What is Polkadot: Beginner’s Guide

Have you noticed that the mention of Polkadot is increasingly common in the blockchain community? That’s not surprising. As a technology designed to increase the interoperability of different blockchains, Polkadot opens up new opportunities for blockchain developers. We decided to explore this technology in detail and share our findings with you on what Polkadot is and what the features of Polkadot development are.

What is Polkadot

As mentioned, Polkadot is a technology designed to increase the interoperability of different blockchains and connect them into a single multi-blockchain network. Polkadot provides a platform within which new blockchains can be created as well as existing blockchains connected. It allows blockchain systems to process and transfer data quickly and securely while avoiding system-wide updates or hard forks.

The ultimate goal of Polkadot is to create a kind of framework for all blockchains similar to the HTML markup that allows websites, different browsers and servers to communicate with each other. This means that the Polkadot team is willing to take on all the “dirty” work, including the mining processes, and allow developers to focus on creating decentralized applications and smart contract functionality.

The main reason for Polkadot’s development was the inability of Ethereum to scale. This is why such projects as Polkadot and Polygon appeared. Polkadot is scalable and can transfer data both across public and private blockchains by combining them. The Polkadot network includes the following components:

• Relay Chain — the core of communication between shards that provides security.
• Parachains — autonomous blockchains that operate based on the Relay Chain.
• Parathreads — blockchains that are leased to users.
• Bridge Chain — bridges that connect and combine blockchains.

Polkadot allows you to create applications that take permission data from a private blockchain and use it in a public blockchain. For example, a private blockchain of a school’s academic records can send a confirmation to a smart contract to verify a degree in the public blockchain.

The development of Polkadot was done by Ethereum co-founder and CTO Gavin Wood, Web3 Foundation CTO Peter Czaban, and blockchain technology researcher and developer Robert Habermeyer.

How does Polkadot work?

Polkadot wants to be the foundation from which all other blockchains will grow. The team sincerely believes in the need to create a common ground for decentralized projects. The Polkadot network functions as three separate elements that allow it to address both interoperability and scalability.

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