work collaboratively, before and during ETHMexico, in a sun-drenched venue in Mexico City. 

Polygon’s DevRel specialists were on the ground, helping builders strategize and team up. 

And the builders took ETHMexico by storm: six Blu3House teams were winners at the hackathon. This was part of a larger ETHMexico trend that saw 58 out of 90 projects, and 8 of 12 finalists, built on Polygon. During ETHMexico, Polygon also served as the primary sponsor of the Blockchain Acceleration Foundation's (BAF) hacker house, where university students learned how to create decentralized applications (dApps) on Polygon.  

[Read more: Finding Your Crew: Community and Building in Web3]

Polygon BUIDL IT shattered previous submission records

Polygon's flagship hackathon for 2022, Polygon BUIDL IT, piqued the interest of thousands of developers across the globe. Builders tinkered, iterated, and grew tremendously in the last few months, immersing themselves in communities and forging lifelong skills that will help them build a future they want to see. 

There were 3.6 times as many submissions this year compared to last, with the highest conversion rate of registrations to projects submitted across all the hackathons organized by any Web3 company.

Submissions closed at the end of August, with $500,000 on the line in prizes. Winners will be announced soon, but suffice to say: the quality of the projects is astounding. Stay tuned for big updates next week. 

Didn’t make it to BUIDL IT? Check out these other hackathons, where Polygon is a proud sponsor: 

• LUMOS BUIDL for Web3 hackathon 
• One Two Three Web3 hackathon from Filecoin & Moralis 
• ETHGlobal's ETHOnline Hackathon 

Developer Monthly Meetup 

At the end of each month, Polygon hosts a virtual meetup with our super talented developers from around the world, to share and discuss ecosystem updates, and iron out pain points. Developers get a sneak peek into some of the best projects built on Polygon, plus the latest news on upcoming events and hackathons. 

You can check out the full event on our YouTube channel, or tune into the one from next month. A quick recap:

• The Polygon community has grown quickly this past year, thanks to dedicated Polygon Advocates and Guild Mages from over 30 countries around the world. 

• Apply here if you want to become an advocate for Polygon. 

• Check out a guild near your, or spin up your own, here. 

The Monthly Meetup spotlights up-and-coming projects that build on Polygon. The two this month: SafeZen, a decentralized insurance platform, and Polyfans, a Web3 version of Patreon for creators and their fans. Both projects came out to the HackFS EthGlobal Hackathon. 

Scaling Solutions Updates at Polygon 

Finally, a lot happened on the scaling solutions front in August, particularly with the launch of zero-knowledge (ZK) tech. Here's a quick run-through of the major updates that builders should know:

• Polygon zkEVM

• Polygon is gearing up for the zkEVM testnet scheduled later this year. The Polygon zkEVM will usher in a new wave of Ethereum scaling, and drive more Web3 adoption.  

• Polygon Avail 

• Polygon Avail Testnet is now live. Check out the first in a series of articles about Polygon Avail’s ability to scale. Spoiler: Polygon Avail will scale just fine 🙃.

[Read more: Data Availability is Not Data Storage]

• Polygon Bridge

• The Polygon Bridge for Gnosis Safe was launched in August. This will enable Web3 teams to enjoy Safe’s multi-sig technology without sacrificing security, cost, or convenience. Watch out for some big news from Product apps, an up-and-coming segment from Polygon. 

• Polygon Edge

• Polygon Edge, the infrastructure software that powers Supernets, was recently enhanced. Improvements and upgrades to the IBFT 2.0 consensus significantly smoothed stability and performance for users. 

• Edge-AWS Quickstart integration is another important upgrade that will allow AWS users to spin up a network with a couple of clicks. 

• Polygon ID 

• Polygon ID's team is in the process of developing SDKs, libraries, and more to create the next generation of decentralized, self-sovereign identity solutions.

If you missed anything in August, keep an eye on our blog, join our Discord, and follow us on social media to get notified of the latest updates and upcoming events.

Let's bring the world to Ethereum!

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