Polygon community treasury announces grants program for builders, initially distributing 35 million MATIC

A Polygon MATIC -2.43% community treasury has announced a long-term plan to spur development on the blockchain that involves unlocking 1 billion tokens over a decade. 

"After community consensus, the Community Treasury has been created, with 1 billion POL unlocked over 10 years, with [approximately] 100 million POL per year, all for builders," the treasury said in an announcement. POL is set to become Polygon's native token, replacing MATIC eventually.

The treasury said would-be builders could apply starting Tuesday for "Season 1" of the program. In the initial phase of the incentivized program, the treasury "will distribute 35 million MATIC (about $22 million) to projects building on Polygon," the statement also said.

The application deadline for "Season 1" is August 31, 2024, and grants will range from "5,000  to 50,000+ MATIC," the treasury's statement said.

Independent from Polygon Labs

"The Polygon Community Treasury is an in-protocol fund independent from Polygon Labs (and other Polygon entities), governed via a framework that aims to enable community participation," according to a Polygon forum post . "It is designed and introduced to provide ongoing economic support for further development and growth of the Polygon ecosystem.

In Tuesday's announcement, the treasury said eventually it will give out grants in POL, but during this first wave. "Given the ongoing token upgrade from MATIC to POL, grants for Season 1 will be made in MATIC," the treasury said in its announcement.

Nearly a year ago, Polygon, an Ethereum scaling solution, proposed a technical upgrade for its native MATIC token as part of its Polygon 2.0 roadmap. The new POL token is meant to be capable of being staked across multiple chains within the Polygon ecosystem.