- According to a statement made to the media by Polygon, the hard fork will begin at block 38,189,056
- Chain reorganization is the process of removing a block from the blockchain to make place for a new, longer chain, ensuring that every node operator has access to the same copy of the ledger
A hard fork is a type of software upgrade that results in a permanent divergence from the previous version of the blockchain. This occurs when a majority of the network’s nodes agree to adopt new protocol rules, which then results in the creation of a new blockchain. This is different from a soft fork, which is a backward-compatible upgrade that only requires a majority of miners to adopt the new rules.
Ethereum layer-2 scaling solution Polygon I In order to address gas spikes and chain rearrangement issues that have harmed customer experience on the Polygon proof-of-stake (POS) chain will undergo a hard fork on January 17.
After several weeks of preliminary debate on the Polygon Improvement Proposal (PIP) forum page, Polygon publicly declared the hard fork event in a blog post on January 12.
Additional information on the hard fork was also given to the media by a Polygon representative on January 14: “The hard fork is programmed for Block >= 38,189,056. It won’t be started by a single, centralised actor. Before the given block, network validators are required to upgrade their nodes, which they are currently doing.”
87% of the 15 members of the Polygon Governance Team voted in support of raising the Base Fee Change Denominator function from 8 to 16 to lessen gas fee spikes and decreasing the Sprint Length function from 64 blocks to 16 to address the chain reorganization issue.
The Polygon Team responded to the gas spike issue by explaining that because the base fee price frequently experiences exponential spikes when on-chain activity increases quickly, they believe that by raising the denominator from 8 to 16, the growth curve can be flattened and severe fluctuations in gas prices can be smoothened.
In response to the issue of chain reorganization, Polygon stated that by shortening sprints, transaction finality will increase, enabling a single block producer to constantly add blocks at a frequency of 32 seconds as opposed to the present duration of 128 seconds. There won’t be a change in overall rewards because the modification won’t alter the total amount of time or number of blocks a validator generates, they noted.
To assure that all node operators have the same copy of the ledger, a block may be removed from the blockchain to make place for a new, longer chain. This process is known as chain reorganization. The rearrangement must yet go as quickly as feasible because it raises the possibility of a 51% attack.
The Polygon Team also affirmed that during the hard fork, applications won’t be impacted and that MATIC token holders and delegators won’t need to take any action.
Overall, the planned Polygon hard fork is a positive development for the blockchain system’s users. The hard fork will make the network more accessible and economical by eliminating the issue of gas charge spikes, which will ultimately result in higher adoption. The hard fork is anticipated to be a significant step in Polygon’s development as one of the top blockchain platforms in the market.