Polygon Protocol Governance Call (PPGC) #27

Agenda and Meeting Overview

The 27th Polygon Protocol Governance Call focused on three main topics:

1. System Improvements: The introduction of Erigon V3, PIP-43, PIP-49, and PIP-52
2. Ethereum Petra Upgrade Compatibility: Support for EIP-7702 via PIP-51
3. Governance Upgrades: PIP-50’s expansion of community governance

PIPs Discussed

• PIP-43: Replace Tendermint with CometBFT in Heimdall
• PIP-49: ZK Checkpointing
• PIP-50: Staked Tokenholder Signalling
• PIP-51: Set EOA account code
• PIP-52: Execution Derived Randomness for Producer Selection

PIP-43: Transition from Peppermint to CometBFT

Marcello Ardizzone from the Polygon Labs team provided an update on PIP-43. Heimdall currently uses Peppermint (a Tendermint fork) for consensus. PIP-43 is a partnered effort between Polygon and Informal Systems (contributors to the Cosmos ecosystem) to replace Peppermint with CometBFT, a modernized fork with added features like ABCI++.

Benefits

• Reduced block times from 6 seconds to 2 seconds.
• Faster block validation, reduced time on invalid transactions, and streamlined syncing.
• Enables future features like IBC and parallel transaction processing.

Future Enhancements

• CometBFT's support for Cosmos v2 could lead to 10x faster storage and 5x faster query times.
• Bandwidth usage reduction of ~70%, benefiting node operators.

Timeline

• Targeted for testnet deployment in Q1 2025, pending audit completion.

PIP-49: Zero Knowledge Proofs for Checkpointing

Manav Darji from the Polygon Labs team discussed PIP-49 which aims to reduce gas consumption by shifting the computationally expensive checkpointing process off-chain. Validators currently rely on the “Check Signature Function,” which constitutes 86% of gas usage, and “Easy Recover,” which adds further cost. These processes will be replaced by Zero Knowledge Proofs using Succinct's zkVM (SP1).

Benefits

• Gas usage reduced from 1.9M to 0.37M gas per checkpoint.
• Validators will prove agreement among 2/3+1 majority through zk proofs, eliminating the need for on-chain signature verification.
• Improved scalability and cost efficiency.

Implementation Details

• Heimdall will be modified to generate and submit zk proofs off-chain.
• The legacy checkpointing system will remain as a backup to address potential liveness failures.
• Current proving times are ~4-5 minutes on testnet and may increase on mainnet.

PIP-50: POL Token Holder Signaling

Mateusz Rzeszowski who is the Head of Governance at Polygon Labs discusses PIP-50. This PIP introduces a structured governance process for POL token stakers, adding a new signaling layer for smart contract upgrades.

Three-Stage Process

1. Proposal Submission: Standard PIP proposal process reviewed by the Protocol Council.
2. POL Staker Voting: Token holders can approve or veto proposals via signaling.
3. Council Confirmation: Final approval or veto based on POL staker feedback.

Benefits

• Encourages active community participation while maintaining governance efficiency.
• Prevents apathy from hindering decision-making.

Governance App Features

• Delegation capabilities for stakers.
• Dashboard with all active proposals, community updates, and featured articles.

Future Plans

• Expanding on-chain governance for Polygon PoS, Bridge, and AggLayer upgradability.

PIP-51: EIP-7702 Compatibility

Manav Darji from the Polygon Labs team discussed PIP-51. This PIP aligns Polygon with Ethereum’s Petra upgrade, which will introduce transaction invalidation in pools. Polygon will implement corresponding changes to prevent unnecessary invalid transactions.

Timeline

• Scheduled for inclusion in the Q1 2025 hard fork.

PIP-52: Enhancing Bor Producer Selection Algorithm

Raneeth Debnath from the Polygon Labs team discussed that the Bor Producer Selection Algorithm is critical for choosing block producers for spans (A span is a defined set of blocks, during which a specific subset of validators is selected to operate as the block producer). Currently, randomness is determined by an Ethereum block hash, but this proposal increases randomness by utilizing the Polygon span block hash instead.

Benefits

• Enhanced security and unpredictability in producer selection.
• No additional change to the core algorithm, ensuring continuity.
• Increased trust among validators.

Implementation

• Requires a Heimdall hard fork.
• Testnet deployment is planned for December 2024, with mainnet activation in January 2025.

Erigon Version 3 Upgrade

Key Improvements

• State Data Distribution: Erigon 3 will distribute state data via BitTorrent, greatly improving sync times.
• Storage Optimization: Splits live and read-only data, reducing performance dependence on NVME storage. Archive nodes now require 4 TB, while minimal nodes only need less than 1 TB.
• Sync Performance:
  • Archive nodes sync in ~2 days on standard consumer connections.
  • Data center connections can reduce this time to ~3 hours.

Conclusion

The 27th Polygon Protocol Governance Call demonstrated Polygon’s ongoing commitment to performance, scalability, and community engagement. Key system upgrades, including ZKP checkpointing, enhanced producer selection randomness, and CometBFT integration, promise substantial improvements in cost efficiency and transaction throughput. 

Governance advancements ensure robust community participation while preserving execution efficiency. One of the more interesting upgrades is the move from Peppermint to CometBFT which could unlock the ability for Polygon PoS to support parallelized transaction processing and other performance upgrades to make Polygon more competitive with other L1 and L2 ecosystems. 

Node operators and validators are encouraged to adopt the latest upgrades to maximize these benefits, as Polygon continues to set new benchmarks in blockchain performance and governance. The next PPGC call is scheduled for December 12th, 2024.