Polkadot announced the launch of its first parachains, a set of individual blockchains that will operate in parallel within their ecosystem.
First batch of Polkadot parachains
According to the official announcement, the slots for the first parachains are being allocated to various blockchain projects built on the Polkadot network and focusing on different niches. These include decentralized finance (DeFi), investments, crypto lending, and smart contracts.
The first parachains to lease a slot in relaychain Polkadot for up to 96 weeks are Acala, Moonbeam, Parallel Finance, Astar and Clover.
Today, Dec 18th, join the epic party to celebrate the official launch of the network! Tune into the #PolkadotParachainParty to hear from Polkadot founders @gavofyork and @rphmeieras well as from the first parachain auction winners.
We start at 6pm CET👇 https://t.co/R7Ygc4gbUh
— Polkadot (@Polkadot) December 18, 2021
Multi-chain structure
The project was created five years after the vision heterogeneous multi-chain structure was published in the Polkadot white paper.
Parachain is a major achievement in realizing Ethereum co-founder Dr. Gavin Wood’s vision of interconnected blockchains. Dr. Wood said:
No single blockchain design is optimal for every use case. Each blockchain has trade-offs that make it good for some uses but not for others. The parachain model was created with the belief that the future of Web 3 will involve many different types of blockchains working together.
He added that blockchains need to adopt the internet concept of meeting different needs by providing different services. He believes that parachains can provide such a solution.
Polkadot to allocate 100 slots for parachains
Over the coming months, Polkadot will finally allocate 100 parachain slots to the various blockchain projects built on its network. While the first batch of slots were allocated via an auction process, not all will be distributed in the same way.
Despite this, the project is preparing for the second batch of parachains, which will start on December 23, and in which a total of six auctions will be held. As Polkadot reports, the six winning projects will be launched on the mainnet on March 11, 2022.
It is worth noting that parachains are already successfully operating on one of the Polkadot networks – Kusama – where 13 slots have been allocated so far.
