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The Polygon Ecosystem Token (POL) is a multi-chain scaling solution designed to improve the speed and reduce the cost of executing transactions on Ethereum.
An upgrade and renaming of the MATIC token, POL aims to enhance tokenomics and governance rights within the Polygon ecosystem.
The Matic Network was co-founded by Jaynti Kanani, Sandeep Nailwal, and Anurag Arjun to combat blockchain scaling and usability issues. In February 2021, Matic rebranded to Polygon to provide developers a suite of scaling solutions beyond its existing proof of stake (PoS) chain. The POL upgrade is designed to facilitate a broad spectrum of activities central to network operations, including participation and bolstering network security. In the Polygon ecosystem, MATIC and POL are not intended to coexist. Instead, POL will replace MATIC as the native token.
Polygon launched in 2017 as the Matic Network. with its native currency, MATIC subsequently launched in 2019, via an “initial exchange offering." The mainnet launched with core contracts on Ethereum in 2020. POL was established on October 25, 2023 with its migration occurring on September 4th, 2024.
The POL token, mirroring many of MATIC’s characteristics, will be based on OpenZeppelin’s ERC20 implementations and will support EIP-2612 for signature-based permit approvals. POL enhances the Polygon ecosystem security through a highly decentralized pool of Proof-of-Stake (PoS) validators, who are incentivized to secure a multitude of chains within the Polygon network. Validators will be required to stake POL to join the validator pool, increasing the ecosystem’s security through mechanisms like preventing Sybil attacks and enabling slashing for malicious validators. To incentivize validators, POL will be distributed as protocol rewards, proportional to the amount staked.POL is integral to achieving infinite scalability within the Polygon ecosystem. It supports the expansion of the validator pool, enabling the network to potentially manage thousands of Polygon chains, a crucial step towards what is termed as “hyperblockchainization.”
