Polygon Protocol Governance Call (PPGC) #28

Agenda and Meeting Overview

The 28th Polygon Protocol Governance Call focused on the following themes:

1. System Improvements:
   • Addressing synchronization issues with Bor via PIP-53.
   • Migrating Heimdall to a modernized consensus model with PIP-44.
   • Strengthening network governance with PIP-54.
2. Governance Enhancements:
   • Transitioning critical ownership of infrastructure to the Protocol Council under PIP-54.
3. Community Collaboration:
   • Reviewing lessons from the PoS Bridge Liquidity Program's Pre-PIP process and announcing updates to streamline community proposal workflows.

PIPs Discussed

• PIP-44: Upgrade CosmosSDK in Heimdall
• PIP-53: Jorvik Hardfork
• PIP-54: Reassign Upgradability Rights of Polygon PoS Contracts to The Protocol Council
• Pre-PIP: Polygon PoS Bridge Liquidity Program

PIP-44: Heimdall V2 Upgrade to CometBFT

PIP-44 involves a significant overhaul of the consensus mechanism. Heimdall, currently powered by Peppermint (a Tendermint fork), will transition to CometBFT—a modernized version featuring ABCI++ and other technical enhancements. This upgrade is a joint effort between Polygon Labs and Informal Systems, key contributors to the Cosmos ecosystem.

Key Features and Benefits:

• ABCI++ Integration: Applications can validate and tweak blocks before finalization, providing enhanced transaction control.
• Improved Consensus: The introduction of pre-vote and pre-confirmation stages allows for more robust validation during consensus.
• Vault Extensions: This new feature replaces site transactions from Tendermint, streamlining operations.
• Technical Debt Reduction: Migrating to CometBFT resolves legacy issues tied to Peppermint.

Migration Considerations:

• The new chain will require exporting Heimdall’s current state into a genesis file, but historical data will not carry over to the new chain. Archive nodes running the old Heimdall version will provide access to this data.
• Testing and audits are ongoing, with migration planned for Q1 2025.

PIP-53: Bor Randomness Algorithm Update

PIP-53 addresses a critical issue with Bor's block producer randomness algorithm, which caused synchronization problems when non-validating Heimdall nodes experienced crashes after desynchronizing. These issues were traced to Bor blocks being used as seeds for randomness. In cases of node desynchronization, this method produced inconsistent outcomes, destabilizing the network.

The Polygon team resolved this issue temporarily by restoring nodes using snapshots and deploying external RPCs. PIP-53 proposes a more permanent solution: redesigning the randomness algorithm to prevent future issues. Testing is currently underway, with the fix ensuring seamless synchronization and robust network performance once deployed.

PIP-54: PoS Bridge and L1 Contract Governance Transition

PIP-54 represents a pivotal upgrade in Polygon’s governance structure. It transitions ownership of critical PoS bridging and L1 contracts from a legacy multisig setup to governance by the Protocol Council, a move designed to enhance decentralization and security.

Governance Framework:

• Standard Upgrades: Require a 7 out of 13 council consensus with a 10-day timelock.
• Emergency Upgrades: Require a 10 out of 13 consensus with no timelock.
• Community Oversight: Enabled by PIP-50, allowing POL token stakers to provide checks and balances.

While this proposal introduces a more decentralized governance model, its implementation impacts core security properties of Polygon’s infrastructure. Extensive peer reviews (both internal and external) are underway to ensure a smooth transition.

Post-Mortem on the PoS Bridge Liquidity Program Pre-PIP

The community’s engagement around the PoS Bridge Liquidity Program revealed a misunderstanding of the Pre-PIP process. Although the idea was a preliminary proposal meant to spark discussion, some community members mistook it for a formal PIP.

To address this:

• Pre-PIPs will be rebranded as Polygon Feature Requests to differentiate them from formal proposals.
• Guidelines for submitting and advancing Feature Requests will be released in early 2025 to streamline the process and improve clarity.

This shift ensures that community members can participate meaningfully while maintaining transparency and clear expectations.

Conclusion

The 28th PPGC underscored Polygon’s commitment to expanding the role of governance on Polygon via PIP-54’s migration from upgrades being governed by the Polygon multisig to now the Protocol Council with checks and balances from stakers. Additionally PIP-44 covers Polygon’s ongoing efforts to upgrade the network to the latest form of infrastructure with CometBFT and ABCI++. It was mentioned that the new CosmosSDK reduces some of the technical deck that the Polygon team would have to incur when upgrading the chain. On the previous PPGC one of the things discussed was the potential to support transaction parallelization on Polygon via CometBFT. Therefore the implementation of PIP-44 could pave the way for many future notable PIPs. Lastly there was a discussion of the PoS Bridge Liquidity Program Pre-PIP which had drummed up attention both in the Polygon community and the broader crypto space. The Polygon team wanted to emphasize that a “Pre-PIP” is merely just the introduction of an idea to the governance forums and not a formal proposal. To address this confusion they will be renaming “Pre-PIP” to a “Polygon Feature Request”.

The next PPGC is scheduled for January 16, 2025. Validators and node operators are encouraged to stay informed and prepare for the above impactful changes.