Polygon: the cutting-edge Rio upgrade is now available on the mainnet

Polygon has just released the new Rio update on its mainnet. Among various improvements, the PoS blockchain is now faster, lighter, and more energy-efficient.

Polygon and the Rio Update: the blockchain becomes faster, lighter, and more efficient

Polygon has just implemented the Rio upgrade on its mainnet, becoming a faster, lighter, and more energy-efficient PoS blockchain. 

Here is yesterday’s announcement on X aimed at engaging blockchain validators: 

PIP-65: Validator-Elected Block Producer (VEBloP) Architecture and Economic Model

Validators, see what changes are coming with the Rio Upgrade:https://t.co/G3EmAbEjN7

— Polygon Foundation (@0xPolygonFdn) October 6, 2025

“PIP-65: Architecture and Economic Model of the Validator-Elected Block Producer (VEBloP) Validators, discover what changes are coming with the Rio update:”

And in practice, here, Rio introduces a new block production architecture called Validator-Elected Block Producer (VEBloP).

Unlike the traditional approach where many validators produce blocks in each interval, here the validators on the network elect a small group of validators, each of whom produces blocks for a longer period of time. 

Thanks to this new method, Polygon aims to become more efficient. In fact, with only one producer at a time, blocks can be created more quickly, block times are reduced, and reorganizations are substantially eliminated.

Polygon and the Rio Update: the Validator-Elected Block Producer (VEBloP)

The Rio update of Polygon also introduced the PIP-64: an economic framework dedicated to the new model of the Validator-Elected Block Producer. 

In fact, to keep incentives aligned in this new paradigm, Rio expects that all validators, not just the active block producer, will earn a more equitable share of the fees.

In practice, the transaction fees (including MEV revenues) are redistributed between the block proposer and the broader set of validators. This way, even validators running light nodes (thanks to stateless verification) can still fully participate in the network rewards without the need for high-end hardware. 

Another architecture that stands out with the Rio update for Polygon is the PIP-72. This new proposal introduces witness-based stateless verification. In practice, instead of storing gigabytes of historical data, validators can use concise cryptographic proofs called “witnesses” to verify the correctness of each block. 

This drastically reduces storage overhead, accelerates node synchronization times, and lowers hardware requirements for participation. 

Not only that, running a validator becomes much more accessible, so that Polygon can attract a broader and more diverse set of validators. 

Polygon and the goal of 5,000 transactions per second with the Rio upgrade

All the peculiarities of the new Rio update on Polygon should lay the groundwork for the blockchain to reach approximately 5,000 transactions per second (tps) in the short term.

This capacity increase goal, Polygon should be able to achieve without sacrificing network security. 

In previous updates, such as the Bhilai hard fork and the Heimdall update, Polygon had already reached about 1,000 TPS on the mainnet. 

Not only that, the Rio hard fork marks an important step in Polygon’s gigagas roadmap, as the network continues to evolve its core architecture to meet the needs of global payments and real-world assets (RWA).

Recently, Polygon completed its most important transformation, transitioning from MATIC to POL. This change marked a pivotal moment not only for the Indian community but also for the entire global crypto landscape and DeFi. 

And, in fact, the new token POL is not just a rebranding, but a true technological revolution.