Polygon Labs is making major strides toward the future of its network on Wednesday.
On September 4, the Ethereum scaling network will complete a migration from its longstanding MATIC token to POL, which will then become the native token of its network. The migration forms an integral part of the Polygon 2.0 roadmap.
Ahead of the shift, here’s a look at what to expect from the migration—and what you need to do if you’re a MATIC holder.
What is the “MATIC” to “POL” migration?
The POL migration will phase out MATIC as Polygon's native token.
In lieu of MATIC, POL will become the native gas and staking token for Polygon's main proof-of-stake chain, Polygon said in a July blog post.
Why is Polygon moving to POL?
The POL migration sets the groundwork for Polygon 2.0, the roadmap for Polygon’s evolution into a zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine (zkEVM) system, complete with its own network of interoperable application-specific blockchains.
Per Polygon, POL will bring added utility to the network. As with MATIC, Polygon blockchain validators that participate in staking may earn rewards by restaking their POL to secure other chains in the Polygon supernet.
In subsequent updates, POL will be employed to secure other blockchains within Polygon’s broader “aggregated” network, aka the “AggLayer,” which is a core component of Polygon 2.0.
The AggLayer will aggregate zero-knowledge proofs from all connected chains and ensure the security of near-instant, atomic cross-chain transactions, Polygon explained in a blog post in January.
Do users need to do anything before the POL migration?
MATIC holders on the Polygon proof-of-stake chain do not need to do anything ahead of the POL migration, according to Polygon. Their tokens will be converted automatically to POL.
Meanwhile, MATIC holders on the Ethereum network may migrate their tokens to POL via the Polygon Portal Interface.
MATIC holders on the Polygon zkEVM layer-2 network or centralized exchanges may also have to take some action to upgrade MATIC to POL, such as bridging them to Ethereum. An already-deployed migration contract is available to help holders switch from MATIC to POL on Ethereum in a permissionless manner. Polygon warns, however, that this process is for advanced users.
Finally, MATIC holders that hold MATIC as ERC-20 tokens in hardware wallets such as Ledger may need to manually convert to POL using their wallet, although Polygon has not yet detailed this process.
When is the deadline for converting MATIC to POL?
There is currently no deadline for MATIC holders on Ethereum and Polygon zkEVM to convert MATIC to POL, per Polygon’s blog post.
However, the Polygon community may be granted the authority to establish a deadline in the future, Polygon said in its post.