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Polkadot is a sharded heterogeneous multi-chain network founded by Dr. Gavin Wood, one of the co-founders of Ethereum. The Polkadot network aims to enable cross-chain transfers of assets and data.
- Launch
- Development Roadmap
- Consensus Protocol
- Governance
- Interoperability
- Technology
- Smart Contract Language Repository
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Launch
The Polkadot network was launched in multiple phases:
- The Genesis block of the Polkadot network was launched on May 26, 2020 at 15:36:21 UTC, as a Proof of Authority (PoA) network, with governance controlled by a single Sudo (super-user) account.
- Validators began joining the network and signaling their intention to participate in consensus during the PoA phase.
- The network evolved to become a Proof of Stake (PoS) network on June 18, 2020, with the decentralized community of validators securing the chain.
- The Sudo module was removed on July 20, 2020, transitioning full governance of the chain to DOT token holders. This marked Polkadot becoming a fully decentralized network.
- Transfer functionality was enabled on August 18, 2020 at block 1,205,128, marking the Polkadot network as fully operational.
- A DOT token redenomination occurred on August 21, 2020, adjusting the denomination from 12 to 10 decimal places.
Development Roadmap
Polkadot continues to develop new features and upgrades as outlined in the official Polkadot roadmap. Key focus areas include interoperability, scalability, and governance.
Consensus Protocol
Polkadot uses a Nominated Proof of Stake (NPoS) consensus protocol to secure the Relay Chain. The active validator set is limited to 1000 validators, with the minimum staking requirement dynamically adjusting based on the number of validators and their stakes.
Validators can validate directly or be nominated by DOT token holders. Validators and nominators earn rewards from transaction fees and inflationary DOT emissions.
Governance
Polkadot uses an on-chain governance system for protocol upgrades and settings. DOT holders can propose and vote on referenda, with votes weighted by conviction (length of lock-up period). Adaptive Quorum Biasing adjusts approval thresholds based on which part of governance proposals originate from.
Interoperability
The Polkadot Relay Chain will connect with external chains such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and others via bridges. Parachains and parathreads connected to Polkadot can enable interoperability and shared security.
Technology
Polkadot is built using the Substrate blockchain development framework, which is written in Rust. It uses libp2p networking, WebAssembly runtimes, and other next-generation blockchain technologies.
