Lately, there has been a massive flux of new, promising projects, and The Polkadot Protocol has been hard at work on producing some of the most promising new blockchain software innovations.
“Creativity is thinking up new things. Innovation is doing new things.” ― Theodore Levitt, Economist
Polkadot (DOT) was created in 2017 by co-founders Gavin Wood (former CTO and co-founder of Ethereum), Robert Habermeier, and Peter Czaban. Wood parted ways with Ethereum in 2016 to move on to co-found Parity Technologies, a company that develops infrastructure for prominent coins, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), ZCash (ZEC), and Polkadot itself. DOT is currently worth $38.90 a coin and holds a #7 ranking in the cryptocurrency market’s top ten.
The Polkadot team has been aggressively approaching solutions for which Ethereum failed. Given that Wood wrote the programming language for Ethereum, known as Solidity, released the Yellow-Paper defining the Ethereum Virtual Machine and worked as the first CTO of Ethereum, he’s quite the ETH expert. Wood is quoted as saying, “Ethereum is like one computer for the entire planet.”
It appears that Ethereum’s ongoing late development and false promises do not bother only me, as Wood left Ethereum in 2016 after noticing a complete lack of progress or transition within the project and sought a more proactive approach. You can hear about the project’s mission and path directly from Wood himself in the video below.
Polkadot Launch Roadmap - Episode 1: The Idea, featuring Gavin Wood:
I find this to be one of those engaging projects of 2021, despite having legs back to 2017. The multi-chain properties would allow many blockchains to work far more efficiently, Ethereum 2.0 included. I love Wood’s passion for development and respect for those who do the backend work, the real coders and developers that make all of this software possible while emphasizing job creation for programmers, which I view as one more form of crypto mass adoption.
For a while now, I’ve heard of people in the Ethereum community speak against “Ethereum Killers,” such as EOS, which offers similar solutions without the insane gas fees and environmentally unfriendly PoW (Proof of Work) consensus. Polkadot operates on a hybrid consensus between two mechanisms, GRANDPA and BABE.
After abandoning the original idea of building Polkadot on Ethereum tech, they came to build it on a new one called Substrate which uses “specialized logic” to behave as a singular blockchain and as a “para chain” or “shard,” which allows you to develop new, custom blockchain through Substrate to solve unique problems. Wood defines Polkadot as “The biggest defense against chain maximalism,” which he describes as “backing one winner chain being a barrier to entry.” My mother always did say to keep my eggs in more than one basket.
Now, I have mixed feelings on this idealism because I have focused on what myself and others refer to as the ideal cryptocurrency in which it would possess all the features we would ever need, and we would never need another currency. This maximalism was utterly lost on me with Bitcoin, and I find purists to be uneducated and generally motivated by greed. At the same time, I find Eden OS (EOS) to offer most of what is required from a currency, and it continues to develop at a rapid rate, especially now that Daniel Larimer (Former Block.one CTO and Founder of Delegated Proof of Stake) has taken up an active position within the community.
With that being said, I have always thought we should find more ways to integrate various projects, and I don’t see anything stopping Polkadot from helping Eden OS run more efficiently in the future if the Eden OS voters and developers are inclined to go in that direction. I do not believe there is a one size fits all cryptocurrency, and many have completely different functions and utilities, or lack thereof.
One exciting thing going on in the DOT community is Polkastarter, described as a “Protocol built for cross-chain token pools and auctions, enabling projects to raise capital on a decentralized and interoperable environment based on Polkadot.” Essentially, it’s a protocol for people and projects to raise funds to get off the ground, which is an essential trickle-down effect in the cryptocurrency economy.
I am pretty impressed with the Polkadot team, notably Gavin Wood, and its overall direction. I was taken aback to find that one of Ethereum’s co-founders has feelings very similar to my own regarding Ethereum and overall cryptocurrency market function & stability. I plan to write more on the project in the future.
As always, comments, suggestions, and friendly debates are highly encouraged.
Stay smart & Stay safe.
-Thomas Wolf
Pronouns: He/Him/His
Sources:
https://polkadot.network/launch-roadmap/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polkadot_(cryptocurrency)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gavin_Wood
https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/polkadot-new/
https://wiki.polkadot.network/docs/en/learn-consensus
https://www.voice.com/post/@thomaswolf/polkadot-an-optimal-approach-1617997509-463420169
DISCLAIMER
I am not a certified financial, tax, or legal advisor, analyst, or planner. The above information should not be considered advice but as an opinion intended to share information and ideas for entertainment and independent research purposes. Cryptowriter and its writers are not responsible for any losses or damages incurred as a result of misinterpreting personal opinions for professional advice.
This post was originally published for Cryptowriter on Voice.com