Marc Boiron, CEO of Polygon Labs, speaks with a practiced clarity that reflects his background as a lawyer.

Over the course of our conversation, he outlines Polygon's strategy to position itself as the connective tissue in an increasingly crowded blockchain ecosystem.

Marc Boiron, CEO of Polygon Labs (NYSE:POLY), speaks with a practiced clarity that reflects his background as a lawyer. Over the course of our conversation, he outlines his company’s strategy to position itself as the connective tissue in an increasingly crowded blockchain ecosystem.

As competition intensifies and market conditions fluctuate, Boiron’s company is betting on a new product called AggLayer to unify the fragmented world of blockchain – a vision that’s ambitious, though not without its challenges.

Boiron’s path to blockchain leadership followed an unconventional route through legal corridors. A former law firm partner, he served as Chief Legal Officer at dYdX before joining Polygon Labs in a similar capacity, eventually ascending to CEO.

In this interview with CoinDesk at Consensus 2024, Boiron discussed the evolution of blockchain infrastructure, interoperability and scalability, and how the industry is confronting questions of practical utility.

CoinDesk: Could you tell us a bit about your professional background, especially in the legal domain, and how it led you to your current role at Polygon Labs?

Boiron: Sure. So I'm the CEO at Polygon Labs, and I've been the CEO for about two years now. Before that, I was the Chief Legal Officer at Polygon Labs for about a year.

I joined Polygon after having been the Chief Legal Officer at 0x for a while. I was frankly just really excited about joining a team that was looking to scale Web3 in the way that Polygon is.

Now, before being on the Polygon legal team, I was a partner at various big law firms in the U.S., advising on crypto since 2017.

CoinDesk: Certainly, interoperability has been a topic of discussion for a while now. Could you elaborate on the technical approach that Polygon is taking with AggLayer and how it will achieve interoperability in a way that other projects have struggled with in the past?

Boiron: Yeah, so AggLayer is a product that we're building to bring all of Web3 onto a single settlement layer.

Right now, what's missing in the ecosystem is a good way to be able to move between different chains. The only really efficient way to do that and have it be very rapid is to have a settlement layer, which is what AggLayer will provide.

AggLayer will be able to take transactions from two different chains and finalize them in less than two seconds.

The way that our model will work is different from other cross-chain infrastructure in the way that we handle asset transfer. So we'll be monitoring all of the assets that are coming in and out of chains.

And then when someone wants to transfer an asset out of a chain, we'll be using pessimistic proofs to verify and confirm that the assets exist on that chain before allowing the transfer to occur.

Now, in the initial launch of the product, this will all be focused on Polygon CDK chains. But very shortly after the launch of AggLayer, we'll be launching an update that will allow any EVM chain to connect to AggLayer.

And that will bring us one step closer to completing our vision for AggLayer, which is to bring all of Web3 onto AggLayer.

CoinDesk: Real-World Assets on blockchain have been a topic of discussion for several years now, but there hasn't been a huge amount of practical implementation. What's your perspective on RWAs, and how do they fit into Polygon's overall approach to the market?

Boiron: One of the core strengths of Polygon has always been our relationships with financial institutions, which is crucial for both real-world assets and payments.

When it comes to payments, Polygon POS is already the biggest host of nearly 50 stablecoins. Every major fintech player that operates on other chains is also on Polygon, although many of the Polygon-based companies are focused solely on our platform for their operations.

For example, Lemon Cash in Argentina operates entirely on our platform, while major payment companies like Stripe process the majority of their volume through Polygon POS, and companies like Grab in Singapore use Polygon POS in addition to other chains.

We've also established 18 tokenized funds on Polygon POS, and our strategy is focused on making these assets truly functional.

Currently, most of the tokenized assets across different chains remain largely dormant after their creation, not offering a significant advantage over their traditional counterparts.

Our aim is to integrate these assets into DeFi, beginning with enabling them as collateral in lending pools for borrowing purposes.

CoinDesk: Certainly, the market has seen a great deal of volatility in recent times, and there have also been several shifts in the regulatory landscape. How is Polygon adapting to these changing conditions?

Boiron: From our perspective, we just keep building regardless of the environment. We know what we want to build, and we're constantly working towards it.

The market's reactions will naturally influence adoption. Ultimately, the