We’re excited to share the 4th major release announcement of the Beta IV. It’s only been a short time since the announcement of Beta III, which had a long list of improvements in terms of Golem features (VPN support, HTTP proxy, custom usage counters, etc.) and fixes. With this major release, the feature list is shorter but definitely just as significant! Beta IV now includes support for our new Polygon mainnet payment driver.

Beta IV includes Yagna v0.9.0 (code-named lleumia) which is important for both requestors and providers. Both will need to upgrade for your node to be able to support Polygon. Over time we expect the vast majority of tasks to occur on Polygon. So for providers, in particular, you will miss out on the majority of tasks if your node is not updated.

The major release also includes Yapapi v0.8.0 (code-named Halifax Explosion), which is needed for requestors to easily run tasks on Polygon using the Yagna Python API. In addition, our developers have included a custom market strategy example to assist requestors.

And the Golem handbook has been updated with some resources focused on requestors.

How do I upgrade or install Golem to support Polygon?

To upgrade or install Golem, both will be the same for a requestor or a provider. It’s very important for providers to update or you will not be able to support tasks for Polygon. To be clear, you will get much fewer tasks as a provider if you don’t upgrade.

Requestor:

curl -sSf https://join.golem.network/as-requestor | bash -

Provider:

curl -sSf https://join.golem.network/as-provider | bash -

What does this mean for GLM on ZkSync?

ZkSync will still be usable as a payment driver, just that we expect most tasks to gradually occur on Polygon, with it being the optimal mainnet payment driver for requestors. In the coming weeks, we will be introducing a GLM Provider Subsidy to help reimburse exit costs that providers and requestors might incur for exiting GLM from ZkSync to Ethereum. Until that announcement where we will elaborate much more, we'd recommend not exiting any tokens from ZkSync.

Benefits of Polygon

In the video and sections below we will share how to get started as a provider and a requestor running mainnet tasks, along with the impacts of adding Polygon as a driver has for the Golem Network.

Getting started for both Golem providers and requestors using the new version and dive into the new Golem Polygon payment driver. Fees

Currently, on ZkSync, fees for transferring GLM are nearing 1 GLM per transaction. This is roughly $0.40 per payment for a Golem Network task or service. On Polygon requestors can expect to get transactions in the range of ~100-200x cheaper depending on the Gas Price.

Other benefits of the new payment driver include that finality on Polygon is fast, usually considered after 128 blocks (or ~5 minutes). In contrast, blocks on ZkSync can often be pending for hours. Polygon will also help with addressing the Nonce Mismatch error that’s been coming up now and then on ZkSync for requestors.

On-boarding and off-boarding

As for off-boarding and on-boarding, this is MUCH cheaper compared to ZkSync. The cheapest off-boarding would be to convert GLM to USDC using QuickSwap. USDC is supported on Binance and Gate.io as deposit methods directly from Polygon, without needing to exit/bridge to Ethereum. Keep in mind that deposits on Polygon can sometimes be restricted depending on Polygon network conditions. In the scenario that you need some MATIC for Gas, gasless swaps are usually also available (depending on network conditions) so you will be able to swap GLM to MATIC, paying the fees in GLM. Go to wallet.polygon.network/swap to see more.

As for requestors, the first time you run a task it will be on testnet. The flash tutorial will take care of everything related to funding your testnet address by following the requestor section of the handbook.

For mainnet on-boarding as a developer and/or requestor after completing tasks on testnet, getting started for the first time on mainnet and running tasks on Polygon using real GLM, you can use our faucet. Join our Discord, head to the #funding channel, read the T&Cs with /terms, then it’s just to follow the steps from there! The faucet will give out GLM and some MATIC for gas.

If you’d like to on-board GLM on your own after using the faucet, the quickest and cheapest way would be to buy USDC on Binance or Gate.io, withdraw on Polygon to your address, convert a small amount to MATIC with gasless swaps (to be used for Gas on Polygon), use QuickSwap to convert USDC to GLM and you’re ready to run your mainnet tasks.

Ecosystem

Indirectly, Polygon has a vast ecosystem of DApps, DEXs, and DeFi that will be more easily accessible to the Golem community who want to use their GLM in various ways. See Awesome Polygon for the entire Polygon ecosystem overview.

Security

As security advice which we give in almost all releases, for both requestors and providers, you should be backing up your keys if you have mainnet tokens. You can back up your keys to your wallet with the export command (while Golem is running):

yagna id export --file-path=./key.json

If you’re just getting started with Golem for the first time, you want to go to the handbook. It includes the installation steps as a Provider or Requestor (video walk-through), along with explanations and important details such as Command-Line Interface (CLI).

Thank you!

Thank you for reading the Beta IV announcement. We look forward to receiving your feedback and learning about your experience. You can reach us via email, Discord, and please keep us in the loop with your newest endeavors when building on Golem, we’d be happy to include applications in Awesome Golem!

For developers, don’t forget that we have the Application Creation and Maintenance category for the GLM Rewards Program.

A video explaining what Golem is and why it's different from any other crypto coin.

Golem major release - Beta IV with Polygon support!

Golem major release - Beta IV with Polygon support!