Nov 29, 2020

5 min read

Polkadot Series Part 1 — Overview

Read my original post at Voice.

Polkadot is a next-generation blockchain protocol that connects multiple specialized blockchains into one unified network. These might include public networks, permission-less networks, private consortium chains, or oracles, and other Web3 technologies. The network has an advanced suite of governance tools and can autonomously perform network upgrades. There is no requirement for a network fork.

Polkadot Architecture

Relay Chain

The Relay Chain is the core chain of Polkadot. By design, it has minimum features. Its primary responsibility is to coordinate with different chains as a whole.

• It holds a relatively small number of transaction types

• It has minimal functionality, e.g smart contracts are not supported

• Validations happen on-chain using DOT

• Other specific functions are delegated to the parachains.

Parachains

Parachains are shards that allow transactions to be processed in parallel instead of one-by-one.

• Parachains handle most of the computation in the Polkadot network.

• The parachains generate proof that can be validated by the validators assigned to the parachain. This proof verifies the state transition of the parachain.

• Parachains may be of different nature and use cases.

• Parachains have to win a parachain slot auction to secure a Relay Chain slot for a particular length of time.

Parathreads

• Parathreads stay off-chain, however, they must win auctions for individual blocks.

• Parathreads have the option to become parachains and vice versa

Bridges

Bridges make the Polkadot ecosystem compatible with external blockchains. Polkadot uses a native interoperability technology called XCMP, which allows parachains to trustlessly communicate.

Shared Security

• The security of Relay Chains is rolled over to the connected Parachains. The network ensures that the validity of the entire system is intact and no individual part is corruptible.

• The Relay chain is highly secure due to a large amount of staking. This also makes the parachains highly secure.

Governance

Polkadot token (DPT) holders hold control over the protocol. They enjoy all platform privileges like managing protocol upgrades and fixes. Influenced by Game Theory, staking ensures that the good actors are rewarded and the bad actors are penalized. Using Proof of Stake, Polkadot allows adding new parachains by bonding tokens. Outdated and non-useful parachains are removed.

Validators

Validators run nodes and produce blocks on the Relay Chain. They need to be elected to the validator set. They also accept proofs of valid state transitions from collators. In return, they will receive staking rewards.

Collators

Collators are full nodes that collect parachain transactions and produce state transition proofs. They are present on both parachains and the Relay Chain. They can also communicate in between parachains using XCMP.

Nominators

Nominators are small DOT holders who delegate their stake to the active validators. In return, they get rewarded in DOT as a portion of staking rewards.

Fishermen

Fishermen act as police who monitors the network. They report any bad behavior to validators. This can be a dual role, Collators and any parachain full node can perform this.

Polkadot Advantages

• Scale — Polkadot consists of sharded parachains. These parachains can process many transactions in parallel. This increases network processing power and significantly improves scalability.

• Specialization — Each parachain can be customized for a specific use case. This gives them more flexibility and the parachains can offer better services. Using the Substrate development framework will help teams to develop and customize their blockchain.

• Collaboration — Polkadot allows inter and intrachain communications and interoperability. Networks and applications on Polkadot can share information and functionality between themselves.

• Self-governance — Communities on Polkadot parachains take decisions and manage the governance of the network. They have the freedom to customize and optimize the parachain governance, experiment with features, or replicated already created modules.

• Forkless Upgrades — Polkadot enables forkless upgrades, allowing blockchains to evolve and adapt easily as better technology becomes available.

Polkadot is a highly innovative blockchain with advanced features. It is often considered the most important competitor to Ethereum. It already has 100+ applications building on it. I predict a very bright future for the Polkadot Ecosystem.