Polygon will invest 1 billion in POL tokens to develop the network

Polygon, known for being one of Ethereum’s leading layer 2 solutions, has revealed an initiative to boost the development of its network.

In a press release shared with CriptoFácil, Polygon announced the creation of a Community Treasury, which will be funded with 1 billion POL tokens. Polygon will distribute these tokens over the next decade. The goal is to increase developer engagement and innovation on the platform.

According to the POL white paper, Community Treasury tokens represent 1% of the network’s annual token issuances. This strategy aims to ensure a continuous flow of resources for innovative projects over the coming years.

Polygon has launched the first season of its Community Grant Program (CGP), a grant program aimed at supporting early-stage developers. In this first phase, 35 million MATIC tokens will be made available, valued at approximately US$22 million.

In the coming seasons, the program will provide up to 100 million POL tokens, following the network’s transition from MATIC to POL.

Polygon launches Community Treasure

“CGP’s goal is to support developers as they build. Waiting until a project is finished building and producing results misses a key piece of true innovation: the opportunity to take risks,” Polygon stated in its statement.

Interested developers can apply for grants between June 11 and August 31. Subsidy amounts range from 5,000 MATIC to over 50,000 MATIC. The Community Treasury Board will oversee the selection.

There are two main categories of grants: the General Grants Track and the Consumer Crypto Track. The General Grants Track covers all projects based on the Polygon protocol, including protocol infrastructure and developer tool libraries.

Meanwhile, the Consumer Crypto Track focuses on projects aimed at consumer adoption. This includes, for example, gaming, decentralized social platforms, content creation and NFT innovations.

As part of this revamp, Polygon Labs has implemented the contract for its new POL token on the Ethereum (ETH) mainnet. POL is a next-generation hyper-productive token that will replace MATIC. As such, it will play a crucial role in the upcoming Polygon 2.0 update.

“POL will power a vast ecosystem of zero-knowledge-based Layer 2 chains through a native re-stake protocol that allows holders to validate multiple chains and perform multiple functions on each of those chains,” Polygon Labs explained.