QUICK BITE
- Polygon announced September 4th as the expected mainnet date for the MATIC to POL upgrade.
- MATIC holders on Polygon’s PoS network will seamlessly transition to POL as the native token for gas and staking, without needing any manual action.
- Holders of MATIC on Ethereum and other platforms can opt-in to migrate to POL using a deployed migration contract, ensuring a smooth transition process.
Ethereum Layer-2 (L2) scaling solution, Polygon has recently announced that after reaching vibrant community consensus, the date has been decided for the MATIC to POL upgrade. September 4th is the expected mainnet date for the MATIC to POL upgrade.
As the upgrade to MATIC, in the initial phase, POL will become the gas and staking token of Polygon PoS. In subsequent phases, the community can decide to expand the utility of POL to serve a crucial role in the AggLayer.
“POL is an exciting and highly anticipated upgrade, mainly because it further expands the utility of Polygon’s native token to reflect and power the vision of Polygon as an ever-growing network of aggregated blockchains,” said Polygon in its official announcement blog.
The company has further explained that POL is an exceptionally productive token that offers essential services across the Polygon network, including within the AggLayer. And in the future, the community consensus foresees POL taking on expanded responsibilities within the Polygon staking hub slated for launch in 2025. These roles may encompass block creation, generating zero-knowledge proofs, and contributing to Data Availability Committees (DACs).
Regarding Migration, Polygon has stated that MATIC holders on Polygon’s Proof of Stake (PoS) network don’t need to do anything. POL will automatically replace MATIC as the main token for gas fees and staking on Polygon PoS.
However, MATIC holders on Ethereum, Polygon zkEVM, or centralized exchanges (CEXes) may need to take action if they want to switch from MATIC to POL. When MATIC holders are ready to upgrade, a migration contract that is already deployed will enable holders to upgrade MATIC to POL on Ethereum permissionlessly.
Not to mention, the POL upgrade was launched on testnet on July 17th to act as a practice run, spotting and resolving issues before the mainnet switch.
