You’ve heard of Polkadot, the scalable and interconnectable blockchain developed by Ethereum co-founder Dr. Gavin Wood. Now say hello to its wild cousin Kusama. A replica of Polkadot that’s already seeing action, Kusama is the canary in the coalmine for Wood’s heterogeneous sharding blockchain. Now, Kusama is poised to host its first hackathon. The seven-week event is sure to spark intense interest given the implications it has for Polkadot.
Hackusama Provides a Polkadot Testbed
As a home for Polkadot experimentation, Kusama is where much of the innovation on the highly anticipated Ethereum successor will play out. Bold, radical development is encouraged on Kusama, as it will provide an opportunity for devs to kick the tyres of Polkadot, so to speak, and see what its Substrate framework is capable of.
Substrate is a new blockchain building framework for creating purpose-built blockchains that can connect to Polkadot, and it’s at the heart of Kusama’s first hackathon. Hackusama’s Build a Blockchain category will compel developers to create a custom chain using Substrate that can connect to Kusama’s core Relay Chain. Because the codebase of Polkadot and Kusama is virtually identical, hackathon submissions will also have the ability to be integrated with Polkadot if required. The hackathon’s second category, Open Hack, will give devs free reign to assemble tools that will make it easier for others to build on Kusama’s network.
With $30,000 in prizes up for grabs, there are strong incentives for developers to get involved. In addition to the financial reward at stake, there is the lure of creating applications that wind up being utilized on Polkadot, which is currently in its Nominated Proof of Stake phase. The hackathon will be judged by some noteworthy figures, including Polkadot founder Dr. Gavin Wood and Adam Dossa of Polymath. In total, nine judges will oversee the event.
The World Awaits Polkadot
Polkadot has been four years in the making. Following Dr. Gavin Wood’s departure from the Ethereum Foundation in 2016, the first draft of Polkadot’s whitepaper was drafted. A year later, the project completed its token sale, and launched its proof of concept in 2018. Then in 2019, Kusama launched as Polkadot’s canary network.
Despite its lengthy development timeline, Polkadot incorporates features that are very much en vogue in the blockchain world right now, including a focus on governance and interoperability. The network has been designed with cross-blockchain transfers in mind, enabling assets of all kinds to be seamlessly swapped. As for governance, this is achieved through enabling stakeholders to have a say on network upgrades, and to ensure that new developments are approved with broad community support.
A Crypto Network for Web3
Another way in which Polkadot was ahead of the curve when it was conceived is in terms of its readiness for Web3. The narrative supporting the era of a distributed web, built on open source principles and protocols, has been bolstered by events of the past year. Censorship, deplatforming, data breaches, loss of privacy and politicization of web platforms have all bolstered the case for Web3. As a result, Polkadot’s arrival onto the scene is timely.
The project was born with the goal of creating a TCP/IP protocol for blockchain, allowing crypto networks to reach their world wide web moment, whereby a single communication standard can relay data and value between formerly siloed ecosystems. Much of the computation that occurs on Polkadot will be handled by parachains, which are designed for specific use cases, and will connect to the main Relay Chain.
The sheer scope and ambition of Polkadot has made it hard for observers to appreciate what the network is capable of, and how it shapes up against the competition. Kusama’s maiden hackathon should help to fill in some of the blanks, giving developers a better idea of what to expect from Polkadot.