Blog

Polkadot and Kusama are onboarding to the Gitcoin platform, strengthening the foundations of the Web 3.0 ecosystem and expanding the opportunities for developers to earn from open source projects.

Several articles have recently been added to the Web3 Foundation research portal covering individual subprotocols of the Polkadot decentralized blockchain platform: nominated proof of stake (NPoS), time consensus and GRANDPA (the finality gadget implemented for the relay chain).

On-chain governance and autonomous enactment give the token holders agency, the vehicle to express their opinions and the guarantees about the impact that their expression has.

The new paper Overview of Polkadot and its Design Considerations expands on the white paper, presenting a comprehensive and updated description of Polkadot’s design components and subprotocols. Some of these are outlined here.

The genesis block of the Polkadot network was launched on May 26th. To celebrate, we have created the first builder’s bounty with over $6000 DAI to be won, split over three challenges.

Polkadot’s highly-anticipated release follows three years of intense development work. Mainnet launch builds on the success of Kusama canary network release in 2019.

Westend provides a testing environment for our infrastructure partners to test their Polkadot and Kusama deployment and processes.

A referendum was just held on Kusama regarding whether or not to redenominate DOTs on Polkadot in a 1:100 ratio. Web3 Foundation used this referendum to gauge sentiment from the community before the launch of Polkadot.

Polkadot is a next-generation blockchain protocol connecting multiple specialized blockchains into one unified network.

The Polkadot network will have a phased roll-out plan, with important milestones toward decentralization marking each phase in the process.

The building of trust-less bridges between Polkadot and other blockchain networks is one of the top priorities for the Web3 Foundation. Chorus One’s effort lays the groundwork to build this technology for the Cosmos ecosystem.

As the launch of Polkadot draws near, many are asking how the network will compare to Kusama and how both will be used in different ways going forward.