This paper proposes POL, the native token of the revised Polygon protocol architecture, commonly referred to as Polygon 2.0. As the successor of MATIC, POL is envisioned to become an instrumental tool for coordination and growth of the Polygon ecosystem and the main driver of the vision of Polygon as the Value Layer for the Internet.
We start by analyzing relevant work, identifying opportunities and threats and, based on that, we establish POL design goals. We propose design, utility and tokenomics of POL that achieve all the design goals.
We describe the concept of the Staking Layer, a one-of-a-kind, POL-powered chain coordinator, capable of supporting a practically unlimited number of Polygon chains with arbitrary features and configurations. We believe the introduction of the Staking Layer and the wider Polygon 2.0 architecture can establish Polygon as the third most important and impactful breakthrough inWeb3 (the first two being Bitcoin and Ethereum), given the magnitude of innovation and adoption it can facilitate.
We introduce the Community Treasury, an in-protocol, community-governed fund designed to provide ongoing economic support for further development and growth of the Polygon ecosystem.
We describe the process of migration from MATIC to POL.
To analyze the proposed design, we define an economic simulation model and run simulations to confirm the hypothesis of the model, derived from the aforementioned design goals.
Based on everything above, we conclude that POL is a novel, next generation asset that provides a solid foundation for the ambitious vision of the Value Layer.