The Crypto community has been buzzing about the name Polkadot – a platform network that is considered a counterweight to Ethereum in the evolution of the DeFi ecosystem. So what is Polkadot platform, let’s find out with Thecryptoinfo.org right away.
Overview about Polkadot
What is Polkadot?
Polkadot is a protocol designed to create a network of interoperable blockchains. This would allow independent blockchains to communicate with one another and work together.
Polkadot focuses on solving two main problems of Blockchain: Interoperability and scalability of the network. Ultimately, the project’s goal is to build a completely decentralized web, where the identities and data will be controlled by ourselves, not some organization or government.
The most key components of the Polkadot network are Relay Chain, Parachains, Parathreads, and Bridges. In the next part, we’ll go through each of these in further detail.
How does Polkadot work?
Relay Chain
The relay chain is considered as the backbone of Polkadot’s network. It is responsible for network security, consensus and cross-chain interoperability.
Parchains
These are parallel blockchains that run on the Polkadot framework and can communicate with each other. Each parachain is its own blockchain and can be designed toward its specific use case.
Parathreads
Parathreads have similar functions to parachains. Howevers, it uses a pay-per-use model instead of renting a parachain slot. Blockchains on Polkadot can switch between being parachains and parathreads depending on their needs and the availability of parachain slots on the Relay Chain. This is a cost-effective solution for projects that do not need a permanent connection.
Bridges
Bridges allow the Polkadot network to interact with other blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum, thereby further expanding the interoperability of the Polkadot blockchain. Bridges can, eventually, enable different tokens and coins to be swapped without a central exchange.
4 Components of the Polkadot network
Polkadot’s network is made up of 4 main components:
– Validators: creating new blocks on the Relay Chain, responsible for verifying, validating the information contained in the parachain blocks they are assigned.
– Collators: maintaining parachains by collecting parachain transactions from users and producing state transition proofs for Relay Chain validators
– Nominators: responsible for protecting the Relay chain by selecting trusted validators. To become a nominator, users must stake DOT tokens.
– Fishermen: monitoring and reporting bad behaviors in the network to validators
Substrate can be described as a blockchain framework — specifically, a framework for building customized blockchains. These blockchains can be run entirely autonomously, which means they don’t depend on any external technology to run.
What problems does Polkadot solve?
Polkadot is attempting to solve many of the largest issues facing blockchains today including:
– Scalability: The Polkadot network can improve the transaction speed. It can process more than 1,000 transactions per second, compared to about 7 for Bitcoin and 30 for Ethereum.
– Interoperability: Some blockchain solutions facilitate the transfer of tokens from one chain to another. But, the Polkadot network is a level up as it enables cross-blockchain transfers of any type of data or asset. Any blockchain can connect to Polkadot and gain the ability to interoperate with a variety of blockchains.
– Shared security: Polkadot enables chains to interact with each other, but the chains remain independent in their governance. However, their security gets united, and this improves the overall security of the chains.
– On-chain governance: Every stakeholder has a voice over the Polkadot network. Any upgrades to the network are coordinated on-chain and enacted autonomously.
– Forkless upgrades: Just like applications, even blockchains need upgrades and bug-fixing. Blockchain forking is done to integrate new features or to fix bugs in a blockchain. But Polkadot is a future-ready protocol that doesn’t require any forks to adapt to changes or upgrade itself in alignment with emerging technologies.
– Easy innovation: Using the Substrate framework, it is extremely convenient to create a custom blockchain. It just takes minutes, and the same chains can be connected to Polkadot for complete interoperability and security solutions from day one.
– Substrate Framework: Substrate will make it easy for users to create new blockchain chains within minutes.
Some projects built on Polkadot
Just like Ethereum Blockchain, Polkadot has an active ecosystem, and according to data from PolkaProject at present, this project is already home to 197 projects, and Blockchain developers and technocrats expect that number is going to grow steadily.
Some promising projects in the Polkadot ecosystem Polkadot:
- Oracle Chains: Chainlink
- Data curation networks: Ocean Protocol
- Smart Contract Chains: Edgeware
- Financial Chain: ChainX, Katallassos
- Payment Chains: Blink Network
- Bridge to Ethereum Network: Allowing Ethereum Smart Contract to interact with Polkadot.
| Pros | Cons |
| Process multiple transactions simultaneously.High specialization for specific casesSharing, interacting, and transferring information across the chainSelf-management mechanism to meet own requirements.Highly adaptable, easy to upgradeDiverse applications such as games, finance, social networks, cloud technology, digital identity,…Fast connection speed and safe for users thanks to Substrate. | As an emerging name in the market, the competitiveness is not high.The Sharding feature can reduce security in exchange for scalability.Potentially many risks and losses if violated. |
What is Polkadot(DOT) token?
The DOT token is what powers the network, being Polkadot’s native coin. It is used for payment of network fees, for governance voting and validating rights, for interoperability. When messaging or exchanging data between two blockchains in the network, DOTs are used to pay for transaction fees.
Key metrics:
– Token Name: Polkadot.
– Ticker: DOT.
– Blockchain: Polkadot.
–Token Standard: Updating…
– Contract: Updating…
– Token Type: Utility, Governance.
– Total Supply: 1,103,303,471 DOT.
– Circulating Supply: 987,579,314.96 DOT
Token Allocation
– Polkadot Auction: 50%
– Web3 foundation: 30%
– Further Pre-Launch Distributions: 20%
Wallets to store DOT tokens
Users can choose some types of wallet below to store DOT token:
– Hardware wallets: Ledger Nano, Trezor, Ellipal Titan,..
– Exchange wallets: Binance,..
– Popular wallets :Trust Wallet, Coin98 Wallet, ImToken, Math Wallet, Safepal, PolkaWallet, MetaMask, Binance Smart Chain,…
Where to buy Polkadot(DOT) tokens?
There are many cryptocurrency exchanges that allow trading of DOT tokens such as: Binance, KuCoin, Poloniex, Coinbase, Kraken, Huobi, OKEx, Gate.io,, etc.
Roadmap
For detailed information, please refer to here
Development Team
In order for a project to develop to its full potential as well as maintain the speed of development, it needs a team behind that is both capable and dedicated to the project. Team Polkadot has such members. Three founders are in charge of the project:
– Robert Habermeier: In addition to being a founder of Polkadot, Robert is also a member of Tiel Fellow. He is an expert in blockchain, distributed systems, and cryptography with many years of experience. He’s also a member of the Rust community. He also is a member of Rust community.
– Dr. Gavin Wood: Gavin is known very early in the blockchain community as the co-founder and CTO of Ethereum. He is a pioneer in the development of the blockchain industry with many major projects, such as Solidity, the Proof-of-Authority consensus protocol, and Whisper.Gavin is now the leader of Polkadot. He defined the term Web 3.0 in 2014 and served as President of the Web3 Foundation.
– Peter Czaban: the CTO of the Web3 Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of next-generation decentralized technology. Peter has worked in the defense, banking, and data analysis industries, as well as decentralized knowledge bases, quantitative modeling, and more. He received a Master of Engineering from Oxford University.
Investors & Partners
Some notable investors that can be mentioned are: Digital Finance Group, Monday Capital, Ledger VC, …
In addition, Polkadot is an open-source project founded by the Web3 Foundation. As an open source project, it becomes very simple for any developer who wants to contribute to the project. Not only that, the Web3 Foundation has commissioned 5 teams and more than 100 developers to build Polkadot, including:
The future of Polkadot
Polkadot’s evolution should be intriguing to follow, considering the total benefits for entrepreneurs, developers, users, and investors.
DOT serving as the protocol’s governance token and for staking to secure the network or create new chains is a clear indication that the project aims at incentivizing usage by rewarding participants. With an annual yield of 10% on average, staking DOTs has become one of the most attractive incentives in the crypto market.
The platform’s stable and reliable network, as well as its adherence to the plan, all contribute to a promising project scenario. Polkadot is one of the most ingenious blockchain innovations in terms of technical and economic value, and the next few months will be critical in determining the network’s actual possibilities.
Conclusion
Polkadot has a bright future ahead of it in 2022. With the ongoing developments happening within the DOT ecosystem, as well as in the overall crypto market, we may see DOT reach new heights.
Disclaimer: Information is current as at the date of publication. This is general information only and is not intended to be advice. Crypto is volatile, carries risk and the value can go up and down. Past performance is not an indicator of future returns. Please do your own research.
