Polkadot 2.0 has changed slot auctions to the buying and selling of core time.

Author: Polkadot Labs

Background

Recently, the official Polkadot announcement stated that Polkadot 1.0 has been officially completed, which includes all the features outlined in the Polkadot whitepaper, marking a significant milestone in the development of blockchain technology! As an advanced blockchain project, Polkadot has a significant advantage in iterative evolution, naturally leading to the arrival of Polkadot 2.0.

At the Polkadot Decoded 2023 event at the end of June, Dr. Gavin presented a new sharing, introducing the Polkadot 2.0 version. In this presentation, he spent half of the time introducing Polkadot 2.0 as a multi-core computer and may cancel slot auctions, replacing them with the purchase of Coretime, which will bring about new changes in supply and demand for Polkadot's DOT, as well as improvements to the economic model. We have already written an article on this concept, "Gavin: Polkadot is a multi-core computer! How to understand the vision of Polkadot 2.0?", to interpret this concept.

In the latter part of this presentation, Gavin proposed two additional new prospects for Polkadot: ① hoping that Polkadot will transition from being chain-centric to application-centric; ② creating a more adaptable application platform. This article will explain in detail how to understand these two points. It is important to note that this is just one perspective and does not represent an absolute correct understanding, for reference only, and we welcome further discussion.

Transition from Chain-Centric to Application-Centric

Gavin first reviewed the situation of Polkadot 1.0. Polkadot 1.0 is a chain-centric paradigm that supports isolated chains exchanging messages with each other, similar to connecting sovereign chains using bridges, but in Polkadot, this is achieved through relay chains.

The result of this approach is a fragmented user experience, where users are separated onto individual chains, creating significant fragmentation. After all, there are still some barriers to interaction between parallel chains, and if users want to use the functionality of another chain, they must cross chains. Therefore, to unleash the potential of Polkadot, applications must seamlessly cross chains.

As shown in the above figure, the early architecture of Polkadot was centered around the relay chain with many parallel chains around it. However, in Polkadot 1.0, many of Polkadot's application capabilities were placed on the relay chain for rapid deployment, such as Staking, governance, identity systems, asset management, and more.

However, this was actually a stopgap measure, as these additional functions occupied the original usage space of the relay chain, whose primary role is to ensure network security and message delivery. By transferring these additional functions to system parallel chains, the burden on the relay chain can be minimized, thereby improving the overall efficiency of the Polkadot network and ecosystem.

On the other hand, many functions have been dispersed into different system parallel chains, which means that applications need to be able to cross these chains to achieve more functionality. However, this should not make the user experience difficult for Polkadot's design.

So we need to look at Polkadot from a different perspective. In fact, Polkadot is not a relay chain in the middle, with parallel chains around it, at least not for those who come to the Polkadot ecosystem. In fact, Polkadot should be an integrated system, a computer running many applications.

The dots on the graph represent applications, and the dashed lines dividing the dots are "paras," which can be understood as the current parallel chains. However, Gavin does not want to use parallel chains to describe it, and does not want us to think that each chain corresponds to a core.

So, from this perspective, although there are boundaries between parallel chains (as shown by the dashed lines in the figure), for applications (the dots in the figure), all dots on Polkadot should be able to easily communicate with each other. In particular, communication between two applications on different parallel chains should be almost as easy as communication between two applications on the same parallel chain. (After all, using XCMP consumes some network and computing resources, so it will incur some additional fees.)

In this way, applications can ignore the barriers between different parallel chains and see themselves as an application on Polkadot, and can easily interact with any application on Polkadot.

Gavin's statement about transitioning from chain-centric to application-centric can be understood as many of Polkadot's functions were on the relay chain, and everyone viewed Polkadot and the Polkadot ecosystem from the perspective of chains.

However, this is because many of Polkadot's infrastructure was not yet implemented at the beginning, such as parallel chain slot auctions, cross-chain functionality, etc. Polkadot needs to gradually implement these functions step by step before it can remove many functions from the relay chain and transfer them to system parallel chains. With the support of XCM and cross-chain technologies such as XCMP/HRMP, these functions distributed across different system parallel chains can easily interact, thereby achieving a more likely vision for Polkadot.

Therefore, we can see that the relay chain now supports a large number of parallel chain architectures, and these parallel chains can interact with each other, all achieved step by step. In the early stages, it was necessary to develop with a chain-centric approach, but now that these necessary functions have been implemented, Polkadot can gradually shift towards being application-centric, where applications on different parallel chains can easily interact, allowing the Polkadot ecosystem to gradually transition to being application-centric.

If we compare Polkadot to the European Union, different parallel chains can be compared to various countries within the EU, and these applications can be compared to companies within each country. The current situation is like a company in one country being able to conduct business with any other company or resident in another country, and companies can focus on serving all residents within the EU.

This is what it means for Polkadot to be application-centric.

However, to achieve this goal, we must mention XCM and a new concept called Accord.

1 XCM and Accord

XCM, which stands for Cross-Consensus Message, is a language for expressing intent, such as "I am ready to transfer assets" or "I am ready to vote." You can think of it as using English as a universal language for communication between countries using different languages. However, in Polkadot, if it is between systems chains that trust each other, such expression is not a problem because they trust each other.

Editor's note: XCMP is a cross-chain message passing protocol, which is a method of transmission, similar to logistics or making a phone call. These are all ways of delivering things, while XCM is the language of communication. For example, when communicating between different countries using English, it is using the language of XCM and using the method of XCMP for transmission. Although the two English terms are similar, their actual meanings are quite different. XCMP only handles whether the message can be delivered, but if the other party does not accept it, it is another matter.

However, if they are between different governance processes and legislative procedures, there will be problems. It's like, although the various parallel chains form a European Union, it is actually a treaty framework that requires different sovereign countries to comply with specific treaties. However, it is not perfect because although there is a common judiciary to translate the laws of each country and ensure compliance, it cannot prevent a country from changing its laws to be inconsistent with the requirements of the EU. It would be very uncomfortable to conduct cross-border trade in such an untrustworthy environment.

To address this consistency issue, Gavin proposed a new term, Accord, which is a voluntary treaty across multiple chains. It's like saying, "I voluntarily agree to follow this business logic, and nothing I do will change that." Chains cannot disrupt the logic of the treaty.

We can understand it as a more effective treaty introduced among several countries within the EU, where everyone follows the treaty and conducts business properly.

Polkadot ensures the faithful execution of this logic. The Accord will be specific to certain functions. Any chain that joins the Accord must comply with the rules, which will be specific to that particular function. To ensure a lower barrier to entry, it is proposed that the Accord does not require permission. Because it is voluntary to join, it will not affect anyone before or during registration.

Editor's note: However, it is not mentioned here whether it is possible to exit or what will happen after exiting, which needs further observation.

The Accord cannot exist in all systems. Polkadot is the only system that can support its existence because Polkadot is the only system with the same level of security and can provide specific state transition functions for each shard. These characteristics allow Polkadot to achieve a cooperative mode that is impossible in other architectures (such as cross-chain bridges).

Although many Layer2 solutions have recently introduced their own Stack tools and can support multi-chain interaction, forming a multi-chain ecosystem based on their Layer2 Stack, the security of these Layer2 solutions is fundamentally limited by their own Layer1, so they cannot achieve the same level of security as Polkadot. The ecosystem projects of Cosmos, despite the new shared security brought by Cosmos 2.0, still cannot achieve the same level of security as Polkadot.

Therefore, Accord, which allows cooperative modes across multiple chains, is impossible (or more precisely, unsafe) in other architectures!

Therefore, Accord will be a highly competitive mechanism for the future Polkadot ecosystem.

Previously, one of the technologies that Polkadot is currently advancing is called SPREE, which is one of the key technologies for implementing Accord.

SPREE is a technology that enables Shared Protected Runtime Execution Enclaves, also known as "trusted wormholes." It allows secure, efficient, and flexible information and value transfer between different parallel chains through the relay chain. It is based on a relay chain's runtime logic segment, which can be selectively introduced by parallel chains to obtain specific functions and services.

SPREE ensures that Accord has the same logic on all parallel chains, achieving consistency and trustworthiness in cross-chain protocols. It also ensures that the storage space of Accord cannot be modified by the logic of parallel chains, preventing data tampering and misuse, and ensuring the authenticity and integrity of messages transmitted within Accord.

Accord's core idea is to define and execute common rules and logic across multiple blockchains using smart contracts and XCMP. This allows different blockchains to form a collaborative network and achieve functions that individual blockchains cannot accomplish.

Dr. Gavin listed three specific applications for Accord:

① Asset Hub

Currently, if two chains want to interact with assets, they must go through a third chain, known as the asset hub chain. If one of the chains is a local asset chain, the process is slightly different. But theoretically, if two unrelated chains want to trade third-party assets, you must establish an additional pathway.

With Accord, this is no longer necessary. It can be seen as an embassy that exists in a common process space, scheduled on the same core as the parallel chains at the same time, but is not part of the parallel chain's business logic. It is separate. This is similar to embassies having their own laws from their original country, but their geographical location is in the local country. Similarly, Accord is like external business logic, recognized by everyone, and exists locally.

② Multicast XCM Router

It can send a message across multiple chains, and it can be done in a certain order. For example, performing one operation here and another operation there, but always with my permission. This is currently not possible.

③ Decentralized Exchange

It can set up outposts on multiple different chains, allowing exchanges to occur directly locally without the need to open bidirectional channels. (This means that currently, two parallel chains need to open bidirectional HRMP channels to interact.)

These are just the most immediate thoughts from Dr. Gavin, and he believes that as time goes on, this technology will be used more and we will see its full potential.

As an organization that has been researching the Polkadot ecosystem for a long time, our Polkadot Ecosystem Research Institute has extended some possible scenarios based on Accord logic.

For example, a DAO alliance composed of DAppChains, where there are multiple parallel chains on Polkadot, all of which are DAppChains for gaming. Their business logic is different, but they can form a DAO organization through Accord, where members collectively follow certain rules, such as a portion of the fees being deposited into their DAO treasury, and then engage in collective governance. This allows the GameFi alliance to attract more projects and form a strong collaborative organization for mutual development and sharing.

Previously, Mythical Chain, which ranked in the top four in monthly digital asset sales, decided to move to Polkadot, and its subsequent development direction is more in line with this scenario, ensuring smooth interoperability with their partners and enabling secure multi-chain interaction and governance.

In addition, with Polkadot 2.0 changing slot auctions to the buying and selling of core time, it can separate the payment and usage of core time, allowing traditional companies to build a coinless blockchain to run their business. The company can purchase core time as needed. Therefore, multiple companies can use Accord to form a chain alliance, allowing business interconnection without worrying about the security of the interaction process and the underlying infrastructure, as these are all handled by Polkadot.

This direction opens up more space for imagination. For example, many traditional companies are exploring how to use blockchain technology to empower their brands. Many projects are exploring the direction of Web3 loyalty programs, integrating their business and issuing corresponding NFTs as rewards, and further applying NFTs in more scenarios.

However, these NFT holders now have some common characteristics, so based on the same characteristics, can't they find matching brands to jointly design new loyalty programs?

This can achieve multi-brand collaboration, where each brand can find more precise user groups, share marketing expenses, indirectly reduce marketing costs, improve marketing efficiency, and continuously launch new activities to activate users.

This approach is called Open Loyalty, a popular way for traditional companies to use blockchain technology, and it seems that Polkadot inadvertently provides good technical support for this trend.

In the financial sector, Accord will have more use cases. Previously, we have mentioned several times that state-owned banks and traditional financial institutions in multiple countries are exploring ways to empower finance using blockchain technology. For example, first putting RWA on the chain, and then using common DeFi mechanisms, such as AMM, to achieve efficient circulation, trading, or clearing of different financial assets.

In addition, we have mentioned several times our high expectations for the whole-chain ecosystem, which is an application built on a network structure that supports cross-chain interoperability and composability between all blockchains, such as many applications based on Layerzero.

Clearly, Polkadot's Accord is a more secure form of organization within Polkadot, and we can foresee that, in addition to decentralized exchanges, other applications in the whole-chain ecosystem will also be implemented on Polkadot, such as Polkadot's cross-chain lending center, and so on.

2 Project CAPI: Application-Centric Middleware

With the new goal of being application-centric, corresponding infrastructure is needed to help the ecosystem develop in this direction. Therefore, the introduction of middleware to accelerate development is necessary. This is where Project CAPI comes in.

Project CAPI can help create DApps based on Polkadot and allow them to span multiple chains, with a smooth and user-friendly interface, even when using a light client. This can ensure that when an application is on multiple chains, the user experience is cohesive and easy, without the previous fragmentation.

In the future, at the experience level, users will only perceive the functionality of the application, without needing to worry about which chain the application is on. Instead, the focus will be on the usability of the application itself. This naturally achieves the transition from being chain-centric to being application-centric.

3 Hermit Relay

This involves transferring all user-level functions from the relay chain to the system chain. For example:

• Balances
• Staking
• Governance and identity
• Core leasing

Ultimately, this allows Polkadot's functions to span multiple parallel chains, freeing up space on the relay chain. It also ensures that users do not need to be aware of which function they are using on which chain, but can seamlessly experience all functions as if they were still on the relay chain.

Building a Resilient Application Platform

Finally, Dr. Gavin reiterated their long-standing goal of building Polkadot into a resilient application platform.

Existing systems are not resilient enough and are built with old-fashioned thinking. Such systems often lead to centralization issues, such as the leakage of personal information, when cryptography and game theory are not applied. Therefore, to achieve resilience, the first step is to build a decentralized, cryptography-based system that can withstand game theory tests. But what specifically needs to be done?

Although we advocate "decentralization" every day, if everything has to go through the same RPC provider, it cannot be considered truly decentralized.

Resilience requires a combination of multiple factors:

① Advantages of Using Light Clients

Centralized RPC is too easily affected, and RPC usage is too common.

RPC is a protocol for remote procedure calls that allows a program to execute a procedure (subroutine) on another computer on a network as if the procedure were running locally, without the programmer having to explicitly write the details of remote interaction. Therefore, RPC is widely used.

However, centralized RPC brings many centralization issues. For example, if the central server fails or is attacked, all remote procedure calls will be affected, leading to service interruptions or data loss. Therefore, relying too much on RPC makes the system not resilient enough.

In Polkadot, there are two technologies that allow developers and users to interact and collaborate with multiple chains on Polkadot more conveniently without running a full node or relying on third-party services. These two technologies are Smoldot and CAPI.

Smoldot is a lightweight client built for chains based on the Substrate framework (such as Polkadot/Kusama). CAPI is a framework for interacting with Substrate chains, providing a development server and a smooth API for multi-chain interaction without affecting performance or usability.

Smoldot and CAPI allow developers and users to communicate and collaborate with various chains in the Polkadot network more quickly, securely, and flexibly, without the need to download large amounts of data or trust a specific node. This enables high-performance, light-client-based user interfaces (UI) that allow users to easily access and use various applications and services in the Polkadot network on different devices and platforms.

②ZK Primitives

Building a feature-rich, high-performance ZK primitives library.

Polkadot developers and researchers in the ecosystem have already begun building libraries of ZK primitives, which will be used for specific use cases, i.e., specific tasks we want to accomplish when building applications.

The first library is almost complete and will provide privacy features, immediately providing privacy protection for on-chain collectives (Fellowship). It will allow us to reuse modules for zero-knowledge proofs and privacy protection.

Primitive refers to a basic operation or function that can be used to build more complex algorithms or protocols. Primitives are usually rigorously mathematically proven and secure.

The ZK primitives mentioned above refer to primitives used to implement zero-knowledge proofs. Popular ZK solutions currently include ZK-SNARKs, ZK-STARKs, and ZK-Rollup in the Layer2 domain.

③Sassafras Consensus

Sassafras consensus is a new non-forking block production consensus algorithm for Polkadot, an extended BABE consensus mechanism that can serve as a constant-time block production protocol. This approach attempts to address some drawbacks of BABE, such as ensuring that each block can only be produced within a fixed time interval. The protocol uses zk-SNARKs to construct a ring-VRF and is currently under development.

It will further enhance the security and randomness of Polkadot, with high-performance transaction routing, improving the performance and user experience of parallel chains. Additionally, Polkadot will have the potential to do some clever things, such as encrypted transactions, which prevent Front-Running and also open up an interesting way to resist MEV.

Front-Running, also known as sandwich trading, is a form of market manipulation where traders with advanced knowledge of pending transactions can exploit this information for their benefit.

MEV stands for Miner Extractable Value, referring to the additional value that miners or validators can extract from the blockchain beyond normal transaction fees.

For more details on the Sassafras paper, please refer to: Sassafras Paper

④Internode Mixnet

Internode Mixnet is an encrypted transmission technology used to send messages and avoid leaking transaction IP information. It is also a general messaging system for communication between users, chains, and off-chain workers.

This is also crucial for making the system more resilient.

⑤Human Decentralization

As long as we rely on decentralization, we need to involve many different participants to achieve resilience. This requires building the right structure to introduce a diverse and sufficient number of people into the system in the right way. Polkadot incentivizes everyone's participation through governance, treasury spending, salaries, grants, etc., and draws on and maintains collective expertise.

Finally, Gavin wants to reiterate the original intention. Polkadot does not exist to create a specific application but to provide a platform for deploying multiple applications in an environment where applications can leverage each other's functionality to improve the well-being of users. And we want to ensure that this vision can be realized as soon as possible, as this is the mission of Polkadot.

If Polkadot cannot maintain a certain level of resilience to changes in the world, then building Polkadot will be meaningless. These changes can be other ways to achieve the same goal or threats from external organizations that distrust the world.

In summary

Overall, although Polkadot 1.0 is already advanced in terms of technical architecture and design concepts, it is a new multi-chain system architecture composed of Layer0 and Layer1 that is different from existing public chain architectures. As there were no successful cases before, some compromises need to be made to gradually explore its development. For example, taking a chain-centric approach and concentrating many functions on the relay chain. This is necessary to ensure the smooth landing of Polkadot.

Therefore, with the complete delivery of Polkadot 1.0 and the ability to ensure that the relay chain can support numerous parallel chains, Polkadot has matured enough to move towards its ideal direction. This is Polkadot 2.0.

Polkadot 2.0 achieves several goals:

1. Addressing some of the criticisms and issues discovered during the operation of Polkadot 1.0, such as the potential cancellation of slot auctions and the shift to the buying and selling of core time. This will break down the high entry barriers to the Polkadot ecosystem. The core time mechanism will also change Polkadot's economic model, bringing new empowerment to DOT.

2. Fully demonstrating Polkadot's potential and unique advantages. Whether it's the core time mechanism that can exponentially improve the performance of parallel chains or collaboration protocols like Accord, only Polkadot can achieve a system with the same level of security and safely enable multiple Layer1 chains to collaborate in such a system. These features will become Polkadot's technological moat.

3. Polkadot is more adaptable to the ever-changing world. Polkadot can absorb existing popular technologies and turn them into primitives or reusable modules that are widely used in other projects in the Polkadot ecosystem. Many of these projects come from the Polkadot ecosystem, meaning that Polkadot's rich ecosystem will empower other projects in the ecosystem. For example, ZK primitives can enable other projects in the Polkadot ecosystem to have privacy-related features. This will gradually form a powerful network effect as the Polkadot ecosystem matures, becoming one of the competitive factors for Polkadot's future.

These solutions can also address common issues in the current crypto industry, such as privacy and MEV issues. This allows Polkadot to keep up with the times without falling behind. It is evident that one of Polkadot's potentials lies in the fact that "what you don't have, I have, and what you have, I can also have." This enables Polkadot to face a more variable future and be more adaptable.

Polkadot 2.0 fully demonstrates Polkadot's excellent evolutionary capabilities. If the situation changes, Polkadot can introduce Polkadot 3.0 for further iterations. Therefore, Polkadot will become an evergreen tree in the crypto industry. As the clear wind brushes the mountain, and the bright moon shines on the river, let's see the changes in the world and who will compete at the forefront.

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