Polygon recently provided more details on its proposed migration from MATIC tokens to its new POL tokens. This is part of Polygon’s plan to “aggregated blockchains“as his innovative approach to scaling these networks.
Everything you need to know about the migration from MATIC to POL
Polygon unveiled in a blog post that the mainnet upgrade from MATIC to POL is expected to take place on September 4th. In the first phase of the upgrade, the POL token will replace MATIC as the gas and staking token of the Polygon PoS (proof-of-stake) network. Meanwhile, depending on the community’s decision, the utility of POL could be extended to AggLayer by Polygon.
The network revealed that a testnet migration went live on July 17th, indicating that they are ready to move forward with this historic upgrade. As part of the upgrade, MATIC holders on Polygon PoS will not need to do anything as POL will automatically be upgraded to become the network’s utility token, without any user action required.
However, MATIC holders on Ethereum, Polygon zkEVM, or centralized exchanges (CEXs) will need to take action if they want to upgrade their MATIC tokens to POL. MATIC holders on Ethereum will receive a migration contractwhich has already been implemented to allow holders to upgrade from MATIC to POL without permission.
MATIC holders who do not have the technical knowledge to use these migration contracts can use a third-party decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator. These DEXs have already integrated the migration contracts, allowing holders to easily exchange their MATIC tokens for POL tokens.
MATIC holders on Polygon zkEVM Those interested in the upgrade can bridge their MATIC tokens from zkEVM to Ethereum and then use the migration contracts to upgrade their MATIC tokens to POL. Alternatively, they can use a zkEVM DEX or DEX aggregator to swap their MATIC tokens to POL.
Polygon noted that MATIC holders on CEXs may need to review their specific exchange’s guidelines to understand how to migrate from MATIC to POL. However, they added that most major exchanges will likely automatically assist users with this upgrade.
Promoting Blockchain Interoperability and Scaling Ethereum
The POL upgrade is part of Polygon’s grand plan to promote blockchain interoperability and the Ethereum networkIn the long term, POL is expected to become the native token of Polygon’s AggLayer, which is simply a network of zero-knowledge (ZK) powered layer-2 chains.
These chains gain access to shared liquidity, users and government support. across all networks on the AggLayer. This is where POL comes in, as users on any of these chains on the AggLayer no longer need to bridge tokens and send a wrapped version, as they can simply send the native POL token across these chains.
Of a Ethereum From a standpoint, chains on the AggLayer are considered a single rollup. As such, Ethereum holders can easily move their ETH tokens across these chains while getting the most out of each chain.
Main image created with Dall.E, chart from Tradingview.com