In less than 48 hours, Polkadot Decoded, the first virtual event for the interoperable blockchain network founded by Gavin Wood, will kick off. Expectations are high for the one-day symposium, which will drip feed the Polkadot community with tantalizing tidbits about future developments, including new integrations and partnerships.
Established networks such as Bitcoin and Ethereum already have their own calendar events. Polkadot Decoded looks set to follow in their footsteps, slotting in to become an annual fixture that will evolve as the blockchain ecosystem itself matures. With the events of 2020 having consigned IRL meet-ups to the dustbin, the inaugural Polkadot Decoded will be an entirely virtual affair – though that could change in the years to come.
Attendees can look forward to an action-packed schedule that will cram a lot of alpha into a little over six hours.
What to Expect from Polkadot Decoded
As its name suggests, Polkadot Decoded is designed to unpack the fundamentals of the crypto network built on Substrate and formed out of a series of parachains. Everyone in the crypto community knows about Polkadot and its potential to be a game-changer for interoperability and scalability, but few know exactly how this promise will come about or when. Clarity should come at Decoded, not least when founder Gavin Wood signs off the event with a fireside chat with Laura Shin.
Before that occurs, there’ll be plenty to keep developers, stakers, token-holders and community members happy. "Anyone interested in deepening their knowledge of Polkadot, discovering the latest developments in the ecosystem, connecting with the community, and learning more about the future of the decentralized web," should be interested in catching the web event, claims Polkadot. You don’t have to be an unabashed Polkadot proponent to see the value in learning where the network is headed – and why it may be beneficial to get involved, be it as a developer or investor.
New Codebase, Who Dis?
With a four-year headstart on Polkadot, Ethereum and its Solidity programming language are well established and understood – at a high level at least – by thousands of devs and community members. Substrate, the open source programming language based on Rust, is easier to master than Solidity and yet, paradoxically, less understood. This can be attributed to its newness, and the fact that the number of Polkadot developers is still small relative to Ethereum.
This will improve in time, of course, which is why events such as Polkadot Decoded are vital in spreading the gospel and breaking down the barriers to onboarding more devs. Talks that should be of interest to aspiring Substrate developers include "Polkadot’s Parachain Landscape: An Ecosystem Overview" by Fabian Gompf of Parity Technologies and "The Vision of Interoperability: Parachains, Bridges & Oracles" by Parity’s core developer Tomasz Drwięga.
It won’t all be jargon-laced and galaxy brain-geared, though: many of the talks are directed at a more general audience interested in learning the big picture of Polkadot, including its suitability for hosting DeFi and trustless BTC, wrapped for trading on the network. Signup for the December 3 event is open now for interested parties seeking the lowdown on where Polkadot is headed next.