PolkaDot

With the motto- "any type of data across any type of blockchain"- Polkadot is a multi-chain network protocol that allows arbitrary data — not just tokens — to be transferred across blockchains. With cross-chain registries and cross-chain computation possible.. Polkadot transfers data across public, open, permission-less blockchains as well as private, permissioned blockchains. This makes it possible to build applications that get permissioned data from a private blockchain and use it on a public blockchain. For instance, a school's private, permissioned academic records chain could send a proof to a degree-verification smart contract on a public chain.

The protocol was created by the Ethereum co-founders Gavin Wood, Robert Habermeier and Peter Czaban- reportedly raising over $144.3 million in its Initial coin offering in October 2017. Another private sale in 2019 reportedly raised an additional $43 million. The white paper for Polkadot was published by Wood in 2016- the Web3 foundation was launched in 2017 and Polkadot's initial block was released in May 2020.

Polkadot uses the most advanced technology. Its relay chain is built with Substrate- a blockchain-building framework that is the distillation of Parity Technologies' learnings building Ethereum, Bitcoin and enterprise blockchains. Its state machine is compiled to WebAssembly- a super performant virtual environment. The networking uses libp2p- a flexible cross-platform network framework for peer-to-peer applications.. it handles the peer discovery and communication in the Polkadot ecosystem. The runtime environment is being coded in Rust, C++ and Golang- making Polkadot accessible to a wide range of developers.

Ryan Zurrer- a partner in Polychain Capital- told TechCrunch: "Polkadot is a crucial infrastructure element of Gav Wood's vision for Web3 and represents the most technically ambitious endeavor we have ever seen in blockchain." 

How does Polkadot work? Per Forbes: 'David Lawant- director of research at Bitwise Asset Management- calls Polkadot a "heterogeneous multi-chain system"… Polkadot provides a built-in infrastructure upon which programmers can build their own blockchains with cross-chain interoperability in addition to decentralized applications- smart contracts- non-fungible tokens and much more… Polkadot intends to allow any public or private blockchain to communicate with each other—it's meant to be the "internet of blockchains".'

What brings it all together—proof-of-stake validation- cross-chain interactions and base layer programming—is DOT: Polkadot's native token which is put up as collateral by validators to approve the next block in Polkadot's blockchain. Each blockchain built on Polkadot is referred to as a parallel chain- or parachain- within the system and each para-chain will have the ability to control their own governance. When moving data across para-chains- security is crucial which Polkadot ensures with an underlying chain- the relay chain. PS All DOT holders are given the right to vote on upgrades and network fees.

In recent news Polkadot parachain Aventus Network collaborated with British multinational telecommunications company Vodafone. On 3 August 2023 Aventus tweeted that their partnership with Vodafone Group is "bringing Web3 to Vodafone's business clients via a bridge between Vodafone DAB and the Aventus Network." Per Vodafone- 5- 10 per cent of cargo pods go missing annually which costs the industry almost $400 million. With their solution it envisions reducing these losses and building on Aventus' existing relationships at Heathrow Airport where Aventus' blockchain solutions are used to manage aircraft unit load devices for tracking luggage- freight- and mail. Polkadot cemented this train of thought in its tweet that "missing cargo costs the airline industry $400 Million per year- and with this partnership- they will aim to reduce these losses."

Polkadot is built to connect private and consortium chains, public and permission-less networks, oracles and future technologies. It facilitates an internet where independent blockchains can exchange information and transactions via the Polkadot relay chain, which makes it easier than ever to create and connect decentralized applications, services and institutions. By empowering innovators to build better solutions, the team seeks to free society from its reliance on a broken web.

Polkadot enables a completely decentralized web where users are in control and envisions a Web where our identity and our data is our own - safely secured from any central authority.

Polkadot is a multi-chain network protocol that connects blockchains — allowing value and data to be sent across previously incompatible networks. It's also designed to be continually scalable. The DOT token is used for staking and governance and this can be bought or sold on Coinbase and other exchanges.