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MATIC tokens will be upgraded to POL in September as part of Polygon 2.0
Layer 2 blockchain Polygon is set to migrate its MATIC token to POL as part of its upgrade to Polygon 2.0.
According to a Post of July 18 X from the Polygon Foundation, the upgrade will begin on September 4. Initially, POL will replace MATIC as the primary token for gas payments and staking token for its proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus.
In the long run, the token would “play a crucial role in AggLayer,” Polygon’s growing network of aggregated blockchains.
“Current community consensus suggests that POL will support broader roles in the Polygon staking hub (to be released in 2025), including block generation, zero-knowledge proof generation, and participation in data availability committees (DACs).”
The POL update went live on the Polygon testnet on July 17, giving network developers and infrastructure providers time to prepare for the mainnet upgrade.
Users holding MATIC on the Polygon network are not required to do anything and their tokens will be automatically upgraded. However, those holding on Ethereum, Polygon zkEVM or centralized exchanges will be required to create a bridge, upgrade smart contracts or use a migration contract.
For users of most major centralized exchanges, Polygon expects the update to happen automatically.
However, if a non-trustee user fails to update the Remote Procedure Call (RPC) settings in their crypto wallets, they may incorrectly display “MATIC” instead of “POL” as the token symbol. RPC settings are configuration details that allow wallets like MetaMask to communicate with a specific blockchain network.
At the time of publication, there is no deadline set for MATIC holders on Ethereum and Polygon zkEVM to switch to POL.
“The community will have the power to set a deadline in the future,” he said annotated announcement.
Plans to replace MATIC with POL were initially announced in July 2023with the Ethereum contract for the POL token launched a few months laterOctober 25th.
The POL migration is the first step in laying the foundation for Polygon 2.0, which is billed as the “Value Layer of the Internet.” The upgrade is expected to deliver significant improvements in scalability and liquidity.
POL would have an initial supply of 10 billion and offer holders governance rights in the Polygon 2.0 ecosystem. 2% of the entire POL supply will be set aside annually for validator rewards and community treasury.
The announcement comes as Polygon’s NFT sales volume has been eclipsed Solana and Bitcoin earlier this month. The surge was observed despite the overall NFT sector seeing a decline of over 70% in the total number of NFT buyers.