Polygon vs Shardeum

Polygon4.1/5

VS

Shardeum3.2/5

Feature	PolygonVisit	ShardeumVisit
Ratings
Our score	4.1/5	3.2/5
User rating	No reviews yet	No reviews yet
Performance	4.5	3.5
Fees	4.5	4.0
Ecosystem	4.5	2.5
Decentralization	3.5	2.5
Developer experience	4.0	4.0
Specs
Layer	Sidechain	Layer 1
Consensus / design	Proof of Stake	Proof of Stake
Native token	POL	SHM
EVM compatible	Yes	Yes
Smart contract languages	Solidity	Solidity
Block time	Not disclosed	2-3 seconds
Typical transaction fee	$0.002	Not disclosed
Finality	~1.8 seconds	Deterministic
Validators / sequencer	Not disclosed	24
Mainnet since	2,020	2,025
Throughput (TPS)	5,000	Not disclosed
Sequencer	Not applicable	Not applicable
Gas paid in	POL	SHM
Company
Founded	2020	2022
Headquarters	Cayman Islands	Switzerland
Investors	Peak XV Partners, Galaxy Digital, Republic Capital, SoftBank Vision Fund 2 +4	Not disclosed
Strengths and weaknesses
Pros	Typical transaction fees average approximately $0.002 per transfer Settlement finality completes in roughly 1.8 seconds Full EVM execution environment supports standard Solidity tooling and libraries Processed over 8 billion transactions across more than $3.0 trillion in cumulative volume	Block production every 2 to 3 seconds with deterministic finality Full EVM compatibility works directly with MetaMask and standard Solidity tooling Native SHM delegation lets holders earn staking yield without running hardware Raised $23.6M to back long-term infrastructure and ecosystem growth
Cons	Relies on sidechain checkpoints rather than native Layer 2 zero-knowledge rollups Bridge smart contracts on Ethereum introduce third-party settlement and locking risks Past smart contract vulnerability resulted in the loss of 801,601 tokens in 2021 Separate Polygon zkEVM sequencer suffered an operational halt in July 2026	Relatively small active validator set of 24 nodes recorded in May 2026 Experienced a planned 25-minute network halt during the October 2026 v1.1.0 upgrade SHM staking yield is vulnerable to token inflation and lockup schedules Young application ecosystem with limited total onchain liquidity
Best for	High-frequency stablecoin payment providers, Fintech developers seeking EVM compatibility, DeFi apps requiring sub-cent fees	Developers deploying EVM Solidity dApps, Real-world asset tokenization issuers, SHM holders seeking staking delegation

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