Polkadot is a decentralized platform that facilitates interconnectivity between different blockchain ecosystems in a trustless, scalable, and highly secure manner. In this manner, Polkadot’s technology enables the adoption of Web 3.0 technologies on a commercial level.
The Web3 Foundation, a Switzerland-based nonprofit organization, is responsible for the development of the Polkadot ecosystem. It forges partnerships with researchers and developers to make the Polkadot network an attractive platform to develop Web 3.0 applications on.
The Polkadot protocol supports cross-chain communication and transfer of data and assets across previously standalone, external blockchains. It makes it possible for different blockchain networks to connect to Polkadot’s platform as parachains and communicate with each other across both public, open and permissionless networks as well as private, permissioned blockchains.
To support its flexible connectivity offering across independent chains, Polkadot leverages a Nominated Proof-of-Stake (NPoS) consensus mechanism to secure its network in a highly energy-efficient, transparent, and reliable manner. DOT is the native digital token of the Polkadot ecosystem, and serves as both governance and utility token of the platform.
You can learn more about Polkadot(DOT) at our KuCoin Blog.
Polkadot operates a Relay Chain on which any number of blockchain networks can connect in the form of parachains (parallel chains). These parachains can have different characteristics, including technology, consensus algorithms, native digital assets, and infrastructure.
Where Polkadot truly shines is in offering an underlying infrastructure to allow these parachains to conduct transactions with each other using its Relay Chain feature. In the process, it offers fair execution of transactions and ensures robust security in the processes.
Independent blockchains with their own sets of validators can also connect to the Polkadot network using bridges instead of using shared resources from Polkadot’s pool. These bridges allow for seamless data and asset transfer, supporting interoperability between multiple blockchains without the need to be hosted on the Polkadot infrastructure.
Polkadot aims to offer a multi-chain environment with unlimited potential - there is no upper limit on the number of new parachains it can support. While the basic design can support hundreds of parachains, the infrastructure can potentially lead to the creation of mini Polkadot networks that can offer connections for more public and private chains and support more multi-chain transactions in the future.
Polkadot was the creation of Ethereum co-founder Dr. Gavin Wood, who is also known as the mastermind behind Solidity - the programming language for Ethereum’s smart contracts. The idea for Polkadot emerged from the concept of sharding, which could make Ethereum far more scalable, but ended up giving rise to a brand new blockchain network called Polkadot instead.
Dr. Wood released the first draft of Polkadot’s white paper in October 2016. Shortly after this, in 2017, he co-founded the Web3 Foundation in partnership with Peter Czaban to support the development and foster the adoption of the Polkadot network.
The token sale for Polkadot was held in late 2017 but resulted in freezing of most of the funds raised in its Parity multisig contract. This resulted in the loss of around one-third of proceeds from the sale, with ETH worth almost $90 million being compromised in the attack.
The Web3 Foundation then held another round of a private token sale in 2019, putting up around 500,000 DOT for sale and raising adequate funds to further work on the project. The Polkadot testnet went live in January 2019 while its sister network Kusama was released to the public in August 2019.
The first mainnet chain Phase 1 of Polkadot went live in May 2020, followed by Phase 2 which brought out the NPoS consensus on the network in June 2020. This was followed by the launch of Phases 3 and 4 which drove governance and decentralization functions within its community.
Period | Change | Change (%) |
---|---|---|
Today | $-0.0853 | -2.08% |
7 Days | $-0.0127 | -0.31% |
30 Days | $-0.1924 | -4.55% |
3 Months | $-0.7095 | -14.97% |
The following features make Polkadot a compelling option for investors looking for a versatile and forward-thinking blockchain platform:
The DOT price prediction is influenced by several factors, such as:
Staking DOT helps secure the network and earns you rewards, typically around 13.5% APY when done directly through Polkadot.js. This process is more secure and transparent compared to using exchanges but requires understanding the steps involved. Here’s how staking DOT on Polkadot.js works:
Complete Tasks to Earn Free Tokens Every Day