Tag: Parachain

Astar, Kabocha Lead in Polkadot and Kusama Auctions

by Blockchain News

Bill Laboon, the Head of Education and Grants at Web3 Foundation, has provided critical updates on the ongoing parachain lease auctions for Polkadot ($DOT) and Kusama ($KSM) networks. In a Twitter thread dated August 31, 2023, Laboon shed light on the leading projects and upcoming changes within these ecosystems.

Astar’s Dominance in Polkadot Auctions

With just half a day left in the current Polkadot parachain lease auction, Astar has been in the lead for the majority of the Ending Period. Laboon’s tweet, which has garnered 8,934 views, 12 reposts, and 61 likes, confirms Astar’s strong position.

Astar is Japan’s top smart contract platform and supports EVM and WebAssembly environments, enabling interoperability through a Cross-Virtual Machine. It’s user-friendly, utilizing familiar tools and languages, and part of the Polkadot network, contributing to blockchain ecosystem and driving web3 technology adoption.

Kabocha’s Unwavering Lead in Kusama Auctions

On the Kusama network, Kabocha has maintained its lead throughout the entire Ending Period of the current parachain lease auction. With three and a half days remaining, the project has already attracted significant attention.

The Growing Importance of “Blockspace”

Laboon also touched upon the increasing discussions around “blockspace” within the Polkadot ecosystem. He directed followers to an article by Rob Habermeier, titled “Blockspace over Blockchains,” for an in-depth understanding of the subject.

Educational Opportunities and Grant Programs

For developers interested in the Polkadot and Substrate platforms, Laboon highlighted a free on-demand course offered by the Blockchain Training Alliance. Additionally, the Web3 Foundation’s Grants Program aims to encourage innovation within the Polkadot ecosystem.

Implications and Future Developments

The parachain lease auctions are a pivotal element for both Polkadot and Kusama networks, as they allow projects to secure a slot on the respective blockchains for a specific duration. The strong performance by Astar and Kabocha indicates robust community interest and investment.

The early leads by these projects could set the stage for their increased influence within their respective ecosystems. Moreover, the ongoing discussions about “blockspace” suggest that Polkadot is actively working to optimize its infrastructure, which could have broader implications for the crypto community.

Image source: Shutterstock

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Moonbeam Becomes First Parachain to Launch on Polkadot

by Cryptobriefing

Key Takeaways

  • Moonbeam has completed its parachain launch on Polkadot.

  • Crowdloan contributors can now claim their Moonbeam token rewards and stake them on the network.

  • Key infrastructure is set to go live on Moonbeam over the coming weeks, including Chainlink and The Graph.


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The Moonbeam Network has announced the completion of its launch process, becoming the first fully operational parachain on Polkadot. 

Moonbeam Debuts on Polkadot

The era of Polkadot parachains has begun.

Moonbeam became the first fully operational parachain on Polkadot Tuesday, completing its three-part launch process that started three weeks prior on Dec. 17. The full launch has removed the network’s superuser key, handing control directly to Moonbeam token holders. 

The first stage of Moonbeam’s launch started with centralized block production. Once developers confirmed everything was running smoothly, independent collators were added to help decentralize the network. Now that Moonbeam has fully launched, the network has reached a minimum of 48 collators and has activated Ethereum compatibility and token staking.  



Those who contributed to the Moonbeam parachain auction crowdloan that took place in November can now start claiming their Moonbeam governance token rewards. Initially, contributors can claim 30% of their total allocated GLMR tokens, plus an additional three weeks’ worth of vested emissions starting from when the launch process began. The remaining 70% of rewards will be released incrementally over the next 96 weeks. 

Token holders can also start delegating their GLMR tokens to a collator to earn staking rewards. The reward distribution is based on the number of tokens a user has contributed versus the total amount bonded to the collator, similar to how staking rewards are distributed on other Proof-of-Stake chains. 

Moonbeam’s GLMR token has enjoyed a strong start to trading, climbing 66% on the day. The token is currently trading at $17.44 at press time.

GLMR/USD chart. Source: CoinGecko

Moonbeam is an Ethereum-compatible smart contract platform built on one of Polkadot’s parachain slots. As a parachain, Moonbeam is secured by the main Polkadot relay chain and will enjoy interoperability with subsequent parachains as they go live. 


Because Moonbeam is compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine, developers can easily port over applications from the Ethereum mainnet with relatively few changes to the underlying code. As such, in the weeks following Moonbeam’s launch, key infrastructure from Ethereum is set to launch on the network, including Chainlink oracles, indexing protocol The Graph, and several multichain bridges. 

Before establishing itself on Polkadot, Moonbeam launched its Moonriver companion network on Polkadot’s canary network called Kusama. Like Moonbeam, Moonriver is also EVM-compatible and currently hosts 30 applications, including many multichain protocols such as decentralized exchange Sushi and yield optimizer Beefy Finance. Following the success of Moonriver, many in the Polkadot community are hoping Moonbeam will also be able to foster a thriving DeFi ecosystem.  

Disclosure: At the time of writing this feature, the author owned ETH, GLMR, DOT, and several other cryptocurrencies. 

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Polkadot Holders Are Backing Acala and Moonbeam for Parachains

Moonbeam and Acala Network have raised a combined total of $882 million to bid in Polkadot’s upcoming Parachain auctions. Polkadot Projects Await Parachain Auctions Moonbeam and Acala Network look set…

A Guide to Yield Farming, Staking, and Liquidity Mining

Yield farming is arguably the most popular way to earn a return on crypto assets. Essentially, you can earn passive income by depositing crypto into a liquidity pool. You can think of these liquidity…

What Are Polkadot’s Parachain Auctions?

The Polkadot ecosystem is preparing for one of its biggest events to date: the launch of parachain auctions.  Polkadot Prepares for Parachain Auctions  Layer 1 smart contract platforms like Solana,…

Polkadot Ready for Kusama Parachain Auctions

Polkadot’s founder Gavin Wood has announced that parachain auctions on Kusama should take place from next week. First Parachain Auctions to Launch Parachain auctions on Polkadot’s canary network Kusama will…


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DFG piles $12.6M into Astar Network’s Polkadot parachain bid

by Cointelegraph

The first-ever parachain auction on Polkadot is heating up, with leading projects from the Polkadot ecosystem competing for the coveted first slot.

On Nov. 15, DFG Group — a global blockchain investment firm controlling $1 billion in assets under management — announced it had pledged 300,000 DOT tokens (worth $12.65 million) in support of Astar Network’s parachain bid.

Polkadot will use parachain auctions to realize its sharded proof-of-stake ecosystem. In order to secure a parachain or shard on the Polkadot network, projects compete in auctions by bidding to lock up large sums of DOT for the duration of a parachain slot’s lease. Projects competingfor parachain slots distribute governance to tokens to users who contribute dot to their parachain auction bids.

Astar Network, previously known as Plasm, is vying to build a decentralized application hub on Polkadot that supports Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and Web Assembly-based smart contracts.

According to the Nov. 15 announcement, DFG has made the pledge through the Bifrost’s Slot Auction Liquidity Protocol (SALP), which allows users to participate in parachain auctions held on both Polkadot and Kusama.

Bifrost’s SALP platform allows users to contribute to a wide range of parachain auctions, while also providing participants with liquid staking derivatives representing their underlying DOT contributions.

DFG Founder and CEO, James Wo, commented that “aside from a very strong team, Astar addresses a critical interoperability issue and bridges Polkadot with Ethereum, which will bring a great number of experienced teams to this ecosystem.”

The company is an early investor in new and emerging protocols including Polkadot, Kusama, Avalanche, Solana, and Near.

Astar is currently in the third spot in the first Polkadot parachain auction which began on Nov. 11. Astar has a total of 6.6 million DOT worth around $281 million staked for its crowdloan according to Dotmarketcap which is tracking the auction progress.

Acala Network is currently leading the crowdloan race with 30.7 million DOT pledged worth roughly $1.3 billion. Moonbeam, an EVM-compatible smart contract platform, ranks as close second place also with 30.6 million DOT locked up.

DFG also pledged 500,000 DOT to Acala in early November before the auction commenced.

Related: Polkadot price moves higher as parachain auctions reduce DOT’s circulating supply

The first auction will run until Nov. 18 and the winner is decided by the Dutch candle method, with the precise moment of the auction’s close determined retroactively at the end of the bidding period.

The projects that win Polkadot’s first five parachain slots will go live on Dec. 17 and will hold the slot until there their lease period ends.