Why The Polkadot Network Will Be Important For The Future Of Blockchain Technology

What is Polkadot?

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.

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. This is also known as interoperability.

By doing this, Polkadot will provide foundational infrastructure for an interconnected network of blockchains that will enable new possibilities like never before.

What makes Polkadot different from other blockchain networks?

Most Layer 1 networks like the Bitcoin and Ethereum networks can only facilitate transactions on their respective networks. This means that the first (Bitcoin) and one of the most modern (Ethereum) networks, which are also the most used networks, are not interoperable. This is far from ideal and the lack of fluidity between decentralized applications will prevent mass global adoption from successfully arising.

But unlike other blockchains, Polkadot can facilitate true interoperability and cross-chain communication, which means that applications can finally communicate with other applications that are built and hosted on other blockchain networks. This opens the door to new innovative services as the transfer of information can be transmitted from one chain to another. It’s worth noting however that Polkadot itself does not have any business logic and there are no capabilities to run smart contracts directly on the Polkadot network. It only provides the foundational technology for interoperability between different business-logic blockchains.

Why is this significant?

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.

For instance, imagine how restrictive modern financial services would be if you could only transfer money to a bank account that is only open with the same banking provider that you use. In this case, you would only be able to transact with those who use the same banking provider as you do. When it comes to transacting with individuals who use different providers, it’ll be next to impossible and this would cause problems that ultimately lead to restricted user experiences.

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.

Final Thoughts

Polkadot is taking blockchain technology to the next level. It’s attempting to solve the major issue that is currently preventing blockchain technology from reaching its full potential. If Polkadot can effectively build a network that enables true interoperability, then it will lay the groundwork for blockchain technology to thrive which will contribute to dramatically improving modern industries as we know them.