XCM Part II: Versioning and Compatibility
Polkadot founder Gavin Wood inspects one interesting aspect of XCM in-depth: how XCM can change over time without introducing breakage between the very networks it is meant to connect.
XCM: The Cross-Consensus Message Format
This primer on XCM, Polkadot's inter-chain messaging format is the first in a series of articles explaining what it does, how it works, how to use it, and what it could become.
Staking Update: August 2021
August sees Polkadot staking improved with a semi-sorted nominator list and multi-block elections. Discover how these changes impact scalability and governance.
Kusama’s First Batch of Parachains: An Interview with the Teams
This blog contains information provided by the projects Karura, Moonriver, Shiden, Khala, and Bifrost, in order of when they won their parachain slot. Discover what network each does, their achievements so far, and the phases ahead on their respective roadmaps.
Participating in Crowdloans on Kusama and Polkadot
Parachains run in parallel on Polkadot and Kusama, connected via auctions. Learn how crowdloans allow users to support parachain teams without giving up control of their tokens.
Kusama Parachain Auctions: Second Batch
The first batch of 5 parachain slot auctions on Kusama were completed successfully over the course of June and July. Here are our recommendations for rolling out the next batch of Parachain Auctions after the interim period of monitoring for liveness and stability.
Making History: An Overview of the First Five Parachain Slot Auctions on Kusama
This post provides important background information on the candle auctions and crowdloan mechanisms for these slots and recaps what happened during the first five auctions.
Network Stability Report: Kusama With Parachains
We’ve monitored the Kusama network for stability after the first 5 parachain auctions. We’ve sampled metrics from opt-in validators to gather the information in Prometheus and Grafana for this report.
Statemine Upgrade Launches New Phase of Parachain Functionality
The Kusama community has just voted to upgrade the Statemine parachain to allow anyone to create assets and NFTs on a permissonless basis.
Research Update: The Case for Candle Auctions
A look at why candle auctions are the most suitable form for blockchain auctions, as seen in recent research done at the Web3 Foundation.
Nominating and Validator Selection on Polkadot
Nominating and validator selection are crucial parts of user interaction with Polkadot. This post presents background information on nominating and things to consider when selecting validators.
Polkadot and Kusama Staking Changes
With the increase in the number of accounts nominating on Polkadot and Kusama, we have seen some limitations of the current staking parameters. In order to prevent issues from occurring when these limits are reached, some restrictions are being added to the staking system on both networks.
