Polygon is a blockchain that provides scalable, secure, and instant transactions with Ethereum currencies like ETH, USDC, and DAI. Currencies must first be "bridged" from Ethereum's mainnet to Polygon. Think of Polygon as a sibling to Ethereum, the currencies are similar, but the two blockchains have slight differences.
This guide explains how to navigate the Polygon blockchain, including:
- How to see your funds on Polygon
- How to use Polygonscan to see your transaction history on Polygon
- How to add Polygon ETH on MetaMask
How to see your funds on Polygon
There are two ways to view your funds on Polygon.
Currently, OpenSea supports Polygon ETH and MATIC on Polygon. You can follow these steps to see your Polygon ETH and MATIC balances:
1. Navigate to the top-right corner of OpenSea and click your Wallet balance.
2. Click the balance dropdown and select Switch chain.
3. Select Polygon and confirm the network switch in your wallet.
4. Click the balance dropdown to see your available funds on the Polygon network.
If you've recently completed a Polygon transaction on OpenSea, but the balance on OpenSea hasn't updated (there can be a short delay across blockchains updating), you can use wallet.polygon.technology to view the correct balance.
Navigating Polygonscan
Using Polygonscan is just like using Etherscan! You can use Polygonscan to view transactions and addresses on the Polygon (PoS) mainnet.
Navigate to Polygonscan.com and use the same wallet address you use on Ethereum. For example, if you use MetaMask, simply copy the address at the top of the MetaMask extension and copy it in the search field on Polygonscan.
You'll then be taken to the address view where you can see balances for various tokens on Polygon (PoS).
To see your Polygon ETH balance, click on the "Token" field. To see your transaction history, click on the "ERC-20 Token Txns" tab.
Adding Polygon ETH to MetaMask
Adding Polygon ETH to MetaMask is simple. Before adding it, make sure you have the Polygon mainnet installed on your wallet.
The purple Polygon ETH you see on OpenSea, is actually WETH (Wrapped Ether) on the blockchain level of Polygon.
You can find the address for it here: https://polygonscan.com/token/0x7ceb23fd6bc0add59e62ac25578270cff1b9f619.
Now that we know the contract address (0x7ceb23fd6bc0add59e62ac25578270cff1b9f619), you can add it to MetaMask.
To do so, head to the MetaMask extension and make sure you are on Polygon's network, or Polygon Mainnet. Then click Import tokens at the bottom of the extension.
Copy the contract address from above into the Token contract address field and click Add custom token, then confirm again on the next window.
Click Import tokens.
You should now see your Polygon ETH balance on MetaMask!
