Proposal: Payments Growth Program

Polygon Improvement Proposals Canonical PIPs
1

Proposal: Payments Growth Program

Authors: Polygon Foundation [Sandeep Nailwal]

Table of Contents:

  • Abstract

  • Definitions

  • Motivation

  • Specification

  • Rationale

Abstract

This proposal establishes a Payments Growth Program on the Polygon chain. Payment applications that meet the program’s Eligibility Criteria and publicly commit to at least 100,000 eligible payment transactions per month on Polygon will be eligible to receive a monthly reimbursement, paid in POL, for the EIP-1559 Base Fees paid on qualifying net-new transactions. The Priority Fee is not reimbursed and continues to flow to validators and, under PIP-85, to stakers. The purpose of this proposal is to make Polygon more economically competitive for payment applications for which transaction fees are a material consideration in selecting a settlement network.

Reimbursements are funded exclusively from the Base Fees generated by the enrolled transactions. Reimbursements are not funded with emissions, grants, or other payments. The Payments Growth Program pays reimbursements only for measurable, verified activity. Applications with no eligible transactions receive no reimbursement.

Definitions

  • Base Fee: the EIP-1559 per-gas fee that Bor routes to the burntContract address, today the PIP-82 recipient wallet 0x3ef57def668054dd750bd260526105c4eeef104f.

  • Priority Fee: the tip paid to the block producer, pooled and distributed to validators under PIP-65 and to stakers under PIP-85. Untouched by this proposal.

  • Payment Application: such as a remittance, payroll, merchant or PSP, card, neobank, or B2B settlement product whose users move stablecoins on Polygon chain.

  • Eligible Transaction: a successful stablecoin payment transaction from an approved Payments Application (i.e., such as merchant checkout, cross-border remittances, payroll and contractor payouts, marketplace or creator payouts, and B2B invoice or supplier payments)

  • Eligibility Criteria: see the “Enrollment” and “Eligible Transaction Measurement and Reimbursement Calculation” [insert others as needed] sections below

  • Fee Distribution System: the PIP-65 process by which Polygon Labs and Regen Financial distribute protocol fee flows according to formulas approved by Polygon governance.

Motivation

Stablecoin payments are the network’s growth market, and gas is where Polygon competes for them. Polygon’s strategy is to be the settlement layer for money moving on-chain: remittances, payouts, cards, and business settlement. These flows are often high-count and low-value, and their operators frequently compare chains on all-in cost per transfer down to a tenth of a cent. A stablecoin transfer on the Polygon chain in September 2026 pays roughly 0.020 POL of Base Fee (about $0.0020) and 0.010 POL of Priority Fee (about $0.0010). Some blockchains designed specifically for payments subsidize stablecoin transfers directly. Polygon does not need to make stablecoin transfers completely free, but reducing the effective cost could increase competitiveness with other chains.

Every transaction this program aims to attract adds to what validators and stakers earn. Enrolled transactions are subject to the full Priority Fee, which is not reimbursed. A payment that happens on the Polygon Network because of this program still pays its Priority Fee into the PIP-65 pool. The Priority Fee allocation is unchanged by this proposal, and additional payments contribute additional fees.

Reimbursing the Base Fee helps attract net-new transactions. First, for volume that would not otherwise be on Polygon, the likely choice is not “burn or reimburse” but “reimburse and collect the Priority Fee, or collect nothing.” For eligible Payment Applications already on Polygon, only transactions above their pre-enrollment baseline will be eligible. This cap limits the cost if some reimbursed growth would have occurred without this program.

No POL is minted, and the reimbursement is not sourced from new supply. Applications pay transaction fees in POL as usual; the Priority Fee is not reimbursed, while the Base-Fee portion of Eligible Transactions is reimbursed in POL the following month. Reimbursements are paid monthly in arrears, so an application accrues no more than one month of approved reimbursement before payment

Specification

Funding

  1. The EIP-1559 base-fee recipient remains the PIP-82 wallet 0x3ef57def668054dd750bd260526105c4eeef104f. No genesis or Bor change is required.

  2. Each calendar month (UTC), the Fee Distribution System computes B, the Base Fees received by the recipient wallet from block rewards in that month, and R, the sum of eligible reimbursements plus any PIP-82 recycling due for the month. It pays R, pro rata to each claim

Enrollment & Eligibility

  1. A Payment Application applies for enrollment in the Payments Growth Program by publishing a post in the Polygon governance forum. Posts must contain :

    1. (1) a description of their product and its payment use case;

    2. (2) the method by which its users’ transactions will be identified; and

    3. (3) a commitment to settle its stablecoin transactions on Polygon chain;

  2. Polygon Labs would be elected under this PIP to review and process each application using the Eligibility Criteria below

    1. Demonstrated governance/controls framework.

    2. In good standing for regulatory, legal, and licensing where operating, as well as news & reputation.

    3. Satisfies KYB/KYC and risk-review requirements;

    4. Performance indicators such as: Assets Under Management, Gross Payments Volume, Active User Base, and Venture-backing & Runway,must be operating at scale, with demonstrated strategic value to Polygon ecosystem.

  3. Enrollment decisions will be made public in the governance forum.

  4. Enrollment rejections may be challenged by posting in the forum. Decisions can only be reversed by the Polygon Protocol Governance Call.

Eligible Transaction Measurement and Reimbursement Calculation

  1. An application’s baseline is its average monthly count of eligible transactions over the 90 calendar days before its enrollment post, normalized to a 30 day average. Payment Applications with no prior activity have a baseline of zero.

  2. Polygon Labs measures eligible transactions off-chain from on-chain data. The measurement formula is published before the first eligible month.

  3. Reimbursements are paid in POL to an address designated in the application’s enrollment post.

Rationale

Why reimburse rather than lower gas for everyone. A general fee cut would forgo Base Fees on all existing volume, most of which is not payments and would not leave without it. A targeted reimbursement, paid in arrears against a public commitment, is designed to spend only on the segment the network is trying to win and only after the transactions have occurred.

Why the Base Fee and not the Priority Fee. The Priority Fee is the part of the fee that reaches validators and stakers, and the part that scales with payment volume. Reimbursing only the Base Fee should leave participants who secure the network their current, full allocation.

Why a baseline for existing applications. It excludes historical volume from reimbursement by rule rather than by assertion. It cannot prove causation, so the cap remains the backstop.

Why Polygon operates it. The Fee Distribution System already exists and already handles Priority Fee distribution under governance-approved formulas. Publishing the formula, the addresses, and proposed payments before it they’re made, with a challenge window, makes the operation auditable and correctable by anyone; the governance call retains the power to reverse any enrollment.

Backwards Compatibility

No consensus or client change is required. The base-fee recipient is unchanged from PIP-82. The proposal changes only the distribution policy applied to funds already arriving at that address. The burn collector continues to receive all non-reimbursed Base Fees.

Security Considerations

Wash and sybil transactions. Reimbursement does not exceed the Base Fee actually paid, and the Priority Fee is not refunded, so a fabricated transaction loses its Priority Fee with certainty and returns at most its Base Fee. There is no token, bonus, or multiplier to farm.

Measurement trust. Settlement is computed from public on-chain data against public addresses with a published formula, and every proposed payment is published before it is made. Any party can recompute and dispute a figure. This is a stricter standard than self-reported grant programs.

Fee-market effects. Reimbursement is paid monthly in arrears as a lump sum. It does not change the fee an application bids at inclusion time, and the Priority Fee market is untouched. An expected rebate lowers an application’s effective cost, which is the program’s purpose.

Copyright

All copyrights and related rights in this work are waived under CC0 1.0 Universal.

PPGC-47 — Agenda- November 5th 2026