The Ambition of Polkadot 2.0: Refactoring and Connectivity

Following the principle of "buy first, research later," I started accumulating positions in Polkadot 3 weeks ago.

Subsequently, I began to seriously study the latest developments of Polkadot.

After enduring the painful period of downsizing, Gavin Wood handing over the CEO position to a professional manager, and the departure of ecological projects during the bear market, the Polkadot team delivered a series of new features and characteristics in 2023, including XCM V3, OpenGoV governance module, system parallel chains, asynchronous support, and parallel threads, to enhance interoperability, governance participation and efficiency, and the scalability of parallel chains within the ecosystem.

In 2024, Polkadot will embark on a new chapter: Polkadot 2.0.

The features and functionalities that Polkadot 2.0 will deliver include:

1⃣ Agile Coretime

Coretime is a new concept in Polkadot 2.0, representing the time required for verification and consensus in Polkadot, which is the scarcest resource in the Polkadot network.

In Polkadot 1.0, core time was allocated to parallel chains through slot leasing, where parallel chains bid for the right to use the slot for a specified period (ranging from 6 to 24 months).

However, in Polkadot 2.0, core time has become a fluid, tradable, and accumulable asset, which can be bought or sold as a fungible asset.

This mechanism is called Agile Coretime, making it easier for developers to launch and maintain their applications on the Polkadot network.

2⃣ On-Demand Parachains

On-demand parachains are a more dynamic method of obtaining block space. Unlike existing parachains that generate blocks regularly, they are ordered by the collector when needed (i.e., when there is a need for a core, which is an opportunity to generate a block).

3⃣ Ethereum <> Polkadot Cross-Chain Bridge Snowbridge

Snowbridge aims to create a trustless bridge to achieve interoperability between Polkadot and Ethereum.

The design principles of Snowbridge are trustlessness, generality, and deterministic execution.

Its goal is to achieve Ethereum <> Polkadot interoperability that is comparable to the interoperability of Polkadot parallel chains.

4⃣ Kusama <> Polkadot Cross-Chain Bridge

Achieving Kusama <> Polkadot interoperability that is comparable to the interoperability of Polkadot parallel chains.

5⃣ Elastic Scalability

Asynchronous support allows collectors to submit parallel chain blocks using older relay chain parent blocks, thereby improving efficiency and scalability.

Sassafras Algorithm

Sassafras is a new consensus protocol designed to address fork-related issues frequently encountered in other probabilistic block-producing protocols.

Sassafras aims to establish a unique association between slots and validating nodes for each Epoch, ensuring that each slot has only one validating node.

Specifically, the operation of the Sassafras algorithm is as follows:

• Election: At the beginning of each Epoch, a group of validating nodes is selected through a lottery.

• Allocation: Each selected validating node is assigned to a specific slot.

• Validation: When a slot arrives, the validating node assigned to that slot generates a block and submits it to the main network.

• Confirmation: Other validating nodes confirm the submitted block, and if the majority of validating nodes confirm the block, it is added to the blockchain.

In this way, the Sassafras algorithm ensures that each slot has only one validating node, thereby avoiding forks.

The Sassafras algorithm is a popular solution for PoS public chains to reduce the load on the main network consensus.

In my opinion, the two most important new features of Polkadot 2.0 are Agile Coretime and the Ethereum <> Polkadot Cross-Chain Bridge Snowbridge.

Agile Coretime refactors the coupling relationship between the relay chain and parallel chains in Polkadot, significantly reducing the operational costs and burdens for parallel chain developers (recall the efforts required by developers during the slot auction period to organize public relations, community rebate activities, and capital cooperation negotiations).

Furthermore, after the launch of the core time trading market Lastic, core time can be freely traded to form a fair market price, which is beneficial for optimizing the allocation of core time resources.

The introduction of the Ethereum <> Polkadot Cross-Chain Bridge Snowbridge is a clever move. As shown in Paradigm's crypto planet comic, Ethereum is the super central node of the Web3 planet, and all Alt L1 and L2 need to draw resources such as funds, users, and developers from the Ethereum ecosystem.

The launch of Snowbridge indicates that Gavin has set aside his inner pride and begun to acknowledge reality, taking steps to prepare for a "witch attack" on Ethereum's infrastructure.

The above is a brief analysis of the ambition of Polkadot 2.0.

Finally, I would like to share my thoughts on CrossChain. Although CrossChain is no longer a prominent theme in the Web3 narrative, after delving into the cross-chain bridge sector, I have come to the conclusion that CrossChain is Blockchain.

From a certain perspective, Ethereum is also a CrossChain project. The Ethereum mainnet can be likened to the relay layer of the Polkadot network, and Alt L1s and L2s compatible with EVM can be likened to the parallel chains of the Polkadot network.

However, due to the principles of permissionless and trust neutrality in Ethereum, the coupling between its parallel chains and the relay layer is not as high as that of other CrossChain projects, and the cross-chain interoperability within its ecosystem is not as good as that of Polkadot and Cosmos.

The lack of a unified standard for cross-chain interoperability solutions has made Ethereum's cross-chain bridges a prime target for hacker attacks, severely affecting the user experience of cross-ecosystem interactions in the Ethereum ecosystem (compare the experience of transferring assets between Polkadot parallel chains and L2s).

The Ethereum Foundation and US crypto VCs have realized this, and they have respectively incubated Connext and LayerZero to compete for the cross-chain interoperability standard in the Ethereum ecosystem. Currently, LayerZero has the upper hand in terms of data, but the future is still uncertain.

We will delve deeper into the competition for cross-chain interoperability standards in the Ethereum ecosystem when we have time.

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