Polygon initiates migration to POL token from MATIC

2024-09-04 by Ndaman Olayinka 4 minutes read
Polygon initiates migration to POL token from MATIC

Polygon announced on Wednesday that the MATIC token migration to POL is now live. The migration is a part of Polygon's planned revamp, which was announced in its "Polygon 2.0" roadmap last year.

With this modification, POL will now be used as the ticker symbol for the Polygon PoS chain's native gas and staking token. The upgraded token is expected to be listed on exchanges, Polygon stated.

A significant step toward Polygon's transformation into a ZK chain and its integration with AggLayer—which aims to unify liquidity and state across several chains—is the switch to POL. With a 10 billion token supply, POL will continue to use MATIC's existing tokenomics.

To support growth, the initial exchange ratio between MATIC and POL is set at 1:1, and emissions are gradually increased by 2% over a ten-year period. This emissions model makes it attractive for new validators to join and participate by guaranteeing ongoing rewards for validators.

MATIC holders on the Polygon PoS won't need to do anything because the upgrade to POL will happen on its own. MATIC holders on centralized exchanges, Polygon zkEVM, or Ethereum, however, need to actively move their tokens to POL through a migration contract.

As of right now, the community consensus suggests that POL will facilitate more roles in the long run, such as block generation, zero-knowledge proof generation, and involvement in Data Availability Committees (DACs) in the Polygon staking hub (which is scheduled for release in 2025), Polygon wrote in their blog post.

The token upgrade was tested by Polygon on July 17 in a test network environment as part of the network migration. This was done to find and address any issues prior to POL going live on the mainnet today.

What is Polygon Ecosystem Token (POL)?

The "Polygon Ecosystem Token," or POL, was created on October 25, 2023, at 9:06 am UTC, according to blockchain records. With the potential to become the enhanced native token of the Polygon ecosystem, POL is made to support a wide range of functions essential to network operations, such as participation and enhancing security.

POL, a vital part of the ecosystem, will enable stakeholders to actively participate as validators through staking, enhancing the network's general security and overall health. The POL token will be based on OpenZeppelin's ERC20 implementations and support EIP-2612 for signature-based permit approvals, emulating many of the features of MATIC.

With a 1:1 ratio with the current MATIC supply, the initial supply of POL tokens is set at 10 billion, signifying a direct upgrade as opposed to the introduction of a completely new token.

By combining high scalability, improved security, creative economic models, and a frictionless user experience under a community-driven framework, the POL upgrade will establish Polygon as a distinctive and cutting-edge blockchain platform. With these qualities, Polygon will be at the forefront of blockchain technology, particularly for extensive and diverse applications.

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