Polygon,
a
layer-2
network
atop
the
Ethereum
blockchain,
will
activate
an
upgrade
on
Wednesday
that
swaps
out
its
longstanding
MATIC
token
for
a
new
POL
token,
allowing
for
more
flexibility
on
issuance
of
new
supply.
While
the
planned
switchover
has
been
well-telegraphed,
the
changeover
could
be
closely
monitored,
since
the
token
is
widely
held
across
crypto
investor
portfolios;
it’s
the
13th
biggest
by
market
capitalization
in
the
CoinDesk
20
index
of
large
digital
assets,
at
about
$3.8
billion.
For
many
users,
the
swap
will
take
place
automatically.
The
migration
comes
as
a
part
of
the
project’s
planned
revamp
laid
out
last
year
in
its
“Polygon
2.0”
roadmap,
to
make
POL
the
native
token
of
its
main
chain,
the
Polygon
PoS
chain,
as
well
as
eventually
other
chains
in
its
ecosystem.
According
to
Polygon,
in
the
initial
phase
of
the
migration,
“POL
replaces
MATIC
as
the
native
gas
and
staking
token
for
the
Polygon
PoS
network.
In
subsequent
phases,
POL
will
serve
a
crucial
role
in
the
AggLayer.”
The
AggLayer
is
another
staple
in
the
roadmap,
essentially
a
system
for
aggregating
affiliated
blockchains
built
using
Polygon
technology.
Furthermore,
the
Polygon
community
has
proposed
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).”
POL
migration
The
migration
from
POL
to
MATIC
will
also
bring
in
some
tokenomics
changes.
Polygon
shared
that
the
token
will
have
a
new
emission
rate
of
2%
annually,
where
part
of
the
supply
goes
to
validators
on
Polygon
PoS
for
rewards,
and
the
other
part
to
the
community
treasury,
“a
self-sustainable
ecosystem
fund
that
can
support
the
above
activities.”
“The
biggest
reason
why
the
upgrade
was
needed
from
a
technical
perspective,
is
that
the
MATIC
upgrade
keys
were
burned
very
intentionally
years
ago.
Which
basically
means
that
we
can’t
make
changes
to
that
token,”
said
Marc
Boiron,
CEO
of
Polygon
Labs,
in
an
interview
with
CoinDesk.
“So
one
of
the
things
that
we
wanted
was
to
introduce
emissions
that
way.
We
could
use
it
for
the
community,
we
could
use
it
for
growth.
It
was
literally
impossible
to
do
that
otherwise.”
Boiron
reiterated
that
introducing
emissions
is
supposed
to
help
the
Polygon
community
ecosystem
by
introducing
a
grants
program
as
part
of
the
community
treasury,
allowing
them
“some
form
of
control
by
the
community
over
the
funds
so
that
you
can
grow
the
ecosystem.”
“And
then
the
second
one
is
a
means
for,
effectively,
validators
to
receive
emissions,”
Boiron
added.
“Effectively,
if
you
think
of
these
new
chains
that
pop
up,
what’s
going
to
happen
is
that
with
time,
they’re
going
to
want
to
decentralize.
And
so
instead
of
just
having
a
centralized
sequencer,
they’re
going
to
need
to
incentivize
people
to
actually
run
a
decentralized
group
or
a
decentralized
prover.
And
if
they
don’t
have
a
token,
or
if
they
don’t
want
to
launch
a
token
yet,
how
do
they
do
that?
Well,
effectively,
what
this
does
is
that
a
portion
of
that
POL
emissions
can
actually
be
used
to
decentralize
their
network,
and
then
POL
holders
will
then
receive
fees
from
that
network.”
