Polygon’s Sandeep Nailwal on how his Web 3.0 startup has become the playground for all Metaverse-building activities

With the popularity of the ‘Metaverse’ buzzword rising, ever since the recent Facebook rebrand to Meta, there has been extensive talk about the future of shared, online, 3D universes.

Many believe a 3D universe built on interoperable blockchains will allow users across the globe to meet, chat, work, and participate in games together.

At a fireside chat at YourStory’s launch of The Metaverse Summit, Sandeep Nailwal, Co-founder & Chief Operations Officer, Polygon explained how his Web 3.0 startup’s network is becoming the playground for all Metaverse-building activities and why blockchain technology can power innovation in this space.

In conversation with YourStory Founder and CEO Shradha Sharma, Sandeep said:

“There is no singular definition of the Metaverse. Some think it is a virtual world, but I believe the Metaverse is a platform enabled by users’ Ethereum addresses. A majority of Web 3.0 apps already run on Ethereum, and we are now seeing various Web 2.0 firms incorporating Ethereum-based solutions.”

In the Web 3.0 industry, interoperability between apps, between blockchains and between platforms is seen as a key factor that will determine if future iterations of the Metaverse will be an attractive destination for users.

During the fireside chat, Sandeep explained why interoperable blockchain technology is fundamental to these efforts.

He said, “Trust in institutional entities is at an all-time-low. Web 2.0 firms can be considered institutions as well. We believe everything will move to Web 3.0 worlds built on interconnected blockchains, where apps will compute transactions exactly in the way as promised. Through smart contracts, apps can commit to open-source logic and put everything on the blockchain.”

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The Polygon edge

Polygon has already emerged as the go-to protocol and framework for building and connecting Ethereum-compatible blockchain networks. 

Its growing suite of products and scaling solutions have seen widespread adoption with over 3000 applications hosted, more than 1 billion total transactions processed, over 100 million unique user addresses, and $5 billion+ in assets secured.

Despite the industry-leading traction, Sandeep said:

“We still feel we are early in terms of how the blockchain industry is evolving. A lot of it is media hype. We are not there yet. But we’ve always been clear that we’re going to focus on adoption and empowering developers to build real-world apps on Polygon.”

Sandeep noted the emergence of Traditional Finance-Decentralised Finance bridges, blockchain gaming, Decentralised Autonomous Organisations and blockchain in agriculture and public administration as some of the key areas he sees as opportunities for budding developers looking to get into Web 3.0.

He also highlighted that for innovations in these fields to gain momentum in India, there needs to be increased clarity on the country’s regulatory framework on blockchain and crypto.

“Regulatory uncertainty makes a lot of entrepreneurs nervous. In Web 3.0, you are building for the whole world from the beginning, and it is easy to take a short flight to Dubai or Singapore and build from there,” Sandeep said, adding:

“Brain drain from India is an alarming issue, especially in Web 3.0, and I urge government officials and local authorities to create a framework to not only boost innovation in India but also attract developers from outside the nation to come here and build.”

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You can also watch this particular session here.