Today, with the rapid development of blockchain technology, Polkadot (Polkadot), as a platform designed to connect multiple blockchains, has been constantly evolving. In June 2023, at the Polkadot Decoded 2023 conference, Gavin Wood, founder of Parity Technologies, shared a new vision for the Polkadot network, namely Polkadot 2.0. This article will delve into the technical iteration and governance model of this new vision and analyze its impact on future development.
A new vision for Polkadot 2.0
In Polkadot 2.0, Gavin Wood proposed major improvements to the existing Polkadot network. For small or new projects, the need for large amounts of DOT tokens to extend their life limits their ability to participate in the Polkadot ecosystem. In addition, fixed slot leasing does not match actual resource usage, resulting in inefficient resource utilization. To address these challenges, Polkadot 2.0 introduces several key changes:
No more slot auctions: In Polkadot 2.0, all cores are available as resources that any parachain can consume, and there is no longer an explicit allocation. This means that projects no longer need to obtain core time through slot auctions, thereby reducing the problems of reduced market liquidity and high opportunity costs.
Core Time Market: Polkadot 2.0 introduces the Core Time Market, which tokenizes core time and makes it tradable. Any parachain that needs more core time can be purchased from Polkadot or other parachains that have excess core time. This flexibility will greatly improve resource utilization efficiency.
Optimization of core time
In Polkadot 1.0, each core assigned to a parachain produces a block every 12 seconds without regard to network requirements and demands, resulting in an inefficient use of core time. Polkadot 2.0 uses cores as homogeneous resources, allowing a single core or even a single core time to provide computation for multiple parachains. This transformation will maximize the use of resources.
core time market
The core time market is an important innovation of Polkadot 2.0. It allows parachains to purchase core time on demand, in two main forms:
Bulk coretime: Standard core time leased at a fixed price through the broker parachain.
Instantaneous coretime: Obtained by selling core time that is immediately used for immediate use, sold at spot prices. The community often refers to this as "pay as you go."
This market mechanism will allow old parachains to purchase core time in advance, while new parachains with limited resources can purchase core time as needed.
XCM and Accords
Polkadot 2.0 also introduces Accords, which can act as a kind of treaty between any two parachains. Although the XCM cross-chain message format ensures the faithful delivery of cross-chain messages between chains, it is still possible for chains to interpret these messages incorrectly. Accords will ensure that these messages can be trusted and executed correctly on the target chain.
Asynchronous Backing
Asynchronous support is an effort to further improve the efficiency of the Polkadot network. Synchronization support in Polkadot 1.0 means that collaborators are only allowed to anchor the current parachain block to the latest relay chain block, which can cause congestion and slow down throughput. Asynchronous support in Polkadot 2.0 breaks this synchronicity, allowing collaborators to anchor current parachain blocks to historical relay chain blocks, improving efficiency and scalability.
Advantages of asynchronous support
Improved efficiency and scalability: Because parachains are no longer limited by the throughput of the relay chain, they can pipeline blocks, or generate multiple unlinked blocks that can be anchored to subsequent relay chain blocks.
Improve the utilization of network resources: Original relay chain blocks that are not linked to a specific parachain are still suitable for proposing new parachain candidate blocks.
Polkadot developers claim that asynchronous support can provide up to four times the time for parachains to perform their operations and generate blocks, as well as the verification of those blocks. The proposed upgrade will first undergo preliminary testing on the Versi and Rococo testnets. If all goes as expected, Polkadot’s on-chain governance will be deployed first on the Kusama network and eventually on Polkadot.
Summary of Polkadot 2.0
The Polkadot 2.0 upgrade marks a major evolution in network architecture, similar to the shift from traditional office environments to modern co-working spaces. In this analogy, Polkadot 1.0 resembles a traditional office building, where resources (such as parachain slots) are leased under long-term fixed contracts. This setup, while stable, provides limited flexibility and may be less efficient for dynamic or growing organizations.
Polkadot 2.0 is similar to a modern co-working space, where resources can be flexibly allocated and used based on demand. This shift not only improves resource utilization efficiency, but also provides new and smaller projects with more opportunities to participate in the Polkadot ecosystem.
Overall, the new vision and technical iteration of Polkadot 2.0 will bring more innovation and possibilities to the blockchain field. Through new mechanisms such as the core time market, asynchronous support, and Accords, Polkadot 2.0 not only solves some pain points in the existing system, but also lays a solid foundation for future development. We look forward to what Polkadot has to offer in 2024 and beyond, and believe it will continue to lead the way at the forefront of blockchain technology.