The Ethereum sidechain, Polygon, completed a network hardfork on January 17, 2023, effectively resulting in a new Polygon blockchain. The hard fork was to fix some serious issues with the old chain. Before we get into the main issues Polygon tried to solve, we’ll explain what a hard fork is so you can better understand how the upgrade affects the Polygon blockchain.
What is a hard fork?
A fork is a blockchain protocol change for a blockchain update or a change to the rules. Forks can also be seen in the creation of a new cryptocurrency based on an older cryptocurrency, with the ability to change and refine how the blockchain works. Since cryptos are open source, code can be copied, edited or reused.
A hard fork is performed as a permanent deviation from the previous version of a blockchain, meaning that nodes running the previous version will no longer be accepted by the new version. The old network’s nodes and miners must upgrade their systems to participate in the new chain.
For a hard fork to occur, users of the chain must vote to choose between the current version and the upgrade to the network. Thus, the upgrade can only happen when a majority of the blockchain’s validators agree to it.
Why fork polygon hard?
There are two main reasons behind the Polygon hard fork.
1. To reduce the time required to complete a block
Shortening the time required to mine a block is aimed at reducing the chances of reorganization (reorganization).
A reorganization is a situation where a block is removed from a blockchain due to the introduction of a longer chain. This is caused when two miners work to add blocks of transactions of similar difficulty to the blockchain at the same time, deviating from the main version of the chain. The miner adding the next block is faced with choosing which side of the fork is correct. When one is selected, the other is overwritten. The miner who mined the removed block will not be rewarded for the block, which has a detrimental effect on the blockchain.
The Polygon hard fork is expected to reduce the time required to complete a block transaction and validate successful transactions.
Reducing the sprint length (the number of blocks a validator can produce continuously) means that they will be created for a shorter period of time. In the case of Polygon, reducing the sprint length from 64 blocks to 16 blocks means that a block producer will spend about 32 seconds instead of 128 seconds, thus reducing the chances of reorders. Therefore, it will reduce the chances of having secondary validators starting to produce blocks.
Based on the above, we propose a reduction in the sprint length from 64 to 16 blocks. This means that a block producer produces blocks continuously for a much shorter time compared to today’s 128 sec. This will help greatly in reducing the frequency and depth of reorganizations. This does not affect the total time/number of blocks a validator produces over a period of time, and therefore there will be no change in rewards overall.
2. To slow down the steady rise in gas prices
The upgrade will also reduce gas peaks by changing the BaseFeeChangeDenominator from 8 to 16. Changing the value of the BaseFeeChangeDenominator to 16 is expected to smooth out the base fee change rate. This will reduce the frequency of severe fluctuations during periods of high demand, improving Polygon users’ experiences.
How decentralized is polygon really?
Although the hard fork is being hailed as an advance that should improve Polygon’s efficiency, many have questioned how decentralized a decentralized economy system really is because only 15 validators were involved in the decision-making process to upgrade the system. This action raised concerns about how decentralized DeFi is.
Either way, Polygon’s hard fork should provide additional stability to the Ethereum sidechain while reducing gas fee spikes – a winning combination for Polygon users.
