On May 18, Polkadot announced the latest developments in its ecosystem. Kusama, a pre-production environment for Polkadot, successfully deployed a Shell Parachain. Once the Shell runs for 24 hours without any problems, the governance motion and referendum will start. After the Shell is upgraded into Statemine, the parachain slot auction will begin.
Statemine is implemented by Polkdadot’s Statemint Parachain on the Kusama network. It can host both fungible and non-fungible assets.
Previously, Polkadot completed the testing of the parachain on the public Rococo V1 testnet. The successful test on Rococo V1 and the implementation of the Statemint parachain on the Kusama network serves as the prelude to Kusama’s successful parachain slot auction.
Influenced by recent positive results, KSM and DOT achieved new historical highs. According to MXC Exchange’s trading data, KSM has increased by 613 times since December 2019 while DOT has increased by 16.47 times since August 2020.
What is Kusama?Kusama translated into Chinese means ‘The Canary Network’. Initially, it was only a pre-production test environment for Polkadot (only for testing). For example, path upgrades for Polkadot’s main network, on-chain governance, and parachain attempts will be first tested on Kusama. Once the operations run smoothly on Kurama, then they will be run on Polkadot. Kusama is Polkadot’s blockchain used for experimentation to ensure Polkadot’s smooth operation.
But as the project progressed, Kusama began to operate as an independent “Polkadot”. In other words, Kusama is an independent public chain before it formally connected into the Polkadot network as the system’s parachain. Once they were connected, Kusama became one of Polkadot’s parachains and a public chain with cross-chain functionality.
Similar to Polkadot, it will connect with many parachains. Not only will the KSM prices continue to increase, but Kusama’s parachain slot auction will also attract a lot of attraction.
What is Polkadot’s/Kusama’s Parachain Slot Auction?
The slot auction is an improved auction method based on the candle auction. To bid, bidders stake DOT/KSM parachain slots. If the bid is successful, the slot can be leased to become Polkadot/Kusama parachains and become “cross-chain”.
Gavin Wood, Polkadot’s founder, stated in February that parachain slots that can be leased on Kusama could be quadrupled. Not six months, but six weeks. In other words, compared to Polkadot’s “6-month to 2-year lease period, the lease period of the parachains on Kusama can be shortened to 6 weeks.
No matter if it becomes Polkadot’s or Kusama’s parachain, bidders need to stake DOT/KSM to bid for slots. This reduces the liquidity of DOT/KSM in the secondary market.
At the same time, during Kusama’s parachain slot auction, project supporters can support the parachains that they approve of through Kusama’s take holding ecosystem. They may also receive rewards from the parachain team for their support.
What is the current progress of Polkadot’s/Kusama’s parachain slot auction?
Previously, 10 projects including Plasm have successfully connected with Rococo. After ensuring that the network layer is running steadily, the code will be integrated into Kusama and deployed to enable Kusama’s parachain slot auction functionality.
In a recent article, Gavin Wood, Polkadot’s founder, stated that Polkadot’s parachain plans are expected to launch after two things have happened:
First, a full external audit should be completed on all new logic.
Second, the Kusama network should perform at least one successful auction involving crowdloans and implementing at least one functional parachain to prove that the new logic works.
The road to Kusama’s launch has begun and is expected to be completed in three steps in the next few days:
First, the Shell parachains will be deployed on Kusama. The second step is to upgrade the Shell parachains to Statemine parachains. The third step is to launch the auction. The auction will begin once the parachain with transactions and consensus operates well with its 900 validators.
Kusama Network is expected to hold five auctions, each seven days apart. If there are no major problems, further auctions can be held afterward.
Gavin Wood also revealed: “After Kusama's first auctions complete successfully, one would expect Polkadot's auctions to happen soon after.”
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