• Relay Chain: Polkadot’s “heart,” helping to create consensus, interoperability and shared security across the network of different chains;
• Parachains: independent chains that can have their own tokens and be optimized for specific use cases;
• Parathread: similar to parachains but with flexible connectivity based on an economical pay-as-you-go model;
• Bridges: allows parachains and parathreads to connect and communicate with external blockchains like Ethereum.

Polkadot is a sharded multichain network, meaning it can process many transactions on several chains in parallel (“parachains”). This parallel processing power improves scalability.

Custom blockchains are quick and easy to develop through the Substrate framework and can be connected to Polkadot’s network within minutes. The network is also highly flexible and adaptive, allowing the sharing of information and functionality between participants similar to apps on a smartphone. 

Polkadot can be automatically upgraded without the need for a fork in order to implement new features or remove bugs.

The network has a highly sophisticated user-driven governance system that also helps to secure it. 

Communities can customize their blockchain’s governance on Polkadot based on their needs and evolving conditions. 

Nominators, validators, collators and fishermen all fulfil various duties to help secure and maintain the network and eradicate bad behavior.

Polkadot currently has an allocation of 1 billion DOT tokens, following the network’s redenomination from an initial maximum supply of 10 million in August 2020. 

The redenomination was undertaken purely to avoid the use of small decimals and make calculation easier. While all balances were increased by a factor of one hundred, this did not impact the distribution of DOT or holders’ proportional share.

Polkadot’s mass interoperability through a set of common validators helps to secure its multiple blockchains and allows them to scale their transactions by spreading their data across many parachains.

The network uses the NPoS (nominated proof-of-stake) mechanism to select validators and nominators and maximize chain security.

This unique validity scheme enables chains to interact with each other securely under the same rules, yet remain independently governed.

Polkadot was founded by the Web3 Foundation, a Swiss Foundation founded to facilitate a fully functional & user-friendly decentralized web as an open-source project.

Its founders are Dr. Gavin Wood, Robert Habermeier & Peter Czaban.

Wood, the Web3 Foundation’s president, is the most well-known of the trio thanks to his industry influence as Ethereum co-founder, Parity Technologies founder & the creator of the smart contract coding language Solidity.

Habermeier is a Thiel Fellow & accomplished blockchain & cryptography researcher & developer.

Czaban is the Web3 Foundation’s Technology Director.

The top exchanges for Polkadot (DOT) trading are currently:

• Binance 
• Huobi Global
• HBTC
• OKEx 
• Binance.KR

Don’t Risk More Than You Can Afford to Lose!