Polkadot empowers blockchain networks to work together under the protection of shared security

Learn More About Polkadot
United Networks of State Machines

Polkadot is a platform with low barriers to entry for flexible, autonomous economies acting together within Polkadot’s shared security umbrella. Polkadot is a revolution, not just in blockchain technology but also towards enabling fairer peer-to-peer digital jurisdictions.

Polkadot solves the major issues facing blockchain technology:

True interoperability

Polkadot enables cross-blockchain transfers of any type of data or asset, not just tokens. Connecting to Polkadot gives you the ability to interoperate with a wide variety of blockchains in the Polkadot network.

Economic & transactional scalability

Polkadot provides unprecedented economic scalability by enabling a common set of validators to secure multiple blockchains. Polkadot provides transactional scalability by spreading transactions across multiple parallel blockchains.

Easy blockchain innovation

Create a blockchain in minutes using the blockchain-building framework Substrate. Connect it to Polkadot and get interoperability and security from day one. This ease of development helps Polkadot's network grow.

Forkless and future-proof

Polkadot is designed to be a truly resilient network: it’s able to adapt and upgrade itself without forking. This enables Polkadot to easily adapt to changes and upgrade itself as better technologies become available.

Security for everyone

Polkadot introduces “pooled security,” where multiple chains are secured by Polkadot’s validators. Blockchains can get security from day one when they connect to Polkadot, giving them a strong incentive to join the Polkadot network.

Network governance driven by users

Polkadot has an open governance system. Upgrades to the network are coordinated via on-chain governance, ensuring that Polkadot’s development reflects the values of the community and avoids stagnation.

Learn more about Polkadot's technology Learn More

The DOT token powers the Polkadot network

The DOT token serves 4 distinct purposes: governance over the network,
operation, bonding, and interoperability.

Governance

Polkadot stakeholders have control over the protocol. All privileges, which on other platforms are exclusive to miners, will be given to the relay chain operators (DOT holders). This includes managing exceptional events such as protocol upgrades and fixes.
Bonding

New parachains are added by bonding tokens. Bonded parachains cannot be removed from the network arbitrarily or unbond their DOTs until their lease ends.
Operation

Game theory incentivizes token holders to behave in honest ways. Good actors are rewarded by this mechanism whilst bad actors will lose their stake in the network. This ensures the network stays secure.
Interoperability

For messages to be passed from one blockchain to the next, a fee may be paid by the sender in DOTs. However, this is not required.
Learn more about the DOT token Learn more
An open-source protocol built for everyone

Polkadot is an open-source project founded by the Web3 Foundation.

Web3 Foundation has commissioned five teams and over 100 developers to build Polkadot, including:

Founded by some of the blockchain industry’s foremost builders

Learn About the Polkadot Team

A few of the teams joining the Polkadot network:

See all teams
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From the blog
Kusama
Kusama CC2

Three weeks ago, we released Kusama Chain Candidate 1 (CC1). After several key fixes to the Polkadot, including the Babe consensus layer, we’re pleased to release the next chapter in Kusama: CC2....

Gavin Wood
Parathreads
Parathreads: Pay-as-you-go Parachains

By: Joe Petrowski Polkadot is now even more accessible to projects that may not have the capital to secure a dedicated parachain slot and gives the opportunity to become a parachain if their application requires high throughput....

Polkadot
Kusama
Kusama Rollout and Governance

Kusama is Polkadot’s canary network. It is an early, unaudited, and wholly experimental network, designed to help understand how the various cutting-edge technologies introduced in areas including governance, staking and sharding work under real economic conditions...

Gavin Wood
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