What role Gear Protocol could play in the Polkadot Network

What is Polkadot?

Polkadot is an advanced blockchain that unites multiple different blockchains into a unified, scalable network. This means that Polkadot essentially enables different blockchain networks to communicate with each other, which is also known as interoperability.

What problem is Polkadot attempting to overcome and why is it important?

Polkadot is attempting to take the revolutionary promise of blockchain technology to the next level by providing a way for multiple different blockchains to interact with each other on a singular network that enables secure and scalable cross-chain communication. By doing this, Polkadot will provide foundational infrastructure for an interconnected network of blockchains that will enable new possibilities like never before.

The reason that Polkadot is attempting to achieve true interoperability is because it’s essential for mass blockchain adoption. We need interoperability because without it, attempting to build a world that’s powered by blockchain technology would be close to impossible. This is because we cannot effectively build an ecosystem of decentralized services if they cannot all communicate with one another.

Polkadot enables parties to take different blockchain networks and “plug them in” to the main Polkadot Relay Chain which acts as a shared connectivity layer. This means that blockchains can send data cross-chain and features and applications that make one blockchain network great can also be leveraged and used on another chain too. So, in other words, where there is innovation on one chain, there is connected innovation on all chains.

What are the key components of Polkadot architecture?

Relay Chain — The heartbeat of the Polkadot is the Relay Chain. This is the central chain that is used by the Polkadot network that enables both specialized and public blockchains to connect within the unified and interoperable Polkadot network. The Relay Chain has minimal functionality, which naturally means that advanced functionality features, like smart contracts for example, are not supported. It’s role is to coordinate the overall system and its connected networks (parachains) to build a scalable and interoperable network. It is what’s responsible for the network’s shared security, consensus and cross-chain interoperability.

Parachains — Parachains are blockchains built on Substrate, that allows an easy and fast connection to the Relay Chain. These blockchains can be customized for a multitude of different use cases that feed into the main Polkadot relay chain. They get their name from the concept of parallelizable chains that run parallel to the main Relay Chain. Due to their parallel nature, they are able to parallelize transaction processing which helps improve scalability of the Polkadot network. Parachains optimize their functionality for specific use cases and, in many instances, support their own tokens.

Bridges — A bridge is a connection that allows data transfer from one network to another. Essentially, a bridge is an intermediary between the Polkadot Relay Chain and an external chain that is not built on Substrate, in such a way that it appears to the Relay Chain that the external chain is a parachain. These external chains are interoperable through the bridge but they can also exist as standalone chains with different protocols, rules, and governance models. For example, bridges allow for interaction between other blockchains, such as Ethereum and Bitcoin, that are not natively compatible with Polkadot.

Validators — Validators are nodes that verify that the information contained in an assigned set of parachain blocks are valid. They play a crucial role in adding new blocks to the Relay Chain and parachains.

Nominators — Nominators bond their stake to validators in order to help them get into the active validator set and thus produce blocks for the chain. In return, nominators are generally rewarded with a portion of the staking rewards from that validator.

Collators — Collators maintain parachains by collecting parachain transactions from users and producing state transition proofs for Relay Chain validators

How could Gear Protocol possibly fit into all of this?

Gear is a smart contract platform, built on Substrate, that could be able to be deployed as Polkadot and Kusama parachain. Gear enables developers to deploy their dApps in under five minutes in the easiest and most efficient way possible. Smart contracts on Gear run in the WebAssembly Virtual Machine, which enables decentralized applications to run at near-native code execution speed. This not only helps improve application performance, transactional throughput and efficiency, but most importantly it improves user experience. Programs that run via Gear Protocol also run with parallelizable architecture, which further contributes to increasing speed. To make message-passing communication within applications secure, effective and clear, Gear uses the Actor Model and because Gear is based on Substrate, it enables developers to create customized blockchains with already proven consensus mechanisms, core functionality and security out of the box.

For developers, the value proposition is simple. Gear is essentially a blockchain-as-a-service as even developers that have no previous experience working with blockchains can enter the industry without advanced knowledge, previous experience or the need to take part in auctions, stake tokens or build custom networks.

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