Polkadot CC1 Genesis: What to expect
Polkadot’s first chain candidate (“CC1”), which may well become the Polkadot mainnet, has been launched. Here’s what you get now and what’s coming up soon.
As I write this, my laptop node has 12 peers. Barely half an hour ago, it had none. Polkadot CC1 is freshly born; beginning its “life” at 17:36:21, Zug time. We’re now at block #400, with Grandpa and Babe chugging along quite happily. So far so good.
So what is Polkadot CC1; what does it deliver, what doesn’t it deliver (yet) and what can be expected soon?
What it’s not…
First, what Polkadot CC1 is not. Firstly, it’s not Polkadot, at least not yet. CC1 is our first candidate for the Polkadot mainnet. It is our hope that it is eventually selected as the final Polkadot chain, but there’s always a chance that we will launch a second (or even third) chain candidate if we deem it technically necessary.
Secondly, we have not exactly “launched” Polkadot. The DOT token, presold to 4000-odd people back in 2017 is not yet transferable. That will happen towards the end of the staged launch process, when the Polkadot community (under, I would hope, some guidance from its technical leadership) decides to do so via a governance motion.
Finally, there are not yet any parachains active (though the network does contain code to host them). That’s the final thing we’ll be bringing in, once the various security logic is in place and has been audited, and is still some weeks away.
What it is…
This first stage of Polkadot CC1 provides two key things: Claims & attestation and staking.
If you purchased DOT, then you should have either already claimed that DOT via the Web3 Foundation’s Ethereum contract and linked it to a Polkadot account (in which case you’ll need to attest to the relevant statement), or you should have your original Ethereum key ready so that you can claim the DOT on Polkadot directly. Both functions are now possible via the Claims App on Polkadot.js.
For those with DOT in Polkadot CC1, staking is now possible. During this phase, nothing will actually become at stake and no rewards will be paid, however once we move to the next stage, the community validators will be selected to maintain the network according to their overall DOT backing and our Proof-of-Stake system (NPoS) will be live. If you want to be in it from the start, then you’ll need to stake now.
Upcoming…
Some advanced blockchain features, including identity and governance are not yet live. Identity is planned to be introduced in the next runtime upgrade, scheduled for Thursday this week (a sort of “phase 1.5”).
Governance, and with it the Technical Committee, Referenda, Treasury and Council will be introduced in Stage 3, once the transition to NPoS is complete and we have the public validator set operating correctly.
As of right now, you should be able to expect:
- Polkadot JS Apps to work, though perhaps with a few niggles, as the differences between Polkadot and Kusama rear their head.
- Polkadot v0.8.0 to be released on the usual page over the course of the next couple of hours. Those wishing to run a Polkadot CC1 node should use this version of the software.
- Parity Signer to work after the next version is released. When this gets into the app stores on iOS/Android depends a lot on Apple and Google and so we can’t make any promises. We’d generally expect them to be there in the next 12–72 hours.
Updates will be coming on the usual channels over the next hours and days. Thanks folks!
Would-be validators should go to the Polkadot Validators Lounge. Head to Polkadot JS Apps, for claiming, attesting and staking. More information on Polkadot can be found on its website. The v0.8.0 client code may be found on the GitHub releases page.
