The commutative ring "R" constructed above is known as Lazard's universal ring. At first sight it seems to be incredibly complicated: the relations between its generators are very messy. However Lazard proved that it has a very simple structure: it is just a polynomial ring (over the integers) on generators of degrees 2, 4, 6, ... (where "c""i","j" has degree 2("i" + "j" − 1)). Daniel Quillen proved that the coefficient ring of complex cobordism is naturally isomorphic as a graded ring to Lazard's universal ring, explaining the unusual grading.