Polkadot is an open-source blockchain platform. It recently launched its first paralleled chain (parachain). The purpose of the parachain is to enhance the interoperability between the various blockchains.
Polkadot, in its launch announcement for parachains, revealed that it had invested five years in the development of its parachains. A method of auctions will be used to allocate the parachains to teams – Acala, Moonbeam, Finance, Parallel, Astar, and Clover.
Blockchains can run in parallel with the Polkadot system. The winners of the auction can lease slots for a maximum duration of 96 weeks in one go on Polkadot’s relay chain.
The relay chain was developed by Gavin Wood, who is the founder of Polkadot and the co-founder of Ethereum. The relay chain is intended to help coordinate communication between parachains.
The rise of Polkadot
It has just been five years since Polkadot came into existence. In this short period, it has risen to be among the top 10 cryptocurrencies based on market capitalization. The Polkadot ecosystem plans to grow its slot allocation from five to a hundred.
Some of the slots will not be part of the slot auction process. They will be reserved for governance-enabled parachains and parathreads. It is expected that as the blockchain ecosystem evolves, several newer protocols will be developed. Under such circumstances, there will not be one blockchain – but many different interconnected blockchains.
The creation of parachains was done keeping the future of blockchains in mind. It was to enable different types of blockchains to work together. This is analogous to the current architecture of the internet that caters to many diverse needs.
