Polygon’s $1B yield plan under fire from former employee

A former Polygon employee, via an X post, flagged the blockchain’s risky incentive injection to boost its Aggregation Layer (AggLayer) ecosystem.

A former Polygon employee has raised concerns over the blockchain's planned $1 billion yield generation from stablecoin reserves.

The employee, who shared their thoughts in an X post, highlighted the proposal to generate yield from the stablecoin reserves that are held on the Polygon Proof-of-Stake (PoS) Chain bridge. The proposal is being discussed by the Polygon community as they aim to boost the Aggregation Layer (AggLayer) ecosystem.

The AggLayer is a decentralized protocol that aggregates ZK proofs from all connected chains and ensures the safety of near-instant cross-chain transactions. The proposal comes as Polygon recently transitioned from MATIC to POL, its new native token. POL serves as the gas and staking token for Polygon's proof-of-stake chain and will support the network's ambitious 2.0 roadmap.

The X post, titled “Polygon Community Evaluating Proposal to Generate Yield From $1B in Stablecoin Reserves,” delves into the details of the proposal and the implications for Polygon's ecosystem.

As per the X post, the proposal to generate yield from stablecoin reserves is being led by Allez Labs in collaboration with DeFi protocols. The plan is to utilize the approximately $70 million in annual opportunity costs that arise from the idle reserves.

Polygon Bridge, a key component in the cross-chain transfer of tokens, plays a crucial role in the stablecoin reserve utilization. When a user initiates the transfer of tokens from Ethereum to Polygon, the tokens are locked in a smart contract on Ethereum, acting as an escrow to ensure the safe arrival of tokens.

Meanwhile, validators on Polygon are notified of the locked tokens in the process, and equivalent tokens are minted on the network. This enables the use of the transferred tokens on Polygon while their counterparts remain locked on Ethereum.

The former Polygon employee's X post sheds light on the use of these locked tokens as collateral to generate yield for the ecosystem. As validators on Polygon are notified of the locked tokens, the assets are being utilized to the fullest extent possible.