Many are finding that the Ethereum network is getting quite expensive. Polygon is a L2 solution that leverages the security of the Ethereum network while providing a much cheaper way to interact with dapps.
How to buy MATIC
There are a few ways to buy the MATIC token in Canada. Each with it’s own tradeoffs:
- You can buy MATIC using a Centralized Exchanges (e.g. Coinbase, Binance, Gate.io etc). In this case, you own the MATIC but you’re not able to interact with the Polygon network unless you withdraw the tokens to your wallet.
- Bridge your assets from the Ethereum network to the Polygon network and purchase MATIC with the funds. In this case, you will have to pay gas fees to bridge.
However, if you’d like to save on fees and buy MATIC directly on the Polygon network and start to interact with dapps on the Polygon network, there is a THIRD way.
Here’s what you’ll need to buy MATIC.
- A wallet solution
- An on-ramp
Wallet
There are many wallet solutions out there. The most popular one is MetaMask. This wallet solution allows you to interact with web3 dapps that are EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) compatible.
This is also a full self-custody wallet solution. So remember, never to share your seed phrase with anyone.
Once you have your wallet downloaded, you will need to fund the wallet.
On-Ramp
There are many on-ramp solutions out there. The one that we will go with today is PayTrie.
PayTrie offers a direct on-ramp to convert fiat to stablecoins with a simple and fast eTransfer. The good news is that they support the Polygon network, so you don’t need to withdraw from any exchange or bridge from the Ethereum network.
They charge a flat 0.6% fee with a minimum of $5 per transaction.
Follow the steps on PayTrie to buy stablecoins and make sure that you’re sending the USDC on the Polygon network to your MetaMask wallet.
Convert USDC to MATIC
Once the USDC has arrived in your MetaMask wallet you can now convert USDC to MATIC and start interacting with the Polygon network.
Note: If you can’t see the USDC in your MetaMask, it’s possible that you haven’t set up your MetaMask for the Polygon network. Check out the steps here.
Head over to the Polygon Web Wallet: https://wallet.polygon.technology/
Make sure that you are interacting with the correct app. Double check on Google that this is the correct URL.
Once you connect your MetaMask wallet, you will need to head to “swap for gas token”
This allows you to swap USDC for MATIC without having to own any MATIC.
Follow the instructions to swap USDC for MATIC.
Next Steps
Now, you should have both MATIC and USDC in your wallet. You can now freely interact with any Polygon dapp and pay for transactions using MATIC.
If you need more MATIC tokens, you can always go to a Decentralized Exchange like Sushiswap and exchange your USDC for more MATIC.
That’s it! Now you can enjoy the cheap fees of the Polygon network and know that you can always bridge your assets back to the Ethereum network for additional security.
