Polygon Files Pip-87 For Fixed Fiat Blockspace Pricing

A New Fee Model for Payment Companies

Polygon Foundation (@0xPolygonFdn) has filed PIP-87, a governance proposal to offer fiat-denominated, fixed-cost blockspace specifically designed for payment companies. The proposal is co-authored by Sandeep Nailwal, John Egan, David Silverman, and Jeremy Brenner — a cross-functional team spanning Polygon's founding and product leadership.

The core problem PIP-87 sets out to solve is straightforward: variable gas fees make it impractical for fintechs and payment processors to build reliable, scalable products onchain. When transaction costs fluctuate unpredictably, pricing models break and user experience suffers. By offering fixed fiat-denominated blockspace, Polygon is attempting to give payment companies the cost certainty they need to operate at scale.

The mechanics work through an expanded version of PIP-82, which whitelists approved payment relayers for fee rebates. PIP-87 layers on top of that framework, with additional rebates available under PIP-85 for priority fees. PIP-85 itself introduced a rebalancing of priority fees, directing a portion of the validator fee pool back to stakers — a change that addressed long-standing complaints that delegators were not sharing meaningfully in network revenue.

Token Economics and Backwards Compatibility

On the tokenomics side, fiat revenue collected under PIP-87 would be converted into stablecoins and distributed to validators and stakers. $ethereum:0x455e53cbb86018ac2b8092fdcd39d8444affc3f6 (POL) gets bought back from the open market to fund staker distributions and to support the deflationary burn mechanism introduced under PIP-24. Critically, the proposal is described as fully backwards compatible — existing infrastructure and integrations on Polygon PoS would not need to change.

The proposal arrives against a backdrop of significant network traction. According to the Polygon Foundation, the chain has processed over $2.4 trillion in cumulative payments volume, commands more than 55% of $solana:EPjFWdd5AufqSSqeM2qN1xzybapC8G4wEGGkZwyTDt1v weekly stablecoin transfer share, and set a record of 45 million stablecoin transactions in a single week. Polygon processed 1.4 billion stablecoin transactions in 2025 alone, underscoring the scale at which the network already operates for payment use cases.

PIP-87 is also consistent with Polygon's broader strategic direction. In January 2026, Polygon Labs unveiled its Open Money Stack, a modular framework designed to support stablecoin-based payments and streamline cross-border value transfers for financial institutions and fintech firms. PIP-87 can be read as a protocol-level complement to that commercial initiative — reducing friction not just at the product layer, but at the blockchain fee layer itself.

The proposal will follow Polygon's standard governance process: community discussion on the Polygon Forum, peer review, and deliberation during Polygon Protocol Governance calls before any implementation moves forward.

Sources
CoinDesk — Polygon Labs Unveils Open Money Stack
Cryptopolitan — Polygon Fee Model Proposal (PIP-85)
Polygon — PIP Framework Explainer

Related News
BSCN — Open Money Stack: How Polygon Is Bringing Cross-Border Payments Fully Onchain
BSCN — What is Polygon's Madhugiri Hardfork?