TL;DR:
- Polygon activated the Giugliano hardfork on its mainnet, achieving a 2-second reduction in transaction finality time.
- Giugliano allows block producers to announce blocks earlier in the confirmation cycle and embeds fee parameters directly in block headers.
- Node operators must upgrade to Bor v2.7.0 or Erigon v3.5.0 to stay synchronized with the network after activation.
Polygon activated the Giugliano hardfork on its mainnet, at block 85,268,500, marking a turning point in its performance after months shaped by stability incidents. The network confirmed the upgrade and shared tests on the Amoy testnet that demonstrated a 2-second reduction in transaction finality time during March.
In September 2025, a finality bug forced the implementation of an emergency hardfork to correct transaction delays. In July, a validator exit caused a one-hour network outage. Both episodes eroded institutional confidence. Deploying Giugliano cleanly and on a public schedule is also a message: Polygon’s engineering works.
Two Seconds that Change Polygon’s Competitive Formula
The upgrade, formally documented as PIP-84 in the Polygon Improvement Proposals forum, introduces three concrete changes to the PoS chain. Block producers can now announce blocks earlier in the pipeline, compressing the window between creation and confirmation. Fee parameters are integrated directly into block headers, eliminating the need for a separate query. In addition, the new RPC endpoints deliver fee data more efficiently to wallets and applications.
The 2-second reduction is not a cosmetic adjustment for high-frequency DeFi protocols and payment applications, the two use cases Polygon explicitly prioritized in its Gigagas roadmap. It is the difference between a competitive settlement layer on par with card rails and one that falls short.
Also worth noting is that Giugliano revives changes from PIP-66, originally included in the hardfork Bhilai but reverted after post-deployment behavioral issues. The team reviewed and refined that implementation before reintroducing it, making Giugliano a corrected second version of the mechanism.
Node operators must upgrade to Bor v2.7.0 or Erigon v3.5.0 before the activation block to remain synchronized. The Foundation flagged this requirement explicitly, and the Amoy cycle served as the final validation before mainnet deployment.
