As Jack Platts, Head of Collaborations at the Web3 Foundation, announced on Twitter, the final version of the Polkadot blockchain is now available. After the network’s launch about a month ago, the community now takes control of the whole network. In addition to the successfully forced transition of the Nominated Proof of Stake (NPoS), Polkadot also enables staking.
The Web3 Foundation apparently sees sufficient network stability. This was an essential requirement before the blockchain started. At the same time, the Interlay company also presented interoperability between Polkadot and Bitcoin’s blockchain as a Proof of Concept.
Polkadot: What Are the Latest News?
The news from Jack Platt are an important milestone in the project roadmap. The Ethereum alternative celebrated the Mainnet launch on May 26, 2020 — at that time with a Proof of Authority (PoA) algorithm. With the launched final version, this gave way to a Nominated Proof of Stake as planned.
While the network was tested intensively, the choice fell on an NPoS algorithm. So far, the Web3 Foundation supported the so-called ‘Sudo’ model, which gives it control over the whole network. Now, this will also be eliminated due to the launch of the Polkadot blockchain and an increase in validators. The number of validators also increases from 20 to 100, which contributes to greater decentralization.
Interlay also provides very interesting information. In a project funded by the Web3 Foundation, Interlay created a bridge between the Polkadot and Bitcoin blockchain. The Proof of Concept describes a scenario in which BTC can be ‘blocked’ on the Bitcoin blockchain and minted on the Polkadot blockchain. As a result, Interlay generates a ‘PolkaBTC’ token.
This is an important step towards the intended interoperability of the project. A focus of the developers around the former Ethereum co-founder Gavin Wood is on the interaction of Polkadot with other blockchains. That is, popular cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, could also be integrated on DeFi platforms to perform functions that wouldn’t normally be provided.
Staking As a Key Feature of Polkadot
The concept described above is somewhat similar to the DeFi Keep model, which added decentralized financial products into the Bitcoin world. As Interlay and the Web3 Foundation report, a smart contract controls the key to a wallet on the Bitcoin blockchain. The wallet is secured by the Polkadot blockchain’s native DOT token. After a content verification, the protocol shapes a certain number of PolkaBTC. These could be transferred to safes and given to liquidity seekers, which could generate income.
The Coinbase Custody staking service announced support of Polkadot some time ago. Holders of the DOT token can store their assets in the service’s offline safes. Coinbase works with Bison Trails, which provides the necessary validators. Polkadot rewards holders who hand in their DOT tokens as part of decentralized financial operations with up to 20 percent reward. No exact use cases of the concept have been named yet. However, the Proof of Concept shows a high potential of the Polkadot blockchain at an early stage.
Leave a Reply