Polygon (POL): how it works, supply and reviews
In short
- Type
- EVM-compatible proof-of-stake chain that anchors its state to Ethereum with checkpoints
- Initial supply
- 10 billion POL, matching the MATIC supply 1:1 at migration
- Risks and caveats
- Each span has a single block producer chosen from a small pool of validators; if it stalls, a new span is needed to resume blocks.
- Checked
- 31 October 2026
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Key facts
- Ticker
- POL
- Official site
- polygon.technology
Key facts checked on 31 October 2026 against official sources.
What is Polygon
Polygon Chain (Polygon PoS) is an EVM-compatible proof-of-stake blockchain anchored to Ethereum through periodic checkpoints. POL, which replaced MATIC in September 2024, is its gas and staking token.
Network and consensus
| Parameter | Details |
|---|---|
| Type | EVM-compatible proof-of-stake chain that anchors its state to Ethereum with checkpoints |
| Consensus | Two layers: Heimdall (proof-of-stake consensus, CometBFT and Cosmos SDK) and Bor (block production, based on Go Ethereum) |
| Finality | Deterministic finality in about 2 to 5 seconds through milestones |
| Validators | Up to 105 active validators; minimum stake 10,000 POL, staked on Ethereum |
| Chain ID | Mainnet chain ID 137; gas token POL |
| Launched | Mainnet went live in 2020 (as Matic Network) |
Supply and issuance
| Parameter | Details |
|---|---|
| Initial supply | 10 billion POL, matching the MATIC supply 1:1 at migration |
| Issuance | Ongoing emission; effectively 2% a year after June 2025 (validator rewards and community treasury) |
| Emission cap | Governance can change the rate by upgrading the EmissionManager, within a per-second mint cap in the POL contract |
| MATIC migration | MATIC converts to POL 1:1; migrated MATIC is held, not burned, and can be converted back while governance allows it |
What POL is used for
- Paying gas fees on Polygon Chain
- Staking by validators and delegators to secure the network and earn rewards
- Funding the community treasury through part of the emission
Who develops and governs Polygon
- Governance
- Off-chain process: Polygon Improvement Proposals (PIPs), protocol governance calls and the community forum
- Foundation
- Polygon Foundation; Sandeep Nailwal is its co-founder and CEO
- Company
- Polygon Labs, which runs polygon.technology and lists its own leadership team
- Founders
- Started as Matic Network in 2017 to improve Ethereum infrastructure
- Open source
- POL token, migration and emission contracts are published on GitHub; the token contract is not upgradable
History
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 2017 | Matic Network is founded to scale Ethereum. |
| 2020 | The Matic PoS mainnet goes live. |
| 9 February 2021 | Matic Network rebrands as Polygon. |
| October 2023 | The POL ERC-20 contracts go live on Ethereum, proposed in PIP-17. |
| 4 September 2024 | POL replaces MATIC as the native gas and staking token of Polygon PoS. |
| 3 September 2025 | Polygon reports that 99% of MATIC has migrated to POL. |
Security and audits
- POL minting is rate-limited, and features such as unmigration can be locked or unlocked through governance.
- Polygon warns that the MATIC to POL migration has attracted scams and asks users to verify contract addresses through official sources.
Official POL contracts
| Network | Contract address |
|---|---|
| Ethereum | 0x455e53CBB86018Ac2B8092FdCd39d8444aFFC3F6 |
| Polygon PoS (native token system contract) | 0x0000000000000000000000000000000000001010 |
POL on Ethereum is listed in the official pol-token repository; on Polygon PoS it is the native gas token, exposed through the genesis system contract 0x...1010.
Risks and caveats
- Each span has a single block producer chosen from a small pool of validators; if it stalls, a new span is needed to resume blocks.
- POL has ongoing emission, and governance can change the emission rate within the contract's mint cap.
- The MATIC-POL migration contract has an owner who can disable converting POL back to MATIC.
Official links
- Website: polygon.technology
- Docs: docs.polygon.technology
- Source code: github.com/0xPolygon
- Token contracts: github.com/0xPolygon/pol-token
- Blog: polygon.technology/blog
Questions and answers
What is Polygon?
Polygon Chain is an EVM-compatible proof-of-stake blockchain anchored to Ethereum. Its gas and staking token is POL.
Is MATIC the same as POL?
POL replaced MATIC on 4 September 2024 through a 1:1 migration. MATIC on Polygon PoS converted automatically; MATIC on Ethereum can be migrated in the Polygon Portal.
What is the supply of POL?
POL started with 10 billion tokens, matching MATIC 1:1, and has an effective 2% annual emission after June 2025.
How does Polygon reach consensus?
Heimdall proof-of-stake validators finalise Bor blocks through milestones in about 2 to 5 seconds and submit checkpoints to Ethereum.
When was Polygon founded?
It was founded as Matic Network in 2017, launched mainnet in 2020 and was renamed Polygon in February 2021.
Sources
- Polygon Docs — Polygon Chain overview
- Polygon Docs — Architecture overview
- Polygon Docs — Bor
- Polygon Docs — POL
- Polygon Docs — Migrate to POL
- Polygon Docs — MATIC
- Polygon Docs — Governance fundamentals
- Polygon Docs — RPC endpoints
- Polygon Docs — Genesis contracts
- pol-token README (GitHub)
- Polygon — About
- Polygon blog — Matic Network becomes Polygon
- Polygon blog — MATIC to POL migration coming September 4th
- Polygon blog — MATIC to POL migration is now live
- Polygon blog — MATIC to POL migration is 99% complete
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