Ethereum scaling platform Polygon Labs has started a grant program to entice developers to build applications in its ecosystem.

Polygon Labs is offering a total of 110 million of its native token, MATIC, worth around $85 million at the time of writing, to projects in decentralized finance (DeFi), gaming, social media and more.

Direct grants of up to 2 million MATIC ($1.55 million) will be offered to later stage projects, Polygon Labs said in an emailed announcement on Thursday. Early stage projects can apply for so-called quadratic funding grants, whereby community members make donations that act as votes on where they are allocated.

Polygon is one of the Ethereum's blockchain's leading layer-2 networks – off-chain networks that help to make the layer-1 blockchain more scalable and efficient by reducing traffic and congestion. The firms behind these networks are vying to position themselves as the dominant blockchain tech providers to build layer-2 networks on Ethereum by enticing developers to build on their platforms, be they startups or major players in the crypto industry.

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