Parity Technologies and Web3 Foundation have launched the first proof-of-concept (PoC) of their blockchain interoperability protocol, Polkadot, the companies announced Wednesday.
Developed by Gavin Wood, an ethereum co-founder and the founder of Parity Technologies, the technology aims to allow chains to communicate with each other, while also facilitating upgrades automatically without system-wide upgrades, or hard forks.
While the interoperable elements are yet to be constructed, the PoC advances a building block within the Polkadot protocol that allows developers to build upon the system using this unique governance method.
“It’s really the heart of Polkadot in a way, technologically,” Jutta Steiner, the CEO of Parity Technologies, told CoinDesk.
The governance aspect of Polkadot is now available for testing on the ethereum Kovan testnet, the companies said. Wood also carried out a live demonstration at the Community Ethereum Development Conference (EDCON) earlier this month, in which he demonstrated how token holder votes – the key metric in assuring that changes occur – could be used for nefarious ends.
“It’s basically building that toolkit that you need to then develop a different parachain, to further build on the relay chain itself, but that all relies on that core engine,” Steiner said of the newly released PoC.
She added,
“Part of it is that you can start with an arbitrary governance mechanism, like state transition function, and change it live on-chain and even to a point where you kill it and no further blocks were added. That was what Gavin showed off at EDCON.”
Parity and Web3 said in a statement that the next Polkadot PoC will “implement parachain candidate agreement and networking.”
Further, they plan to officially launch the Polkadot network in the third quarter of 2019.
Polka dot boxes image via Shutterstock
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