Polygon Labs, the entity behind the Polygon sidechain, has taken a significant step forward by launching its new POL token on the Ethereum mainnet. It’s important to note that, for the time being, MATIC remains the means of paying transaction fees on the Polygon network. The usefulness of the new POL should become clearer as discussions continue within the Polygon community, particularly through its governance process.
Polygon engages its new POL token – Goodbye MATIC?
Polygon Labs, the firm behind the Polygon sidechain, has just announced that the POL token smart contract has been deployed on the Ethereum mainnet. According to on-chain data, the contract for Polygon’s new token was created this morning at around 11:06 a.m. under the name “Polygon Ecosystem Token”.
The POL token upgrade is now live on Ethereum mainnet.
Polygon 2.0, released this summer, is a roadmap for scaling Ethereum to build the Value Layer of the Internet. POL unlocks that future.
POL is a next-generation token that can power a vast ecosystem of ZK-based L2 chains…. pic.twitter.com/gmrsu0ZqLz
– Polygon (Labs) (@0xPolygonLabs) October 25, 2023
Then comes the question on everyone’s mind, especially MATIC token holders: what will become of Polygon’s altcoin? Well, according to the Polygon Labs press release, the transition should take place at a later date, so there’s no need to take any action if you have MATIC in your wallet.
So, for the time being, the MATIC remains the token used to pay transaction fees on Polygon. The usefulness of the POL should logically emerge as the Polygon community discusses its system of governance
The deployment of the POL token paves the way for Polygon 2.0, the new ecosystem of the eponymous sidechain. The transition to the latter will materialize in particular with the move from proof-of-stake (PoS) to a zkEVM infrastructure, i.e. to a layer 2 based on ZK Rollups technology and compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).
This will also include the deployment of a shared liquidity protocol across all Polygon ecosystem networks, enabling POL tokens to be staked on each of them in order to “play multiple roles on each of these chains”, according to the release.
More broadly, deployment of the POL token requires no action on the part of node operators, MATIC stakers or decentralized application (dApps) and tool developers.
The MATIC token price has risen by 0.6% over the last 24 hours, and by 23% over the last 7 days.
