Overview

• The Rio hardfork is now live on Polygon Proof-of-Stake, introducing witness-based stateless block validation and a Validator-Elected Block Producer model.
• Polygon says the upgrade enables roughly 5,000 transactions per second with near-instant confirmations, claims that await independent benchmarking.
• A reworked economic design splits transaction fees and MEV so non-producing validators also earn rewards, lowering hardware barriers to participate.
• Under VEBloP, validators elect a single producer per span to cut block times and reduce reorganizations, with designated backups stepping in on failure.
• Executives frame Rio as a shift toward payment infrastructure suited to stablecoins and AI “agentic” payments, with strategy led by Chief Product Officer John Egan.