The hustle has been Sandeep Nailwal’s best friend, taking him from Delhi’s “Jamna-paar” settlement to running the multi-billion dollar Web3 company, Polygon.

It may have started small, but Sandeep always dreamed big. Since he was a child, he says that he knew he was “going to do something big.” But he didn’t know what it would be like, especially after he failed to realize his IIT dream.

He eventually went on to lead the technology department at Welspun, Asia’s largest textile company, and later worked as a consultant at Deloitte.

In 2015, his technology background laid the foundation for the launch of ScopeWeaver, his first company and the largest professional services marketplace in India. And just two years later, Sandeep and his co-founders, Jaynti Kanani and Anurag Arjun, came together under his shared vision and passion for blockchain technology, and launched Polygon.

A recent appearance in blockchain technology has seen the rise of Polygon. Today, Polygon is a user-friendly platform on the Ethereum network that enables scalability through Layer 2 solutions. More recently, a multi-chain system that supports interconnections of multiple blockchains and networks. However, before the Polygon network broke into the top 15 cryptocurrencies and was dubbed the “Internet of Blockchains”, it was known as ‘MATIC’.

The Indian blockchain platform allows blockchain networks to connect and scale, and aims to create an Ethereum-compatible multi-chain ecosystem. Dubbed the “internet of blockchains,” it uses a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism to process on-chain transactions while drawing its security from Ethereum.

But the first days were not easy.

The global, sustainable Web3 infrastructure that it is today suffered quite a bit of rejection in its early days. In fact, when the team started, the initial coin offering (ICO) frenzy was sweeping the globe. The world was opening up to the revolutionary potential of distributed technology, with fortunes made and lost instantly.

“We could have easily raised $15-20 million from abroad, which was the norm in the industry at the time. But we decided that we would only raise money after we had a product,” says Sandeep.

The company made this decision when the world was predicting a bear market was on the horizon. But for Sandeep, the conviction came early along with his core tenet of prioritizing long-term ideologies for Polygon.

“Let’s say I’m doing something and earning $2 million in revenue, and if you tell me that if I do something right away, I’ll get $100 million, but there’s a limit: I won’t cross $100 million forever. I will not choose it, ”she says.

Giving the commencement address at Stanford University in 2005, Steve Jobs said, “You can’t connect the dots by looking into the future; you can only connect them facing backwards.”

And in ways big and small, Sandeep believes his decisions in the early days of building Polygon have converged at various points over time to build the company it is today. “There’s a constant chip in the shoulder that we have to do there,” he says.

“Even though we have 40,000 apps built on Polygon, we know this whole space is just getting started,” he says. “We have 10 co-founders now. We acquire companies, bring in founders, and give them co-founder status for their own product category.”

As Sandeep says, “Indians strongly believe in Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (the world is one family). That is also the spirit of Web3. We are not building a company that is part of a geography that is controlled by three or four people. We are building a protocol for everyone: an open, permissionless protocol.”

There is an ongoing debate as to whether Web3 is a solution looking for a problem or trying to solve it. Sandeep thinks it isn’t. “Web3 is changing the way the problem is solved.” He says: “When you get involved, you realize that this is not a technology. This is how humanity will evolve. As these better solutions and experiences evolve, all applications will slowly start migrating to them. It may not be a new category, and the existing ones will move into this one.” Today’s blockchain landscape has a lot in common with the early internet: it’s unwieldy, insecure, unregulated, and has loosely connected protocols.

The early critics of the internet were clearly wrong, and with blockchain, however, the jury is still out.

India and Web3

With an estimated 15 million active crypto users, India has been in regulatory limbo since the Supreme Court struck down a central bank ban on digital tokens in 2020. The government has yet to make a final decision on whether to ban virtual currencies or regulate them.

At first glance, India has the potential to be a crypto powerhouse. Its population of 1.4 billion is young and has a growing middle class that is embracing cryptocurrency. Combined with a less-developed traditional financial system, that has led to the world’s fourth-highest crypto adoption rate globally, according to blockchain research firm Chainalysis. Overall crypto transactions in the country increased to $172 billion between July 2021 and June 2022, Chainalysis said.

India has over 11% of global Web3 talent, making it the third largest Web3 talent pool, and the growing demand for blockchain developers and specialists bodes well. Web3 is designed for individuals, and as Sandeep says, “It basically has no borders. So it’s a great equalizer.”

In addition to decentralizing the World Wide Web with decentralized apps and finance, Web3 startups also have a decentralized pedigree within the recruitment industry.

Sandeep believes this is empowering people, businesses and communities in a way that the current system cannot. “I know a community manager with a salary of $100,000, or around Rs 80 lakh, per year, two years out of college,” she says.

Clearly, Web3 is changing the conventional route to help people get coveted jobs and salaries today.

Unlike e-commerce companies that bring an influx of money to India, companies under the decentralized vertical can raise funds from abroad and implement the product in the country.

With increasing confidence and interest from global investors, investments in Indian Web3 startups have also skyrocketed. The Indian Web3 ecosystem has raised $1.3 billion in funding as of April 2022. More than 60% of Indian Web3 startups have expanded their presence outside of India, with headquarters all over the world. However, its largest talent base is still in India, putting the country on the world map for Web3 solutions.

“There is immense potential for some Indian-led Web3 companies to become global brands in the next five to seven years,” Sandeep believes.

Sandeep highlights use cases of blockchain adoption in the form of public procurement and land title registrations, among others. “There is widespread and systemic corruption in India, but blockchain makes one publicly accountable.”

India is not far from realizing this dream. The Indian police unit in Firozabad recently launched an online complaint portal powered by Polygon. The pilot portal, policecomplaintonblockchain.in, takes advantage of the immutability of blockchain technology, which means that complaints cannot be tampered with or deleted by either the police department or the complainant. This could change the rules of the game to guarantee rights to justice.

More blockchain use cases will continue to emerge. But while blockchain can complement and enhance existing legal frameworks and social structures, its effectiveness is as important as the system of which it is a part.

A founder’s journey

When asked how he balances his mind and body to be the best in his field, Sandeep fully accepted his own vices and his long and arduous journey to overcome them.

“I’ve talked a lot about my problems with depression and stress, and I was on medication until three months ago,” he says, uncovering the startup culture that is synonymous with hustle and burnout. For him, these pressures were amplified during the 3 or 4 years of his constant work with Polygon. He now relieves stress by meditating and playing in his spare time.

Having battled his own demons, he advises others not to let ego guide decisions. “The ego helps you reach your goal, but beyond a point, it becomes detrimental.” Today, 11 years after his career began, Sandeep remains relentless with his production, but has learned to squash his ego.

Whats Next?

How has the web evolved and, more importantly, where is it headed? Besides, why does any of that matter? If history has taught us anything, it is that change matters a lot. And Sandeep is determined to lead the change with Polygon.

Earlier this year, the company raised $450 million in its latest funding round led by Sequoia Capital, with a market capitalization of around $13 billion, to aggressively expand its portfolio of Ethereum scaling solutions and work to attract brands. traditional and the largest ecosystem of blockchain developers.

In recent months, well-known brands like Coca-Cola, Starbucks, and Reddit, among others, have partnered with Polygon to get into Web3.

Growth required Sandeep to adopt a new mindset. “I’m playing for the team’s win, not for Sandeep’s win.”

It’s a reminder, he says, to “accept that everyone is smarter than you. Only then can you try to solve the problem at hand.”

Sandeep and his team are looking forward to continuing to build the Polygon ecosystem with the ultimate goal of “bringing cryptocurrency to the masses”. “Our goal now is to become one of the top three platforms in the world,” says Sandeep.