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Introduction

Interoperability which involves multichain communication has remained a hot topic of discussion for several years. Top legacy blockchains of Ethereum and Bitcoin face these challenges. So far, there have been credible attempts at solving these issues, allowing for a cross-communication between varying blockchains. Bridging has been the most used attempt, which still doesn’t solve all of the problems and often needs a high volume of fees to be spent. Polkadot becomes the first real project on the blockchain to solve this unique problem by implementing its multichain interoperability.

What is Polkadot?

Polkadot is the buzzing blockchain infrastructure ecosystem that has successfully implemented unique attributes to its blockchain that have successfully scaled the blockchain and achieved cross-chain interoperability. A feature that has never been possible with legacy blockchains like Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Dash, etc.

The platform developed by the Web3 team is the next-generation blockchain protocol connecting multiple blockchains into one unified network. The network builds on the goal of returning control to the users and fulfillment of all that the legacy blockchains have been unable to fulfill since their first deployment.

Why is Polkadot Significant?

The network’s significance lies in the advantageous position the infrastructure blockchain is set to offer to the overall blockchain community. The services include:

• Scalability: The current limitation of other blockchains is a result of their isolated mode of operation. Due to this limitation of these legacy blockchains, the fees incurred and speed is significantly impacted upon. To achieve scaling, the network introduced sharding, splitting transactions into several chains in parallel (a concept called Parachain), eliminating the bottlenecks that impact legacy chains that process transactions one by one.
  

• Interoperability and Cross-chain: Polkadot network offers a unique ability that has never been achieved before. In the network, applications built can share information and functionalities like an app on a smartphone without needing to rely on centralized service providers with questionable practices. This attribute opens the door to opportunities across projects in the blockchain. For example, a chain providing financial service can communicate with another that offers real-world data known as an oracle chain, such as stock market price feeds for tokenized equity trading.
  

• Easy Upgrades: Projects do not have to implement a hard fork to upgrade their tokens anymore. A frictionless upgrade within the network without needing to split tokens or create a new one is achieved within the network.
  

• Custom Built: Project owners can design and build their projects in whatever way that suits them. When it comes to blockchain architecture, one size rarely fits all. All blockchain make tradeoffs to support specific use cases or features. For example, Blockchain A may be optimized for Finance related matters, whereas Blockchain B may be optimized for gaming. Overall in the Polkadot network, each blockchain can have novel designs for a specific use without getting its hands dirty with unnecessary codes. By building on the substrate development framework, teams can develop and optimized their blockchain faster and more efficiently than ever before.
  

• Self Govern: Communities building on the Polkadot network can govern their project as they see fit and own a transparent stake in the Polkadot ecosystem’s future as a whole.  According to their needs, teams can optimize their blockchain governance and introduce new features or swap the old ones, however their preference.

What is the Network Appeal?

Its most attractive appeal is the chain’s multichain sharding abilities that help achieve interoperability across different chains in a frictionless manner. This removes one of the biggest bottlenecks associated with current technologies available.

We are starting to see high speed with the cheapest of fees for transactions and various blockchain actions in a way we have never imagined, especially with heavy data usage systems like gaming and NFTs.

What is the Weakness?

The network in its infrastructural technology and capabilities have never been reported to have any downtime or known weaknesses. There are no points of fault reported since the network deployment. However, the challenge it may start facing in the future may come from its users, who may begin creating some type of competition with already established chains. For example, the current debacle between Binance Smart Chain users and Ethereum Chain users on Twiter and Reddit.

The idea is that all blockchains can work together to grow the overall blockchain ecosystem and not as a competition to bring one chain down for the other. While it seems Polkadot has a bulletproof layer-1 network they are yet to launch their mainnet. Currently the parachains are in testnet and will soon be auctioned 1 by 1.

In Conclusion 

It’s evident that the Polkadot network brings in operation’s effectiveness and opens the door to even more opportunities within the blockchain. Network interoperability and multi-chain sharding that share the transactions into various shards (parachains) will increase the Transaction Per Speed (TPS) from the limited numbers currently active within legacy blockchains.

In the end, all that matters is that adoption is achieved alongside real-life applications and usage of the blockchain. The goal is to have the benefits of the blockchain applied in the life of the average users.

Polkadot is still a young ecosystem, and dozens of projects are still under development. It will take some time to have the first big project launch. As per the tokens, the project owners comprising the team of Dr. Gavin Wood, Co-founder of Ethereum and Web3, have claimed the project value is not derived from its tokens but its infrastructure application.

For those who wish to learn more about Polkadot, check out the following resources:

Website

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Blog

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