- POL Smart Contracts, key to Polygon 2.0’s development, are now live on the Goerli Testnet.
- This move is aligned with Ethereum’s EIP-1559, signifying an improved approach to gas fees and MATIC token burning.
The Evolution of Polygon: Embracing POL Contracts
Sandeep Nailwail, Polygon‘s co-founder, unveiled on October 4 that POL Contracts—a cornerstone for realizing Polygon 2.0—have been successfully deployed on the Goerli Testnet. Accompanying this crucial milestone were the introductions of Polygon Improvement Proposals (PIPs) PIP-24 and PIP-25.
This release isn’t just a technical update; it’s part of a broader, more profound roadmap for Polygon. The testnet contracts echo the objectives outlined in Ethereum’s EIP-1559, which, as many blockchain aficionados recall, transformed Ethereum’s gas fee structure in August 2021. By addressing the pain points of ballooning gas fees during times of network congestion, EIP-1559 was Ethereum’s strategic move to enhance network efficiency.
It also underscores Ethereum’s pivotal role as the backbone for decentralized finance (DeFi) and the burgeoning non-fungible token (NFT) ecosystems.
For Polygon, the EIP-1559 isn’t just about adopting a revised fee model. It’s intricately tied to the MATIC token. Within this framework, MATIC tokens accumulated as base fees from transactions and smart contract deployments undergo a “burning” process. Since the inception of EIP-1559 on Polygon, a substantial 20 million MATIC tokens have been incinerated, methodically trimming the circulating supply.
PIP-24 further refines this process, suggesting tweaks to the EIP-1559 burn mechanism, while PIP-25 charts out a strategy to seamlessly convert MATIC to POL at a stable 1:1 rate.
The Ambition of Polygon 2.0: Scalability and Privacy
The march towards Polygon 2.0 isn’t just a sequel; it’s an ambitious overhaul. Polygon’s vision for 2.0 is to usher in an era of enhanced scalability, without compromising on security and user experience. Central to this is the integration of zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs. This cryptographic technique amplifies transaction privacy, ensuring users can transact without laying all their cards on the table.
Polygon Labs, the driving force behind this transformation, is actively refining its zkEVM solution. This Layer-2 mechanism harnesses ZK proofs, enabling decentralized applications (dApps) to execute transactions affordably, privately, and with the robust security layer of the Ethereum mainnet.
But ZK proofs are just one part of the 2.0 blueprint. Polygon 2.0 is also set to embrace “shards”—a mechanism allowing parallel transaction processing. This means heightened throughput and a network poised to support more resource-intensive dApps, catering to an expanding user base.
