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The blockspace ecosystem for boundless innovation

The blockspace ecosystem for boundless innovation

Get your Web3 ideas to market fast with economics that work for you

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

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.

Governance

Staking

Token holders keep the network secure and collect rewards by staking DOT. Polkadot’s advanced staking system is designed for maximum decentralization and fair representation, rewarding good actors and punishing bad actors to ensure network security.

Bonding

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 DOT and staking

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:

ChainSafe
ChainSafe logo
Parity Technologies
Parity Technologies logo
Polkadot JS
Polkadot JS logo
Soramitsu
Soramitsu logo

Founded by some of the blockchain industry’s foremost builders

From the blog

Ecosystem

Polkadot’s April Ecosystem Insights

Welcome to Polkadot’s new monthly ecosystem insights blog, your go-to source for all the latest tech updates, feedback and discussions happening across the Polkadot Ecosystem. In this blog we’ll explore a variety of topics and gather insights from sources ranging from GitHub to the Forums. Authors: Remy Le Berre and Joshua Cheong Ecosystem Activity OpenGov OpenGov sits at the heart of decision-making within the Polkadot Ecosystem. A place where anyone can freely discuss, propose, vote and v

Community

Racing Into the Future: Polkadot and Conor Daly Revolutionize Sports Sponsorship

Breaking new ground in sports sponsorship, the Polkadot community has chosen race car dynamo Conor Daly as its brand ambassador for the Indianapolis 500. This decision, decided using Polkadot’s decentralized governance feature, marks the first time a major athlete’s sponsorship has been determined by a community vote using blockchain technology.  What is Polkadot? A Closer Look Launched in 2020 by Ethereum Co-Founder Gavin Wood, Polkadot is a digital platform engineered to be the powerful, se

Technology

Elastic Scaling: Streamlining Growth on Polkadot

Elastic scaling is an extremely useful addition for parachains that need higher throughput than allowed by the current Polkadot protocol. This blog from Fatemeh Shirazi explains its importance and how this technical upgrade will come about. Polkadot’s mission is based on delivering a platform that focuses on excellent scaling and security. The aim is to allow decentralized applications to operate in the best conditions possible. Polkadot scales by applying hierarchy to the platform architectur

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