Detailed explanation of the online process of the Polkadot parachain

Editor's Note: This article comes fromPolkadot Chinese Platform (ID: web3_polkadot), reprinted by Odaily with authorization.

, reprinted by Odaily with authorization.

Parachains are the last core feature proposed in the Polkadot white paper, which will allow Polkadot to achieve its scalable multi-chain architecture. After a period of testing, optimization, and auditing, the parachain will be ready for launch on Polkadot and can be enabled through on-chain governance. Once a parachain is live, the community will decide what additional features and upgrades to the network should be added over time.

The parachain function will first be tested and bug fixed on a parachain testnet like Rococo. Once we are confident that the code is ready, we open registration so parachain teams can test their own chains, including interacting with other chains via XCMP-lite. Once we have developed and tested the final elements of the core functionality for parachains and Cumulus — approval voting, distribution, availability restoration, and disputes — the Polkadot codebase will officially complete its functionality.

Tick, Trick, Track,KILT, Plasm, Phala, Acala, and Darwinia.

what's next

what's next

what's next

what's next

Parachain Slot leases will be allocated through permissionless candle auctions. After Polkadot’s first auction, there will be a new auction approximately every two weeks. After each auction, the winning parachain will be deployed to the network at the beginning of the lease period. Auctions will continue on a rolling basis from here, as more Slots become available as previous leases expire.

future upgrades

common problem

common problem

Q1: How many Parachain Slots are available in total?

Based on theoretically calculated constraints, the current goal and expectation is that we will have approximately 100 parachain slots available on Polkadot, although potential future optimizations (such as nested relay chains) may allow us to further increase this number. However, it will be a while before the Polkadot mainnet fully supports 100 parachain slots, and they may be slowly added to the system over time. Not all of these Slots will be distributed through the Parachain Slot Auction (after the auction starts on the basis of successful governance votes), as some of them will be used to support governance public parachains (aka syschains) and parathreads.

Q2: How will the Parachain Slot Auction be conducted?

Parachain Slot leases will be guaranteed based on a two-week candle auction. Initially, auctions will be held approximately every two weeks. After this point, the auction will continue on a rolling basis as more slots become available as previous leases expire. Details about the Slot auction will be revealed soon.

Q3: What will happen at the end of the parachain Slot lease?

A single parachain Slot can only be rented for a maximum of two years (every 6 months). At the end of the lease, the slot will be returned for auction, and teams will need to bid again if they wish to keep the slot. Parachain Slots are fungible, so in order to avoid connection interruptions and minimize the risk of losing subsequent auctions, teams can bid and secure adjacent Slots before the end of the current lease period. Teams can also choose to connect to Polkadot as a parathread.

Q4: What is Parachain Slot crowd lending, and how can I participate?

Parachain teams may or may not choose to use Polkadot’s crowdlending mechanism to help support their parachain Slot lease bids. In order to participate in crowd lending, users agree to lock part of DOT or KSM during the lease period of the parachain Slot, which will be unlocked later. The details and joining process of individual crowd lending activities will be decided and communicated by the respective parachain teams.

Important note: Polkadot's native crowdlending mechanism does not require users to send DOT or KSM from their wallets/accounts to participate in crowdlending. All crowdlending contributions are handled through the logic of the crowdlending module, where an activity is identified by an index rather than by an address. Legitimate teams doing native crowdlending on Polkadot (via Polkadot.js) will not require you to send tokens to an address to participate. However, some teams may choose to use other mechanisms or platforms for crowdlending activities. In this case, make sure to never send tokens to anyone you don't trust. Always check the team's official channels to find out how to get involved.

Q5: How much does it cost to run a parachain on Polkadot?

The cost of leasing a Parachain Slot will be purely a function of market supply and demand, so it is difficult to give any meaningful estimates for bidding requirements. However, it is important to realize that the actual cost of a parachain slot is not equal to the size of the parachain bid. Since parachain bonds are returned at the end of the Slot lease, the actual cost of running a parachain is best described as the opportunity cost of not staking those DOTs during the lease. The need to run the sequencer is an additional but relatively small cost. In general, for high-throughput applications, we expect parachains to be more economical than building smart contracts or building separate blockchains.

Q6: How and when to enable parathreading?

We hope that the parathread function will be enabled a few months after the parachain goes live. As with any network upgrade, it needs to be enabled through on-chain governance.

Q7: When will cross-chain messaging be enabled?

Some interoperability features already exist in the Rococo parachain testnet using XCMP-lite, which allows parachains to exchange messages (such as assets and arbitrary logic) via the relay chain. Full XCMP will allow direct parachain-to-parachain messaging without routing messages through relay links, and this is still in development. Full XCMP will require testing, benchmarking, and auditing before a large number of parachains can be enabled on Polkadot.

Q8: What are parachains of public benefit and why do we need them?

Public interest chains are parachains that are considered public interest because they will benefit the entire network. The public interest chain is determined by network governance, and network governance can vote on the relay chain to allocate an empty slot for the chain, thereby bypassing the auction process. Public interest chains can be thought of as system-level chains and public interest chains that provide functionality and benefits to the network that architects can leverage.

Q9: What is the duration of a Slot lease, do parachains have to bid for the entire duration?

Parachain teams can bid within a 6-month period, from a minimum of 6 months to a maximum of 24 months. After the slot lease period ends, the slot will be auctioned off again, and if teams wish to keep the slot (or connect as a parathread), they will need to bid again. Parachain Slots are fungible, so to avoid connection interruptions and minimize the risk of losing subsequent auctions, teams can bid and secure adjacent Slots before the end of the current lease period.

Q10: Besides candle auctions, are there other ways to ensure the security of Parachain Slot?

Parachains considered to be of common interest to the entire network can be added to a Slot through governance voting (see above).

Q11: Where can I ask other questions?