Polygon API – How to Efficiently Create Polygon Dapps using WatchData

Polygon API – How to Efficiently Create Polygon Dapps using WatchData

Table of Contents

What is the Polygon Network?

If you’re a developer who’s interested in creating a dapp on the Polygon network, then this brief guide is for you! This guide will provide you with a comprehensive overview of Polygon APIs, as well as what they entail and where you can acquire one.

Polygon – formerly known as Matic – is an Ethereum scaling solution that has grown to become one of the major networks for Web3 development. Developed by the team at LayerX, Polygon came into existence as a solution to Ethereum’s issues with congestion. As Ethereum gas fees skyrocketed with increased adoption, some developers turned their attention to Polygon and started creating dapps on its network instead.

With increased attentiveness towards Polygon development, coders found a need for Polygon APIs to make Web3 development more accessible. To kickstart this brief guide, we’ll take a closer look at the Polygon network and what it entails. Following this, we’ll dive deeper into APIs and what they are in the context of the Polygon network. We’ll also take a closer look at how you can acquire a Polygon API through WatchData. As a result of reading along, you’ll be provided with

Along with providing a Polygon API, WatchData also supplies powerful development tools such as WatchData Blockchain API , WatchData Price API, WatchData Powered API, and more. What’s more, you can sign up with WatchData entirely for free!

If you’re wondering why the Polygon network was developed in the first place, it’s because of Ethereum. Ethereum is the most prominent development blockchain. However, as more people have started using it, this has driven up transaction costs to astronomical amounts, making it economically unviable to develop dapps in some instances.

For this reason, there was demand for a scalable solution. One alternative was Polygon, a decentralized Ethereum scaling platform that could solve the congestion issue with the Ethereum network. Polygon enables developers to create dapps with lower gas costs while maintaining the high-level security of the Ethereum blockchain.

Polygon is a blockchain network that is closely interrelated with Ethereum, given that it implements the same token standards and consensus mechanism as Ethereum. However, Polygon deviates from Ethereum in one significant way: its use of proof-of-stake instead of proof-of-work. As a result of this difference, the Polygon network can accommodate lower transaction costs than Ethereum.

What is WatchData Polygon API and how does it work?

An API, or Application Programming Interface, is a set of tools and protocols that allow software applications to interact with each other. In the case of the Polygon network, the API enables dapp developers to have a more seamless experience. In other words, it makes it easier to develop dapps on the Polygon network. Without APIs, the different pieces of software that make up the internet would not be able to understand each other or work together. APIs are an essential part of the internet ecosystem and play a vital role in our everyday lives, even if we don't realize it. When you use a device that is connected to the internet, it will send data to a server or database. The receiving end then needs to interpret this information and find the appropriate response before sending it back to your device.

Following, In this article, we'll be focusing on the Polygon network. However, it's important to note that the API supports cross-chain compatibility, so the functions and snippets we'll be looking at will work just as well for other networks like BNB Chain and Ethereum.

How to Connect to Polygon Nodes Using WatchData?

To access the Polygon API from the WatchData website, the first step is to create an account. This is completely free and takes just a few seconds. As you have an account and sign in, we can take a closer look at how to connect to Polygon API with WatchData.

1. Login

WatchData Dashboard
Go to WatchData Dashboard

2. Create API key

Create Polygon API key
Choose Polygon Mainnet

3. Result

Polygon API key is ready to use
Polygon API key is ready to use

By using our API, you can add features that will give your users new ways to interact with their data, giving them a better experience and making them more likely to come back for more!

Blockchain API

With WatchData’s API, you can get to Raw blockchain data: balances, transactions, blocks, tokens transfers, logs, and others. No need to run your own node! Spare yourself from development costs and associated expenses. Call most JSON-RPC methods via our API in the same way as sending to an own node.

Let’s look at a few examples of interactions with our API:

One of the most common endpoints is — eth_blockNumber (Polygon)

Request example:


URL: https://polygon.api.watchdata.io/node/jsonrpc?api_key=your_api_key
RequestType: POST
Body: 
{
    "jsonrpc":"2.0",
    "method":"eth_blockNumber",
    "params":[],
    "id":0
}

Response example:


{
    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
    "id": 0,
    "result": "0x1d7600a"
}

Try it yourself, it’s easy!

Powered API

Powered API is a kind of additional functionality for interaction with the node. We took the work over the blockchain and transformed the data in a clear and structured format. You, as a user, will get a ready set of data, which carries a huge amount of information. Let us explain it to you more clearly: What if you want to find all transactions made by one Polygon address? While that may be easy in an SQL database, in blockchain it’s exorbitantly complicated — you practically have to scan every transaction in the blockchain to see if it includes a single address. We’ve created some advanced APIs that allow you to instantly perform this and other similar queries.

For cases like this, try watch_getTransfersByAddress

Request example:


URL: https://polygon.api.watchdata.io/node/jsonrpc?api_key=your_api_key
RequestType: POST
Body:
{
    "id": 1,
    "method": "watch_getTransfersByAddress",
    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
    "params": [
        {
            "addresses": "0x27f988b5e8e3ebf7f2b49ffecb751843e9398fe5",
            "transferDirection": "from",
            "fromBlock": 3120000,
            "toBlock": "latest",
            "offset": 1,
            "limit": 10
        }
    ]
}

Response example:


{
    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
    "id": 1,
    "result": [
        {
            "blockNumber": 30870246,
            "blockTimestamp": "2022-07-18T18:32:17",
            "transactionHash": "0xdfb5c9b8fee4a1fae69c26be399b85d1bc7117adc54a176f46da2ca6f3965d04",
            "transactionIndex": 60,
            "logIndex": null,
            "contractAddress": null,
            "transferType": "trx",
            "from": "0x27f988b5e8e3ebf7f2b49ffecb751843e9398fe5",
            "to": "0xef764bac8a438e7e498c2e5fccf0f174c3e3f8db",
            "value": 1110010000000000,
            "fee": 681872064888000,
            "asset": "MATIC",
            "decimals": 18
        },
        {
            "blockNumber": 30870246,
            "blockTimestamp": "2022-07-18T18:32:17",
            "transactionHash": "0xc7cd21e602955c55fab845adae0e993964ce27de5e1ec4e5df801ae4d02a2974",
            "transactionIndex": 61,
            "logIndex": null,
            "contractAddress": null,
            "transferType": "trx",
            "from": "0x27f988b5e8e3ebf7f2b49ffecb751843e9398fe5",
            "to": "0x685acac8cffcd235255bffb25982b96e066e2370",
            "value": 1110010000000000,
            "fee": 685797212331000,
            "asset": "MATIC",
            "decimals": 18
        },
        {
            "blockNumber": 30870246,
            "blockTimestamp": "2022-07-18T18:32:17",
            "transactionHash": "0xd27d77e32842d56405ac9cd99c0a0b4efc7d2a87f1b49b82f71c748f40915117",
            "transactionIndex": 62,
            "logIndex": null,
            "contractAddress": null,
            "transferType": "trx",
            "from": "0x27f988b5e8e3ebf7f2b49ffecb751843e9398fe5",
            "to": "0x7b8961f67382c51c389726667ef7dd7cf95fefd3",
            "value": 1110010000000000,
            "fee": 683922585003000,
            "asset": "MATIC",
            "decimals": 18
        },
        {
            "blockNumber": 30870246,
            "blockTimestamp": "2022-07-18T18:32:17",
            "transactionHash": "0x789244a2a3927cc2fc80b626d3d3880ed9f725c2c72ede80c5113d241516d5c8",
            "transactionIndex": 63,
            "logIndex": null,
            "contractAddress": null,
            "transferType": "trx",
            "from": "0x27f988b5e8e3ebf7f2b49ffecb751843e9398fe5",
            "to": "0xf4b4a58974524e183c275f3c6ea895bc2368e738",
            "value": 1110010000000000,
            "fee": 684529610982000,
            "asset": "MATIC",
            "decimals": 18
        },
        {
            "blockNumber": 30870248,
            "blockTimestamp": "2022-07-18T18:32:21",
            "transactionHash": "0x498d25f5429f80941b0f602efa4faea6f0a625111899503f5f3394f89beeed1e",
            "transactionIndex": 47,
            "logIndex": null,
            "contractAddress": null,
            "transferType": "trx",
            "from": "0x27f988b5e8e3ebf7f2b49ffecb751843e9398fe5",
            "to": "0x3924b7681c6110fcd3628164388c3307f79d1059",
            "value": 1110010000000000,
            "fee": 678369519786000,
            "asset": "MATIC",
            "decimals": 18
        },
        {
            "blockNumber": 30870258,
            "blockTimestamp": "2022-07-18T18:32:41",
            "transactionHash": "0xdaa816503b56bf5f8cdd9508056113626e0b0cb91e741359ae0061551b2233bf",
            "transactionIndex": 51,
            "logIndex": null,
            "contractAddress": null,
            "transferType": "trx",
            "from": "0x27f988b5e8e3ebf7f2b49ffecb751843e9398fe5",
            "to": "0x56178626332fc530561535eeaa914b863aa455f2",
            "value": 1110010000000000,
            "fee": 686238421323000,
            "asset": "MATIC",
            "decimals": 18
        },
        {
            "blockNumber": 30870268,
            "blockTimestamp": "2022-07-18T18:33:01",
            "transactionHash": "0x0e144d8b841e4ad68ad349302d83b710b89975dc7e7db3c963450b385d3356da",
            "transactionIndex": 44,
            "logIndex": null,
            "contractAddress": null,
            "transferType": "trx",
            "from": "0x27f988b5e8e3ebf7f2b49ffecb751843e9398fe5",
            "to": "0xdf37ac79f8e9b698c4ab57d30a41e7f272331391",
            "value": 1110010000000000,
            "fee": 685401067659000,
            "asset": "MATIC",
            "decimals": 18
        },
        {
            "blockNumber": 30870275,
            "blockTimestamp": "2022-07-18T18:33:19",
            "transactionHash": "0x1e713dc95022c47d62e836f4fd97728c0fd75a323011556f81d8f9e2665750d4",
            "transactionIndex": 47,
            "logIndex": null,
            "contractAddress": null,
            "transferType": "trx",
            "from": "0x27f988b5e8e3ebf7f2b49ffecb751843e9398fe5",
            "to": "0xe301612b0751f6d862a27be205fb8e3c40c8c6db",
            "value": 1110010000000000,
            "fee": 678060300918000,
            "asset": "MATIC",
            "decimals": 18
        },
        {
            "blockNumber": 30870287,
            "blockTimestamp": "2022-07-18T18:33:43",
            "transactionHash": "0xa3a68d88d89c476c6c6db9b6899ba726ab4e6a62a480788f3444fcf1c4b8e7a5",
            "transactionIndex": 72,
            "logIndex": null,
            "contractAddress": null,
            "transferType": "trx",
            "from": "0x27f988b5e8e3ebf7f2b49ffecb751843e9398fe5",
            "to": "0x0a8f4037729accb854da856431a87b8a264d8c40",
            "value": 1110010000000000,
            "fee": 676764292701000,
            "asset": "MATIC",
            "decimals": 18
        },
        {
            "blockNumber": 30870378,
            "blockTimestamp": "2022-07-18T18:36:49",
            "transactionHash": "0x9ed67af0efb80bec39774dfeb1f9ee1a6f0a1f69708678070a00e7d1faa44518",
            "transactionIndex": 58,
            "logIndex": null,
            "contractAddress": null,
            "transferType": "trx",
            "from": "0x27f988b5e8e3ebf7f2b49ffecb751843e9398fe5",
            "to": "0x9b66ca42bbdd0d3d06b7f1f8b043ebca52d256d9",
            "value": 1110010000000000,
            "fee": 664155547020000,
            "asset": "MATIC",
            "decimals": 18
        }
    ]
}

A huge amount of useful information in just one endpoint.

WatchData Polygon API – Summary

Ethereum has faced a lot of issues with scaling over the years. This has led to people looking for better, more scalable blockchain networks (Polygon being one such example), which have in turn resulted in high growth for polygon dapps. In order to support this growing demand from developers and make it easier for them to build their own dapps, WatchData comes into play with its Polygon API service.

And it’s not just one of many reasons to create a WatchData account — there are plenty! Web3 projects are the future and the more you start working in this technology, the better. If you need help getting started with your first dapp, sign up for a free trial with WatchData today!

Join the column

Contribute to our blog as a writer or propose a fresh idea for an article!