Polygon finishes hard fork software upgrade to keep gas prices low, reduce reorgs

Ethereum ( ETH-USD ) scaling solution Polygon has completed a hard fork software upgrade in an effort to reduce gas fee spikes and prevent frequent chain reorganizations (reorgs), Polygon Labs, the company behind the crypto project, wrote in a Twitter post Tuesday. The expected upgrade took effect at 10:45 UTC (5:45 a.m. ET), according to polygonscan . The developers at Polygon ( MATIC-USD ) initially proposed the launch of a hard fork in December 2022. In essence, the completion of the new mechanism sets the stage for consistently low gas prices, a tax that all users must pay in order to transact on the blockchain. In reference to the proposal for preventing frequent reorgs, which occurs when a longer blockchain gets created due to the deletion of a previous block from the blockchain, the upgrade is set to reduce the amount of time it takes to finalize a block to verify transactions successfully. MATIC, Polygon's native token, inched up 0.5% to $1.01 as of 1:13 a.m. ET, and jumped 29.6% year-to-date amid a broader market rally. In mid-November, Seeking Alpha contributor Kevin George viewed MATIC as a Strong Buy, citing its recent high-profile partnerships.