Polygon Labs announced a significant commitment to switch its network’s native gas and staking token from MATIC to POL. Polygon said the transition will occur in stages, with POL first becoming the native staking token and gas for the Polygon PoS network on September 4.
Polygon emphasized that the community-driven MATIC to POL migration will be critical in the AggLayer aggregated blockchain network. Extensive discussions and proposals initiated by PIP-17 in 2023 resulted in the decision to “upgrade” the native token in line with Polygon’s vision, declared Polygon.
Polygon Labs commits to native token ‘upgrade’
420 hours until the MATIC to POL migration on Sep 4
— Polygon | Aggregated (@0xPolygon) August 18, 2024
According to Polygon, the transition from MATIC to POL was designed to enhance the native token’s utility and make it the cornerstone of Polygon’s expanding ecosystem. Polygon Labs insisted that the POL token will support the network’s growth and security, facilitating cross-chain services.
Polygon asserted that while the transition will have an immediate impact on the Polygon PoS network, the long-term plan involved expanding POL’s role in the Polygon staking hub (to be released in 2025), especially in block generation, participation in DACs (data availability committees), and zero-knowledge proof generation.
Polygon Labs disclosed that the first step towards achieving POL’s community-driven vision was in October last year when the POL ERC-20 contracts went live on Ethereum. Polygon also confirmed that it had performed a successful testnet migration in July 2024. The aspiring multi-chain ecosystem also revealed that the PIP-42 consensus required Polygon PoS validators to stake POL to earn protocol rewards and transactional fees in POL.
Polygon Labs encouraged its users, developers, and community members to review all the information provided and make the necessary arrangements to ensure a smooth transition to the upcoming POL era.
Polygon communicates conversion guidelines
Polygon Labs confirmed that the upgrade will affect MATIC holders and different network users in various ways. According to Polygon, MATIC holders on the Polygon PoS chain will benefit from automatic POL conversion, while MATIC holders on Ethereum, Polygon zkEVM, or CEXes (centralized exchanges) will have to upgrade their tokens through a few guided steps and dApps.
Polygon mentioned that there was no strict deadline for this conversion yet.
However, the Web3 solutions provider reminded MATIC holders on Polygon PoS to update their wallets’ RPC settings otherwise, they will still display MATIC instead of POL as the native token’s symbol. According to Polygon, MATIC holders on Ethereum without the technical knowledge to interact with the ‘migration contract’ were required to use DEX dApps (or aggregators).
“Note that MATIC on Polygon cannot be swapped to POL for now…However, for MATIC on a self custody wallet, it is possible now to swap MATIC (on Ethereum) for POL using dApps such as ParaSwap or KyberSwap.”
–Chase, “The Bitcoin Express”
Polygon claimed that most of the top exchanges will likely conduct an automatic upgrade for their users. However, they issued a ‘temporary suspension notice’ for redemptions and issuances during the September 4 upgrade.
The blockchain also advised dApps, DeFi protocols, and various ecosystem stakeholders to adapt to the POL upgrade by updating price oracles, user interfaces, and smart contracts to support the POL token.
