Using Golem on Mainnet

This section is aimed mainly at requestors wishing to switch from running simple test tasks on our development subnet to launching production payloads utilizing the vast number of providers on the public subnet.
If you're a provider, most likely your node is already configured to run on mainnet and using the public subnet.
Okay, so we've seen Golem requestors hand out tasks to providers and saw them pay those providers for the successfully executed tasks.
Still, in the context of running Golem on the mainnet, a few important questions remain largely unanswered:
how do you get funds to your requestor so you can use them to pay for the tasks?
how do you get funds out of a Golem node if you don't need them there anymore?
how to secure access to the funds in your Golem wallet if things go haywire?
ERC-20 vs Layer2
The most important distinction in basically every piece of payment-related activity, both when you consider transactions between the network's nodes but also when talking about getting funds in and out of Golem is whether you're using the regular ERC-20 token directly on the Ethereum blockchain or whether you're using Polygon.
While direct, on-chain transactions using ERC-20-based tokens have long become the daily bread for the Ethereum mainnet and constitute a significant part of more than a million transactions passing through the chain each day, the recent spike in both the ETH's price and the average gas prices makes it almost completely useless as a means of exchange in Golem where the values paid will usually be orders of magnitude smaller than the transaction fees.
Of course, if you're willing to accept that disproportion, you may continue to use the Ethereum mainnet payments but for the majority of Golem node users, Polygon will be the main platform both when paying for tasks and receiving payments for their execution.
For more information regarding Layer 2 and Polygon, please refer to our introduction to Layer 2 payments:
Layer 2 payments

Payments - Previous

Layer 2 payments

Your Golem wallet

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ERC-20 vs Layer2