Did Avalanche Founder Just Label Polygon As “Unreliable” And “Non-Functional”?

Earlier today, on December 12, Luigi D’Onorio DeMeo, the Head of Decentralized Finance (DeFi) at Avalanche, revealed that Mirai Labs, the studio behind Pegaxy, a PvP horse racing game, has migrated from Polygon, an Ethereum sidechain, to its Avalanche subnet–a customizable blockchain secure by the mainnet.

While this news is undoubtedly a positive development for Avalanche, a fourth-generation and high throughput platform, the move has drawn attention to a seemingly controversial remark made by Emin Gün Sirer, the founder of Avalanche.

Emin Gün Sirer Takes Aim At Polygon?

Replying to DeMeo’s post on X, Gün Sirer seemed to have implied that Polygon has been relying on “future promises of currently nonexistent technology and influencer marketing” to attract users. The founder went on to say that games demand “reliable chains that actually work.”

The community interpreted this comment to mean that the founder believed Polygon isn’t a reliable platform and that technical needs could have driven Pegaxy’s decision to migrate. 

As expected, Gün Sirer’s comment has sparked debate in the crypto and gaming community. Responding to the same post, some users seem to agree with the founder’s assessment of Polygon. Of note, the main point of their argument is that Polygon exists as a sidechain, though it has a fully functional ecosystem that can exist independently.

They think Polygon only wants to ride on Ethereum’s shoulders and doesn’t want to innovate or resolve core issues associated with the first smart contract network. 

On the other hand, some slammed Avalanche, saying that the founder unfairly targeted Polygon, though it is far miles apart in activity and other key metrics. In their evaluation of the Ethereum sidechain, they observed that the platform has a highly active ecosystem with a broad base of active users, developers, and decentralized applications (dapps).

Pegaxy Gaming Activity Rising, Will It Benefit On Avalanche?

As it is, the migration of Pegaxy to Avalanche has been received positively and could reinforce their ability to provide a highly scalable environment while maintaining high reliability. However, some have expressed concerns that the “childish” statement from Gün Sirer could damage Avalanche’s reputation and alienate users who prefer to support more decentralized networks.

How the community will respond to Pegaxy migrating and launching on its Avalanche subnet is not immediately clear. However, so far, activity seems to be rising. According to DappRadar data, on December 12, the game had, on average, 837 active wallets in the last month, a 40% increment.

Feature image from Canva, chart from TradingView