Polygon Deploys Smart Contract for New Token POL on Ethereum

Polygon is moving closer to replacing its current MATIC token with a new currency, POL, as it deploys the POL smart contract on the Ethereum mainnet.

Polygon Deploys Smart Contract for New Token POL on Ethereum. Image: Polygon

On the afternoon of October 25, Polygon Labs announced the deployment of the smart contract for the new POL token on the Ethereum mainnet, marking a significant step in the development vision of Polygon 2.0.

As previously reported by Coin68, Polygon 2.0 represents the next stage of development for Polygon, incorporating several major upgrades for the blockchain project. Notable changes include the replacement of the MATIC token with POL, the introduction of the "3 pillar" governance model, implementation of the re-staking mechanism, and upgrading the Polygon PoS chain to layer-2 zkEVM, among others.

The project has been steadily progressing through its development roadmap, recently deploying the POL smart contract on the Ethereum Goerli testnet in early October.

Additionally, the Polygon community is discussing changes related to POL compared to MATIC, including:

• PIP-18: Proposing the activation of MATIC to POL conversion, making POL the fee and staking token across the entire Polygon ecosystem, including the main blockchain and other layer-2 networks.
• PIP-19: Establishing POL as the native token on Polygon PoS, replacing MATIC.
• PIP-244: Introducing a coin burn mechanism for POL transaction fees, similar to Ethereum's EIP-1559.
• PIP-25: Adjusting the total supply of POL.

Polygon Labs stated:

"POL will be a versatile next-generation token, serving as the backbone for a layer-2 ecosystem utilizing zero-knowledge proof technology through the re-staking mechanism. This will enable POL holders to participate in transaction verification across multiple blockchains and perform various functions on each respective chain."

However, the process of deploying POL and converting MATIC to POL will not occur immediately. The project still awaits completion of other parts of the Polygon 2.0 upgrade, such as transitioning Polygon PoS to layer-2 zkEVM, implementing interoperable data circulation mechanisms compatible with zk technology across all layer-2 developments on Polygon, and ensuring liquidity sharing between these platforms.

Prior to this announcement, MATIC experienced minimal volatility; however, in recent days, MATIC has also rebounded by over 30% in value, in line with the overall cryptocurrency market growth.

4-hour chart of MATIC/USDT pair on Binance at 06:45 PM on October 25, 2023.