Beginner's Guide to Polkadot

Polkadot: What is it?

• Polkadot connects blockchains in a network, making it possible for them to work together seamlessly when scaling.

• Polkadot is essentially a blockchain of Layer 0 type.

  • Ethereum is Layer 1 because Layer 2 applications can be built on top of it.

  • Parachains, which are Polkadot's Layer 1 blockchains, are supported by Polkadot as a foundation layer.

  • The only thing Polkadot does is give its blockchains security and let them connect to each other.

• Polkadot is built on the Substrate framework, which is an advanced yet simple framework for developers to work with.

Who came up with Polkadot?

• Polkadot's founder and inventor is Gavin Wood. He was:

  • Ethereum's CTO and co-founder.

  • Invented Solidity, Ethereum's programming language. o Developed the Ethereum Virtual Machine, the platform for Dapp (decentralised app) development on Ethereum.

  • Holds a doctorate in human-computer interfacing.

  • Founded Web 3.0, a business that provides funding, advocacy, research, and collaboration for pen-source projects.

  • Established the software development company Parity.

Additional co-founders:

• Robert Habermeier:

  • Long-time member of the Rust community; Solana uses the extremely fast programming language Rust.

• Peter Czaban,

  • Web 3 foundation technology director with an Oxford Master of Engineering degree.

Are Polkadot and Ethereum competitors?

• The vast majority of smart contract platforms try to destroy Ethereum, but Polkadot's founder, Gavin Wood, insists that the company is working to work with and improve the Ethereum network.

  • This is accomplished by allowing projects based on Ethereum to migrate to Polkadot, allowing transactions to be offloaded in the event that Ethereum becomes overloaded.

• Rather than avoiding the Ethereum network effect, Polkadot is enhancing the underlying technology by utilising the developer and investor community that already exists for Ethereum.

What distinguishes Polkadot from other blockchain ecosystems?

• Scalability

  • One of the main problems with many blockchains is that the network slows down as more transactions are processed.

  • In Ethereum, each computer, known as a node, is in charge of handling each transaction.

  • Polkadot addresses this issue by employing a technique known as sharding, which divides the blockchain into distinct databases known as shards (also known as the parachains), allowing it to distribute workload responsibilities among the network's nodes.

  • The Polkadot blockchain can currently handle 1,000 transactions per second.

  • Polkadot recently announced that their updated roadmap will enable the blockchain to scale to 100,000-1,000,000 transactions per second (as opposed to Ethereum's current 32 transactions per second).

• Interoperability

  • The ability of a blockchain to transfer information between various chains is referred to as "interoperability" in cryptocurrency.

  • The opportunity for Polkadot-based blockchains to communicate and transfer data with other Substrate-based chains is one of the advantages of being built on the substrate blockchain framework.

  • External blockchain connections are also possible with bridges.