Blockchain network Polygon has rolled out its latest protocol upgrade, known as the Madhugiri hard fork. This upgrade aims to achieve a 33% increase in network throughput and reduce block consensus time to one second.
Polygon core developer Krishang Shah announced on X that the update includes support for three Fusaka Ethereum Improvement Proposals: EIP-7823, EIP-7825, and EIP-7883. These EIPs enhance the efficiency and security of heavy mathematical operations by limiting the amount of gas they consume.
Furthermore, these proposals prevent single transactions from consuming excessive computing power, which helps the network operate more smoothly and predictably.
The upgrade introduces a new transaction type specifically for Ethereum to Polygon bridge traffic and incorporates a built-in flexibility feature designed for future upgrades. Polygon had previously stated that the update makes throughput increases as simple as "flipping a few switches."
Shah also noted that the consensus time is being decreased to one second, allowing blocks to be announced in one second if they are ready, rather than waiting for the full two seconds.
New Update Reinforces Polygon for Stablecoins and Real-World Assets
With the Madhugiri hard fork now live, Polygon aims to reinforce its infrastructure while materially improving its performance. These enhancements are considered prerequisites for high-frequency and high-trust use cases, such as the tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs) and stablecoins.
Aishwary Gupta, the global head of payments and RWAs at Polygon Labs, had previously forecasted a "stablecoin supercycle."
Gupta predicted a surge of "at least 100,000 stablecoins" within the next five years. He emphasized that this growth would not solely involve token minting but must be accompanied by corresponding utility, such as yield generation.
Gupta has also advocated for increased transparency and accountability within the RWA sector. He has argued that RWA figures are meaningless if the underlying assets cannot be audited, settled, or traded.
He stated that "When transparency and accountability are established, RWAs will reach even greater heights, unlocking trillions in institutional capital."
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Hard Fork Follows Major Heimdall Upgrade
This latest upgrade follows a series of rapid prior improvements. On July 10, Polygon deployed Heimdall 2.0, which Polygon Foundation CEO Sandeep Nailwal described as the network's "most technically complex" hard fork since its launch.
The Heimdall 2.0 update reduced transaction finality times from one to two minutes to approximately five seconds.
However, on September 10, the network experienced a significant disruption. A bug caused finality delays of 10 to 15 minutes, affecting validator synchronization, remote procedure call (RPC) services, and third-party tooling. Despite this issue, the development team assured the community that blocks were still being processed.
On September 11, the Polygon Foundation announced that the consensus and finality functions had been restored through a hard fork. This update resolved the issue of nodes being stuck, and checkpoints and milestones were finalized as expected.
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