Parachain messaging is here

Parachain-to-parachain communication is now enabled with XCM. Polkadot's vision of cross-chain interoperability starts here.

True interoperability

Polkadot enables cross-blockchain transfers of any type of data or asset, not just tokens. Connecting to Polkadot gives you the ability to interoperate with a wide variety of blockchains in the Polkadot network.

Economic & transactional scalability

Polkadot provides unprecedented economic scalability by enabling a common set of validators to secure multiple blockchains. Polkadot provides transactional scalability by spreading transactions across multiple parallel blockchains.

Easy blockchain innovation

Create a custom blockchain in minutes using the Substrate framework. Connect your chain to Polkadot and get interoperability and security from day one. This ease of development helps Polkadot's network grow.

High energy efficiency

Polkadot consumes a small fraction of the energy used by conventional blockchains thanks to its next-generation nominated proof-of-stake (NPoS) model. Using the equivalent of ~6.6 US households worth of energy per year, Polkadot has the lowest carbon footprint among proof-of-stake protocols analyzed in recent research.

Security for everyone

Polkadot's novel data availability and validity scheme allows chains to interact with each other in a meaningful way. Chains remain independent in their governance, but united in their security.

User-driven governance

Polkadot has a sophisticated governance system where all stakeholders have a voice. Network upgrades are coordinated on-chain and enacted autonomously and without forking the network, ensuring that Polkadot’s development remains future-proof and community-driven.

Learn more about Polkadot's technology Discover Polkadot
Powering the Polkadot network

The DOT token serves three distinct purposes:
governance over the network, staking and bonding.

Governance

Polkadot token holders have complete control over the protocol. All privileges, which on other platforms are exclusive to miners, will be given to the Relay Chain participants (DOT holders), including managing exceptional events such as protocol upgrades and fixes.

Staking

Game theory incentivizes token holders to behave in honest ways. Good actors are rewarded by this mechanism whilst bad actors will lose their stake in the network. This ensures the network stays secure.

Bonding

New parachains are added by bonding tokens. Outdated or non-useful parachains are removed by removing bonded tokens. This is a form of proof of stake.

Learn more about the DOT token Discover DOT
An open-source protocol built for everyone

Polkadot is an open-source project founded by the Web3 Foundation.

Web3 Foundation has commissioned five teams and over 100 developers to build Polkadot, including:

Founded by some of the blockchain industry’s foremost builders

Learn About the Polkadot Team
From the blog
Polkadot
XCMv2 Audit Completed by Quarkslab

XCMv2 has now been audited for a second time to discover any potential cross-chain security or fairness issues, including logical bugs, denial-of-service, and incorrect lock/unlock or burn/mint on both chains...

Kusama
Introducing Encointer: Making Web3 Truly Inclusive

Encointer is Kusama’s second common-good parachain slot . In this post, we take an in-depth look at Encointer and the problems it addresses — how it can bring financial inclusivity to Web3 and mitigate Sybil attacks with a novel ‘proof-of-personhood’ system for unique identity....

Polkadot
Polkadot v1.0: Sharding and Economic Security

This post is about the technology powering Polkadot. Polkadot is a sharded blockchain with heterogeneous shards....

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