Dialogue with Polygon Lianchuang: From Matic to POL, the end game of Polygon2.0

Organize & Compile: Deep Tide TechFlow

Polygon is one of the most used chains in Crypto, and its various initiatives to develop outside the circle are a huge achievement in themselves. However, Polygon has also been criticized in the past, arguing that it is "just a sidechain" that cannot be "aligned with Ethereum".

But with the release of Polygon 2.0, those critical voices may dissipate. The two co-founders, Nailwal & Mihailo Bjelic, expressed their views on the end of Polgon, the renaming of Matic coins, ZKSupernets and the subsequent development strategy of Polygon.

Their goal is to "end the infrastructure era of Web3, so that applications, not infrastructure, become the protagonists of the ecosystem".

The following is the main content of this conversation, compiled by Shen Chao:

Moderator: David, bankless

Speakers: Sandeep Nailwal (@sandeepnailwal) & Mihailo Bjelic (@MihailoBjelic), Co-Founders of Polygon

Video Attribution: Bankless Podcast

Program: link

Published: July 26

About the design of Polygon 2.0

• **Polygon 2.0 Design Philosophy: Sandeep Nailwal emphasized that the Polygon 2.0 design philosophy is derived from the Internet of Web 2.0, especially its two key features: infinite scalability and unified fluidity. **
• He explained that if Web 3.0 is to achieve the scale of Web 2.0 (the current Internet), then it needs to have these two characteristics. Infinite scalability means that the network can continue to grow as more applications and software are created. Unified liquidity means that information and value can flow seamlessly across the network.
• **Technical Architecture of Polygon 2.0:**Sandeep and Mihailo discuss the technical architecture of Polygon 2.0 in detail. They mention a concept called an "aggregation layer" that recursively combines ZK (zero-knowledge proofs) and submits a single proof on Ethereum. In this way, transactions on one chain can be verified on another chain, realizing cross-chain transactions.
• Polygon History: Mihailo Bjelic reviews Polygon's development history, they encouraged experimentation, developed multiple clients, worked on multiple ZK projects, and even experimented with data availability. They learned a lot from the process and began to gradually move closer to a more concrete architecture. He emphasized that this process lasted for almost two years, and now they are very confident in this structure.
• Polygon's future plans: They also mentioned Polygon's future plans, including the transformation of Polygon POS (proof of stake) to ZK, and their confidence in this new architecture. They said that this new architecture is the result of their cooperation with several ZK teams in the past two years, and they are very satisfied and confident with this architecture.

The role of ZK and PoS upgrade

• **Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZK) in Polygon 2.0:**Sandeep explains how Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZK) can be used to scale blockchain networks. In the blockchain network, if you need to prove the validity of a transaction, you don’t need to provide all the transaction data, you only need to provide a ZK proof to prove that the transaction is valid, which can greatly improve the blockchain Network scalability.
• **Advantages of ZK: **Sandeep highlighted the advantages of ZK, including its effectiveness and security. Since the ZK proof is a proof of validity, once you submit a ZK proof on Ethereum, Ethereum can confirm that the transaction is valid, and you don't need to wait for the 7-day withdrawal period.
• Also, since ZK proofs are less computationally expensive, you can submit a large number of ZK proofs on Ethereum, enabling massive scalability.
• **Upgrade of the Polygon POS chain: **Sandeep and Mihailo discuss the POS upgrade. They emphasized that they do not want the Polygon POS chain to be forgotten in the Polygon 2.0 vision. Therefore, they plan to upgrade the Polygon POS chain to ZK EVM technology.
• This upgrade has two main consequences: one is that the Polygon POS chain will become one of the most widely used chains, and the other is that this upgrade will provide greater security and consistency.
• **About ZK's future plans:**Sandeep and Mihailo also mentioned Polygon's future plans, including continuing to optimize the performance of ZK proofs, reducing the cost of ZK proofs, and promoting the development of Polygon 2.0. They said they are confident in Polygon 2.0's vision and look forward to seeing more applications and software built on Polygon 2.0.

What do users need to do and when to upgrade?

• This will be seamless for end users during the upgrade process of the Polygon POS chain.
• They don't need to do anything special, because the upgrade process mainly involves validators and developers. Validators need to do a client upgrade, similar to other upgrades or hard forks they often do. Additionally, since assets on the Polygon POS chain will need to be bridged to the new interoperability, the Polygon community will need to be involved through the voting and governance process.
• The Polygon POS chain will be upgraded to a solution called "validium". In validium, the consensus layer is reached on Ethereum, and the data layer is reached outside of Ethereum.
• This solution can provide higher throughput and lower transaction fees. As for the timing of the upgrade, it will depend on community feedback and the governance process.
• They plan to release a formal Polygon Improvement Proposal (PIP, Polygon Improvement Proposal) within a few weeks for community discussion. *After the actual PIP is released, it may take one to two months to gather consensus from the community. The implementation process will then proceed in several stages. *Sandeep and Mihailo are very excited about this upgrade process as it will make the Polygon POS chain the first decentralized layer 2 network in the Ethereum ecosystem.

$MATIC and $POL, the concept of hyperproduction tokens

• Matic tokens will be upgraded to POL tokens, a one-to-one upgrade. This upgrade is necessary because the token itself needs to evolve and gain new functionality.
• For all practical purposes and uses, simply due to the non-upgradeable nature of the Matic ERC 20 contract, it is technically necessary to deploy a new ERC 20 contract, the POL token.
• **Ultra-production token:**Sandeep Nailwal explains why they are calling Matic token a third generation token. The first generation is Bitcoin, which serves as the token of the network and has no utility for the holder in the network. Then there is Ethereum, every Ethereum holder can participate in the Ethereum main chain and participate in securing the network through staking. But this can only happen on the Ethereum network itself.
• Whereas in the case of Polygon, you can use a single token to validate on hundreds of chains, and you play multiple roles on the chain, such as validators, serializers, data availability providers, etc. This is the concept of "Work Token", that is, you can use this token to do work in a wider network and provide value for the network.
• Why is it called POL: Moderator David asked why it was named "POL" instead of "POLY, because it seems to be more in line with the theme of the Polygon network.
• Sandeep Nailwal explained that they did consider calling the new token "Poly", but they discovered that there was already a token called "Polymath", which was a 2017 ICO project.
• They didn't want to be confused with this project, so they chose the name "POL". They want to keep a high-quality, three-character token name, like Bitcoin. Therefore, the naming of the "POL" token is mainly to avoid confusion with existing tokens and to maintain a concise, high-quality token name.
• In addition, they proposed a new governance framework based on the new token, including three components: protocol governance, system smart contract governance, and community financial governance. This governance framework has been worked out with the community and they are happy to see positive feedback from the community on it.

Endgame of Polygon, ZKSupernets

• Sandeep Nailwal said that their ultimate goal has always been to create an infinitely scalable network, all chains can be used as the second layer network of Ethereum, and all chains can be interoperable through ZK proofs.
• He believes that this architecture enables unlimited scalability and seamless interoperability, which are the keys to achieving mass adoption.
• Sandeep Nailwal and Mihailo Bjelic mentioned the concept of "zkSupernets". In this architecture, multiple chains can serve as the second-layer network of Ethereum, and all chains can interoperate through zero-knowledge proof (ZK). This means that each chain can operate independently while seamlessly interacting with other chains.
• Sandeep Nailwal explaining their plans for zkSupernets. They plan to upgrade the existing Polygon network to zkSupernets, which will allow the Polygon network to achieve unlimited scalability and seamless interoperability. There are already many projects developing or already deploying zkSupernets, and they look forward to seeing more projects join.
• Mihailo Bjelic also highlighted the importance of zkSupernets. He believes that as Web3 develops we will see more and more dedicated chains, just like dedicated servers in Web2. All of these private chains will be secured with ZK proofs and will all be connected to the same liquidity source for seamless interoperability. *Sandeep Nailwal further explained, **Their goal is to end the infrastructure era of Web3, making the application rather than the infrastructure the protagonist of the ecosystem. ** He believes this will only be achieved if the infrastructure is robust enough to support Web3 scaling to hundreds of millions of users.