Polymarket engineers prioritize transitioning to Ethereum L2

2025-12-22 10:20:16

Polymarket, as a leader in the prediction market (with a Lock-up Position of $324 million on Polygon), experienced a network disruption on December 18 that halted trading, despite the normal production of on-chain blocks, which led to strong dissatisfaction among users. Engineer Mustafa al-Bassam responded by stating that building a custom Ethereum Layer 2 will become the “#1 priority,” aimed at enhancing platform reliability and independence.

Traders cheer that this move brings sovereignty and scalability, but critics worry about chain fragmentation, while Polygon supporters emphasize its continuous upgrades. This marks Polymarket's determination to cope with huge bets on elections/events and to break free from the limitations of shared infrastructure.

Event Background and Interruption Details

Core issue of Polymarket network interruption on December 18:

Issue Point	Details	Impact
Reason for interruption	Polygon network issues + oracle/index failure	Transactions completely halted, blocks normal but platform unavailable
User Feedback	Strong complaints about reliability	Missed real-time betting opportunities
Lock-up Position	$324 million (led by Polygon)	Huge event-level betting scale

Despite the Polygon chain producing blocks normally, the oracle/index layer relied on by Polymarket has collapsed, preventing users from placing bets - exposing the risks of shared infrastructure.

工程师回应：自定义L2成#1 priority

Mustafa al-Bassam publicly stated:

Custom Ethereum Layer 2 will become the top priority “very soon”.
Goal: Enhance reliability, independence, and scalability
Break free from the restrictions of the Polygon shared layer and achieve “sovereign” control.

Traders are responding positively: seeing this as a sign of platform maturity, independent Layer 2 can better handle peak betting traffic.

Controversies and Different Voices

Perspective Provider	Position	Reason
Supporters (traders)	Celebrate the shift to Layer 2	Sovereign + dedicated expansion, event betting more stable
Critics	Worry about chain fragmentation	Too many L2s exacerbate ecological division
Polygon supporters	Emphasize upgrade	Polygon is continuously optimizing, no migration needed

Migration of Ethereum L2 (possibly based on OP Stack/Rollup) signal: Polymarket is pursuing dedicated infrastructure, similar to Uniswap/other DeFi moving to independent chains.

What does this mean for the prediction market?

Short-term: Interrupt exposure to shared chain risks, migrate or enhance user confidence.
Medium-term: Custom L2 goes live, handling massive bets on elections/sports/events more reliably.
Long-term: The prediction market evolves from “relying on public chains” to “dedicated sovereign chains”, with Polymarket consolidating its leader position.

The event-level betting scale of Polymarket has surpassed traditional gambling, and an independent L2 is an inevitable choice—reliability = user trust = market share.

What do you think about Polymarket moving to L2? Let's chat in the comments ～ A. Wise move, greatly increases reliability B. On-chain fragmentation, bad for the ecosystem C. Polygon is sufficient, no need to migrate D. Observe the effects before judging

Take one step at a time — prediction market, the future is on a dedicated chain!

ETH-0,57%

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