Using Polygon to Spend in Decentraland

Decentraland is a blockchain-based metaverse that allows users to create avatars and trade assets in a decentralized server. Decentraland was originally created in 2015 by two Argentinians Ari Meilich and Esteban Ordana. I first learned about Decentraland earlier this year and have spent hours in the metaverse exploring, playing games, and meeting new people. Initially, a pixelated grid allocated pixels to users through a proof-of-work algorithm. Decentraland later evolved into a 3D world. A question that I get often has to do with transferring their native currency MANA over to the Polygon network so that they can play decentralized games within the metaverse.

Why Use Polygon?

Polygon is a layer 2 scaling solution designed to make Ethereum cheaper and faster. Imagine being in a grocery store with only one register. The line will be congested resulting in transactions being slowed down. A congested Ethereum blockchain not only costs users time, but it costs users money. This is due to the volatility of Ethereum’s gas prices. Polygon was created to help Ethereum handle all of the transactions that process from users signing smart contracts. Polygon has a native web app that allows you to transfer and store your assets.

Polygon is used by transferring over your tokens from the Ethereum network to Polygon’s using what’s called a bridge. There is a one-time gas fee for bridging assets over to Polygon, so I recommend transferring more at once to avoid fees. Ether that has been bridged to Polygon is known as wrapped ether (WETH). WETH can be used on the polygon network to swap and buy NFTs without outrageous gas fees.

How to Use Polygon?

1. Go to https://wallet.polygon.technology/ and login with your metamask wallet here you will see a dashboard. The Polygon wallet will show you all of the assets that you have on the Polygon network. The bridge is the tool that allows you to transfer assets from Ethereum to Polygon.

2. Go to Polygon Bridge and swap your Ethereum based tokens for the Polygon equivalent.

3. Once you transfer your funds to Polygon it will take around 10 minutes to be transferred successfully. You can go to your Polygon wallet to see if the funds were moved. Here is a video playlist below from the Polygon team if you need more detail. If you want to bridge $MANA to use in Decentraland. you can bridge that as well.

If something goes wrong Polygon’s support team is an email away. I had an issue and they helped me out in the first 24 hours.

Let us know if you have any questions in the comments below and we’ll get to them right away.