Privacy on Polkadot: An interview with Web3Foundation’s Dieter Fishbein
To get you excited for our Privacy on Polkadot event — happening on Feb 22nd — we sat down with Dieter Fishbein, Head of Ecosystem Development at Web3 Foundation, to talk about the future of the Polkadot Ecosystem.
Dieter is responsible for generating strategic relationships that help the Polkadot ecosystem grow. He has been in the crypto space since 2018 when he was part of the Canadian blockchain-focused VC CMCC Global. Before joining Web3 Foundation, he earned a Masters in Cryptography from the University of Waterloo.
We had some burning questions about the Polkadot ecosystem, validator ecosystem, and privacy. Here are Dieter’s answers:
Q1. What are the main advantages Polkadot offers over other blockchains?
The core thesis behind Polkadot is that the future will be multi-chain and thus Polkadot is focused on providing a high-quality environment for developers of independent blockchain networks, called parachains in Polkadot-friendly jargon.
This is a far different focus from most networks but allows developers to retain maximal flexibility while guaranteeing that security and extremely intimate interoperability are taken care of.
These features allow Polkadot to focus on providing more sustainable horizontal scalability, allowing for the development of applications that transcend any single blockchain network. Ultimately this combination of features leads to more flexibility for developers and higher-quality, more scalable applications for users.
Q2. Has the parachain model been advantageous to the rate of innovation in Polkadot?
Definitely. By leveraging the Substrate framework, developers have the ability to quickly and efficiently build a highly-customised and secure blockchain that is natively compatible with Polkadot.
This has led to the development of many interesting projects which would have been much harder or impossible to develop on other platforms. With forthcoming upgrades to the Polkadot network, such as XCM, we will start seeing the rate of this innovation exponentiate as these parachains gain the ability to seamlessly interoperate with each other.
Q3. How is Polkadot approaching interoperability with other blockchains?
Interoperability with other blockchains is accomplished through bridges. The Web3 Foundation is focused on ensuring the development of high-quality, secure Bitcoin and Ethereum bridges while many individual parachain teams are also considering developing bridges to other blockchain networks. Parity is also focusing on developing a Polkadot<>Kusama bridge.
Q4. Why do stakers need a minimum balance of 120 DOT?
In order to ensure network performance, Polkadot enforces a maximum number of nominators, i.e. “stakers”. Whenever the number of nominators approaches this maximum, in order to reduce the number of active nominators, Parity’s staking team will recommend an increase in the minimum amount of DOT which nominators are required to stake. As the network continues to be optimised/upgraded, these thresholds are constantly changing.
Q5. How would you describe the validator community, what role do they play in the ecosystem beyond securing the network?
Polkadot is lucky to have a diverse, high-quality validator community. Many validator companies do much more than simply run validators to secure the network, although even this single function is extremely important! I know of several companies that develop important software, infrastructure, and tooling which ultimately improve the developer experience and the network overall. Some even focus on contributing to specific verticals, such as privacy (hint hint ZKV!).
Q6. How is Polkadot helping to improve privacy in Blockchain?
Rather than being focused on any specific vertical, Polkadot is focused on providing a high-quality platform for parachain development.
There are many projects developing Polkadot parachains that focus on developing improved versions of various types of privacy technology such as Manta, Phala, Automata, and many others.
Very generally, Substrate provides a very flexible layer that allows for the robust and fast implementation of different types of cryptographic primitives. This ultimately allows for the development of much more interesting platforms that rely on technologies dependent on such primitives, such as ones based on ZKP technologies.
Q7. What are the opportunities for privacy projects in the ecosystem?
I think one of the most interesting privacy-related projects that someone could develop would be a framework for confidential smart contracts using zero-knowledge-based cryptography. This is extremely hard to do completely generally but there are some teams already working on this problem, albeit outside of the Polkadot ecosystem.
Thanks again to Dieter for giving us these great insights into the Polkadot. Join our upcoming Privacy on Polkadot event — happening this Feb 22nd 2022 — for a deeper look into the Polkadot ecosystem. We will be joined by the co-founders of Polkadot, Moonbeam, Manta, Nomad, Astar to explore topics around bridges, privacy, shared security, and more.
