MATIC Tokens Set to Transition to POL in September as a Component of Polygon 20
Polygon, the layer 2 blockchain, has announced its plan to migrate its MATIC token to POL as part of its upgrade to Polygon 2.0. The upgrade is set to begin on September 4, with POL replacing MATIC as the primary token for gas payments and staking within the proof-of-stake consensus. In the long term, POL will play a crucial role in Polygon’s AggLayer, which is a growing network of aggregated blockchains. The community consensus suggests that POL will also have broader roles in the Polygon staking hub, including block generation, zero-knowledge proof generation, and participation in Data Availability Committees.
The POL upgrade was launched on the Polygon testnet on July 17, allowing developers and infrastructure providers to prepare for the mainnet upgrade. Users holding MATIC on the Polygon network do not need to take any action as their tokens will be automatically upgraded. However, users holding MATIC on Ethereum, Polygon zkEVM, or centralized exchanges will need to bridge, update smart contracts, or use a migration contract.
Most major centralized exchanges are expected to automatically handle the upgrade for their users. However, non-custodial users may need to update their Remote Procedure Call (RPC) settings in their wallets to ensure the correct display of the token symbol as “POL” instead of “MATIC.” RPC settings are configuration details that enable wallet communication with a specific blockchain network. There is currently no deadline for MATIC holders on Ethereum and Polygon zkEVM to upgrade to POL, but the community may establish a deadline in the future.
The decision to replace MATIC with POL was initially announced in July 2023, and the Ethereum contract for the POL token was launched on October 25 of the same year. The migration to POL is the first step in establishing the foundation for Polygon 2.0, which aims to be the “Value Layer of the Internet” and promises significant scalability and liquidity improvements. POL will have an initial supply of 10 billion tokens and will grant holders governance rights within the Polygon 2.0 ecosystem. Additionally, 2% of the total POL supply will be allocated annually for validator rewards and the community treasury.
This announcement comes as Polygon’s NFT sale volume surpassed that of Solana and Bitcoin earlier this month, despite a significant drop in the total number of NFT buyers within the overall sector.
