CrossChain is no longer prominent in the Web3 narrative, but CrossChain is BlockChain.
Written by: NingNing
Based on the principle of “buy first and research later”, I opened a position 3 weeks ago. After that, I started to seriously study the latest situation of Polkadot.
After going through the painful period of the bear market, including layoffs, Gavin Wood’s handover of professional managers, and the departure of ecological projects, the Polkadot team delivered XCM V3, OpenGoV governance module, system parachain, asynchronous support, parallel threads, etc. in 23 years. A series of new functions and features to enhance interoperability within the ecosystem, governance participation and efficiency, and the scalability of parallel chains.
In 2024, Polkadot will open a new chapter: Polkadot 2.0.
The features and functions that Polkadot 2.0 will deliver include:
Agile Coretime
Coretime is a new concept in Polkadot 2.0. It represents the time required for verification and consensus in Polkadot and is the scarcest resource in the Polkadot network.
In Polkadot 1.0, core time is allocated to parachains through slot leasing, and parachains bid for slot usage rights for a specified lease period (ranging from 6 to 24 months).
However, in Polkadot 2.0, core time becomes a liquid, tradable, and accumulating asset that can be purchased or sold as a fungible asset.
This mechanism, called agile core time, makes it easier for developers to launch and maintain their applications on the Polkadot network.
On-Demand Parachains
On-demand parachains are a more dynamic method of acquiring block space. They do not generate blocks regularly like existing parachains, but rather a core (a block generation opportunity) is ordered by the collector when needed.
Ethereum <> Polkadot cross-chain bridge Snowbridge
Snowbridge aims to create a trustless bridge that enables interoperability between Polkadot and Ethereum.
Snowbridge’s design principles are trustless, universal, and deterministic.
Its goal is to achieve Ethereum <> Polkadot interoperability comparable to Polkadot parachain interoperability.
Kusama<>Polkadot cross-chain bridge
Achieve Kusama<> Polkadot interoperability comparable to Polkadot parachain interoperability.
Flexible expansion
Asynchronous support, allowing collectors to submit parachain blocks using older relay chain parent blocks, improving efficiency and scalability.
Sassafras algorithm
Sassafras is a new consensus protocol designed to solve fork-related problems often encountered in other protocols based on probabilistic lottery drawing of blocks.
Sassafras attempts to establish a unique association between the Slot of each Epoch and the verification node, ensuring that each Slot has only one verification node.
Specifically, the Sassafras algorithm works as follows:
- Election: At the beginning of each Epoch, a group of verification nodes will be selected through lottery.
- Assignment: Each selected verification node will be assigned to a specific Slot.
- Verification: When a Slot arrives, the verification node assigned to the Slot will generate a block and submit it to the main network.
- Confirmation: Other verification nodes will confirm the submitted block. If most verification nodes confirm the block, then the block will be added to the blockchain.
In this way, the Sassafras algorithm ensures that each Slot has only one verification node, thus avoiding the occurrence of forks.
The Sassafras algorithm is a popular solution for PoS public chains to reduce the consensus load of the main network.
In my opinion, the two most important new features of Polkadot 2.0 and above are: agile core time and Ethereum<>Polka cross-chain bridge Snowbridge.
Agile core time reconstructs the coupling relationship between the Polkadot relay chain and the parachain, greatly reducing the operating costs and burdens of parachain developers (recall how much public relations developers had to work hard to organize during the card slot auction , community rebate activities, capital cooperation negotiations).
Moreover, after the core time trading market Lastic is launched, core time can be freely traded to form a fair market price, which is conducive to optimizing the resource allocation of core time.
Ethereum <> Polkadot cross-chain bridge Snowbridge is a clever move. As Paradigm’s Crypto Planet comic shows, 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 shows that Gavin has put aside his inner pride, begun to admit the reality, and started to launch a “witch attack” on Ethereum to prepare for Infra.
The above is a simple analysis of the ambitions of Polkadot 2.0.
Finally, let me talk about my views on CrossChain. Although CrossChain is no longer a prominent science in the Web3 narrative, after my in-depth study of the cross-chain bridge section, I came to the conclusion that CrossChain is BlockChain.
From a certain perspective, Ethereum is also a CrossChain project. The Ethereum main network can be compared to the relay layer of the Polkadot network, and the EVM-compatible Alt L1s and L2s can be compared to the parachains of the Polkadot network.
However, in view of the principle spirit of Ethereum being permissionless and trustworthy and neutral, the coupling degree between its parachain and relay layer is not as high as that of other CrossChains, and the cross-chain interoperability within the ecosystem is not as good as Polkadot and Cosmos.
The lack of a unified standard cross-chain interoperability solution has caused the Ethereum cross-chain bridge to become the hardest hit area for hacker attacks, and has also seriously affected the user’s Ethereum ecological interactive experience (compare the transfer of assets between Polkadot parachains and L2 Transfer asset usage experience).
The Ethereum Foundation and American crypto VC are aware of this, and they have incubated Connext and LayerZero respectively to compete for cross-chain interoperability standards in the Ethereum ecosystem. Currently LayerZero is superior in terms of data, but the future is unknown.
When we have time in the future, we will conduct an in-depth analysis of the dispute over cross-chain interoperability standards in the Ethereum ecosystem.
