The Polygon network (formerly known as Matic) has grown to become one of the major networks for Web3 development. Polygon – a so-called layer-2 Ethereum scaling solution – came into existence as a solution to Ethereum’s issues with congestion. As Ethereum gas fees skyrocketed with increased adoption, some developers turned their attention to Polygon and started creating dapps on its network instead. With increased attentiveness towards Polygon development, coders found a need for Polygon dapp APIs to make Web3 development more accessible. However, what exactly is a Polygon dapp API, and how do they work? You’ll find answers to these questions in the following sections if you read along. Plus, you’ll discover how to create Polygon dapps using Moralis’ Polygon dapp API!
To kickstart this brief guide, we’ll take a closer look at the Polygon network and what it entails. Following this, we’ll dive deeper into APIs and what they are in the context of the Polygon network. We’ll also take a closer look at how you can acquire a Polygon dapp API through Moralis. Finally, we’ll top everything off with a walkthrough of how Moralis’ Polygon dapp API works and provide a few examples of application areas. As a result of reading along, you’ll be provided with a comprehensive overview of a Polygon dapp API!
Along with providing a Polygon dapp API, Moralis also supplies powerful development tools such as Moralis Speedy Nodes, Moralis’ Price API, native support for IPFS, and more. What’s more, you can sign up with Moralis entirely for free! Also, at Moralis’ blog, you can learn more about why Web3 is important, the best languages for blockchain development, Web3 frontend development, etc. As such, if you’re looking to become a blockchain developer, you’re in the right spot.
What is the Polygon Network?
If you’d like to understand why there was a demand for the Polygon network in the first place, a good starting point is Ethereum. Ethereum is the most prominent development blockchain. However, the increased adoption has come at a cost as the network is experiencing issues with congestion. As more people utilize the network, it has driven up transaction costs to astronomical amounts, making it economically unviable to develop dapps in some instances. For this reason, the demand for a scalable solution emerged, and one of the alternatives was Polygon.
Polygon is a decentralized Ethereum scaling platform and a potential solution for the congestion issue with the Ethereum network. Polygon enables a more economically sustainable development platform, ensuring that developers can create dapps with lower gas costs while maintaining the high-level security of the Ethereum blockchain.
As Polygon is closely interrelated with Ethereum, there are many similarities between the networks, one of which is token standards. For example, Polygon implements the same token standard as Ethereum, meaning that Polygon use familiar concepts such as ERC-20 and ERC-721. In fact, the native token of Polygon – called MATIC – implements ERC-20 standards, which suggest compatibility with other cryptocurrencies based on Ethereum. Also, network users utilize MATIC to govern Polygon along with paying for the relatively low transaction costs.
One area in which Polygon significantly deviates from Ethereum is in the network’s consensus mechanism. Ethereum currently utilizes a proof-of-work (PoW) mechanism; meanwhile, Polygon applies proof-of-stake (PoS), which has proven a more scalable alternative. As such, this is one of the reasons why the Polygon network can maintain lower transaction costs.
What is a Polygon Dapp API?
The quick answer to the question above is that a Polygon dapp API is an API that enables a more seamless dapp development experience on the Polygon network. As such, a more appropriate starting point might be to delve deeper into the intricacies of APIs to fully understand what the concept means. So, what exactly is an API?
Whenever you browse the internet or interact with an application on your phone, you’re in contact with an API. As such, APIs are essential for the internet ecosystem. Furthermore, API is short for “application programming interface”, and they are responsible for facilitating the communication between two pieces of software.
Whenever you use a device, the software connects to the internet and sends data to a server or database. The receiving end needs to interpret this information, find the appropriate response, and send it back to your device. Once your device receives the response, it, in turn, needs to interpret the data and display the information to you in a readable way. An API essentially mediates this entire process.
An API basically translates a set of instructions and ensures compatible coding in a secure development environment. This is achieved through the delivery of functions reliably on query. Essentially, APIs provide a more reliable and accessible developer experience, which is exactly what a Polygon dapp API does for the Polygon network. For this reason, utilizing a Polygon dapp API in your development endeavors is highly beneficial.
What’s more, there are additional APIs for other development areas. For example, you can check out Moralis’ NFT API, which is cross-chain compatible. If NFT programming interests you, check out our guide explaining what a Polygon NFT API is!
Why Develop Polygon Dapps with Moralis? – Moralis’ Polygon Dapp API
First of all, let’s take a closer look at why you should develop Polygon dapps in the first place before we dive into Moralis. As we previously mentioned, Ethereum is experiencing issues with congestion which drives up gas prices. For this reason, it can become costly to develop Ethereum dapps and make it hard to scale your projects. However, as Polygon is a layer-2 scaling platform for Ethereum, the network can facilitate transactions at a lower cost.
Also, Polygon is an established network, and an extensive collection of developers are building Polygon-compatible dapps. This suggests that the network supports a large community of experienced developers. So, two prominent reasons you should develop Polygon dapps are the scalability opportunities and the already existing community of programmers.
Although Polygon development is quite advanced and accessible, utilizing tools and platforms that make Web3 development more seamless is still beneficial. This is where Moralis enters the picture as the premier operating system for blockchain development. In fact, with Moralis, it’s possible to cut your average development time by a whopping 87%!
The ability to save on development mainly originates from the already managed backend infrastructure Moralis provides to all users, combined with a great set of development tools, one of which is Moralis’ Web3 API. So, what exactly is Moralis’ Web3 API?
Moralis’ Web3 API Explained
No matter what type of Web3 application you’re looking to create, there are, in most instances, a set of features that they all have in common. Take the ability to authenticate users, a necessary functionality if you, for example, create an NFT marketplace, DeFi platform, or a Web3 Amazon marketplace. Authentication is only one of many prominent examples, but it illustrates that it’s unnecessary to “reinvent the wheel”.
This is where Moralis Web3 API shines as the interface provides a set of already developed and battle-tested code snippets allowing developers to implement advanced functionalities with a few lines of code. As such, instead of setting up a complex backend infrastructure to, for example, authenticate users, it’s possible to do so with Moralis with only these two lines of code:
Moralis.authenticate().then(function (user) {
console.log(user.get(''))
})
What’s more, Moralis’ Web3 API is cross-chain compatible, meaning it’s possible to utilize this tool for development processes on several networks. The API supports networks such as Ethereum, BNB Chain, and, of course, Polygon. Thus, it would be appropriate to call this tool a Polygon dapp API as it simplifies dapp development on the Polygon network.
However, if you have an interest in Web3 development on other blockchains such as Ethereum and BNB Chain, please check out our articles on what an Ethereum API and Binance dapp API are.
Nonetheless, to better understand why Moralis’ Web3 API is helpful and can facilitate a more seamless developer experience, we’ll take a closer look at some examples in which this ”Polygon dapp API” comes in handy!
Moralis Polygon Dapp API – How Does It Work?
In the following sections, we will examine what happens when you authenticate users, how to acquire user information, and how to send assets. Since we’ll use Moralis, these processes become significantly more accessible, and we only need a few simple commands.
What’s more, in the following sections, we’ll direct our attention to the Polygon network. However, as the API supports cross-chain compatibility, the functions and snippets we’re going to take a closer look at will work just as well for additional networks such as BNB Chain and Ethereum. So, even if you have ambitions to create BSC dapps or want to create an Ethereum dapp, follow along for a breakdown of Moralis’ Web3 API!
Your Moralis Database
If you sign up with Moralis, you can quickly set up your own server with a few simple clicks. Once you have a server at hand, you’ll additionally receive a database you can populate with all kinds of information. The database automatically fills with useful data whenever a user authenticates with MetaMask.
The default for the Moralis “.authenticate()” function we previously presented is MetaMask. However, you have the option to utilize other alternatives alike. For one, you can check out our guide on how to connect users with WalletConnect. WalletConnect is excellent when it comes to mobile Web3 development.
Nonetheless, once a user is authenticated through MetaMask – or any other alternative – your server’s database will autonomously populate. All information in the database is then updated in real-time, providing you access to the most relevant on-chain data. In the following screenshot, you can see what type of information Moralis users have access to:
Using the Information From the Database
Now that you have access to critical information regarding your dapp’s users, it’s essential to acquire this information in an accessible way. Further, querying information regarding users of our dapps is easy when using Moralis’ Polygon dapp API. Below, we’ll provide three short examples of code snippets to fetch token balance and transaction information:
Get Users’ Native Token Balances:
- const balance = await Moralis.Web3API.account.getNativeBalance();
Acquire Users’ Token Balances:
- const balances = await Moralis.Web3API.account.getTokenBalances();
Get Users’ Transaction Histories:
- const transaction = await Moralis.Web3API.account.getTransaction();
These are only a few examples of what’s possible with Moralis’ Polygon dapp API, and they illustrate how easy you can query this type of information. Next up, we’ll look closely at how you can send assets through the Moralis Polygon dapp API!
Sending Assets with Moralis’ Polygon Dapp API
The last example we’re going to take a closer look at is sending assets. When creating a Web3 project, it’s good to allow users or your dapp to make transactions on users’ behalf. With the Polygon dapp API, it’s super easy to send Polygon assets, and you can do so with a few lines of code. First of all, this is how you send Polygon NFTs using Moralis’ Web3 API:
// sending a token with token id = 1
const options = {
type: "erc721",
receiver: "0x..",
contractAddress: "0xc02aaa39b223fe8d0a0e5c4f27ead9083c756cc2",
tokenId: 1,
};
let transaction = await Moralis.transfer(options);
It’s further possible to transfer other tokens alike. For example, let’s take a closer look at how to send native Polygon and ERC-20 tokens:
Sending Native Tokens:
const options = {
type: "native",
amount: Moralis.Units.ETH("0.5"),
receiver: "0x..",
};
let result = await Moralis.transfer(options);
Sending BEP-20 Tokens:
// sending 0.5 tokens with 18 decimals
const options = {
type: "erc20",
amount: Moralis.Units.Token("0.5", "18"),
receiver: "0x..",
contractAddress: "0x..",
};
let result = await Moralis.transfer(options);
However, these are just some examples of how the Polygon dapp API can be helpful when developing dapps. For more information, please check out the official documentation exploring the API in further detail. We recommend looking at how to build Polygon dapps and how to create a Polygon token to get first-hand experience with this tool!
Polygon Dapp API – Summary
The congestion issues of Ethereum have left room for other more scalable solutions and networks such as Polygon. As such, it has become increasingly popular to develop Polygon dapps recently. This has increased the demand for a Polygon dapp API as it allows developers to create dapps more seamlessly. This is where Moralis enters the picture to enable a more accessible Polygon dapp development process.
With the cross-chain compatibility of Moralis’ Web3 API, it’s possible to create apps for several different networks. One of these options is the Polygon network. Moralis’ Polygon dapp API lets you authenticate users, fetch user information and send assets with a few lines of code. As such, if you’re looking to become a blockchain developer, then Moralis might be the operating system just for you!
What’s more, this is only one of many reasons to create a Moralis account. If you’d like to learn more about Moralis, feel free to browse the Moralis blog. Here you can find additional content, such as how to create Web3 Spotify and Web3 Twitter clones. If you want to create Web3 projects, sign up with Moralis and make your first dapp in only minutes!
You should also check out Moralis Academy, where you can hone your Web3 development skills. For example, enroll in the “Blockchain & Bitcoin 101” course and begin your journey towards becoming blockchain certified!
