"The Restless Polkadot Parachain Auction: Overview of 16 Participating Projects"

C/Article, this article was first published on December 30, 2020, on the WeChat public account "Happy Blockchain"

Before Christmas, the Polkadot parachain testnet Rococo V1 has officially launched and is operational. Polkadot co-founder Robert Habermeier wrote, "Rococo is a public testnet maintained jointly by Parity and the Polkadot developer community, aimed at testing the parachain consensus process itself and the parachains established by the community, as well as their interactions." The official launch of Rococo V1 means that the "grand show" of Kusama and Polkadot parachain slot auctions will gradually unfold with the arrival of 2021.

The Polkadot parachain slot auctions have long become one of the "highlights" of the cryptocurrency market next year, and market investors are closely watching which projects can successfully "occupy" the first batch of parachain slots. Based on the publicly available information in the market and communication results with Polkadot ecosystem project parties, we have compiled dozens of parachain slot auction plans and information for Polkadot ecosystem projects, so that investors can better understand the participating projects.

1. Acala Network

Acala Network aims to create an open financial framework in conjunction with the Polkadot ecosystem. It has already launched cross-chain multi-asset collateral stablecoin Honzon protocol and Homa protocol to release staking asset liquidity. The parachain slot auction plan announced by the Acala project includes:

1. Acala and its canary network Karura will participate in auctions on the Polkadot mainnet and Kusama network, respectively. Karura plans to first connect to Kusama as a parachain while launching LKSM to release asset liquidity;

2. The Acala testnet Mandala has conducted cross-chain interaction tests with several other Polkadot ecosystem projects on the Rococo parachain testnet;

3. Acala plans to launch the derivative PDOT in the first half of 2021 to release DOT locked during the auction.

Currently, the preheating activity for the parachain slot auction of Acala's canary network Karura is underway, and the official website for Karura parachain auction information has been launched, allowing project supporters to see the latest parachain auction news, community registration channels, and project auction opinion collection.

2. Phala Network

Phala Network is the first privacy project in the Polkadot ecosystem, with its core products pLibra and Web3 Analytics receiving grants from the Web3 Foundation. Phala Network has announced details related to participating in the Kusama and Polkadot parachain slot auctions:

1. Phala will allocate a portion of PHA as rewards for successful auctions, used to incentivize investors supporting Phala's bids for Kusama and Polkadot mainnet slots;

2. Collaborating with some centralized institutions for parachain slot auctions.

Currently, Phala is conducting the Vendetta incentive program on its testnet, including a miner competition with 1605 participants, Phala builder bonuses, etc. Phala is also continuously collaborating with other Polkadot ecosystem projects, including dual mining with the Polkadot storage project Crust and jointly releasing the first privacy cross-chain use case with Acala Network.

3. ChainX

ChainX is a decentralized asset cross-chain trading project in the Polkadot ecosystem, where any participant can competitively submit cross-chain data to the light nodes of various asset chains within ChainX. ChainX derives the optimal chain and valid cross-chain transactions based on a consensus algorithm. The parachain slot auction plan announced by ChainX includes:

1. ChainX will allocate 15-20% of the parliamentary fund and the total network computing power to incentivize supporters;

2. Exploring ways to release liquidity for DOT and KSM locked during the auction and how to attract users to lock in chips in advance, with an overall plan completion rate of over 90%;

3. For the Kusama parachain, ChainX will launch an airdrop of MCP tokens for PCX token holders, which will be rewarded to project users as support for the parachain auction;

The ChainX mainnet has currently been updated to Substrate 2.0, and ChainX 2.0 independent chain will evolve from three directions: Kusama parachain, Polkadot parachain, and Polkadot secondary Relay chain. The ChainX network adopts a tripartite governance structure in accordance with the Polkadot network, while introducing the concepts of X-Association and treasury, with plans to release the 2.0 version white paper and a new official website.

4. Darwinia

Darwinia Network is a cross-chain bridging network developed based on Substrate, focusing on areas such as stablecoin cross-chain and asset trading exchange. The parachain slot auction plan announced by the Darwinia team includes:

1. Darwinia Network and its canary network Crab will participate in the parachain slot auctions for Polkadot and Kusama, respectively;

2. Allocating the native token Ring of the Darwinia project for incentives;

3. Providing Land rewards for auction supporters in the project's game Dapp "Evolving Planet";

4. The project is also discussing other unique incentive plans.

5. Bifrost Finance

Bifrost is a foundational protocol for DeFi in the Polkadot ecosystem, aiming to become the infrastructure for providing liquidity for staking assets. It has launched derivatives vToken for staking and Polkadot parachain slot PLO. The parachain slot auction plan announced by the Bifrost project includes:

1. Bifrost introduced the PLO Liquidity solution in the new version of the white paper, providing vsDOT and vsKSM derivatives to solve the liquidity issues of DOT and KSM during the slot auction process, allowing users to transfer their rights at any time during the participation in the parachain PLO, providing trading scenarios for vsDOT and vsKSM through internal trading pools, parachain DEX, CEX, etc.

6. Stafi

Stafi is a platform developed based on Substrate that provides liquidity for staking assets and is the first DeFi protocol to offer liquidity solutions for staking assets. Users can obtain rToken derivatives after staking tokens, allowing them to trade locked assets during the staking period. Currently, the information collected about the Stafi project regarding parachain auctions includes:

1. The Stafi project team is still discussing specific slot auction plans, including changes to the project's token model and specific incentive measures for reserving a portion of community tokens;

2. The team has reserved 40% of the community incentive plan to be allocated after the auction begins.

Recently, Stafi officially released the rToken white paper, which indicates that the rToken solution will first be implemented on Ethereum 2.0, Polkadot, and Cosmos, providing staking liquidity solutions for the three public chains and establishing rToken protocol standards for POS projects on these chains.

7. Litentry

Litentry is dedicated to providing decentralized identity management services for Web3.0 by integrating network identity information from different chains to create an on-chain identity credit system. The information announced by the project team regarding the parachain auction is:

Litentry has not yet announced specific auction plans, but the team has stated that they will participate in the parachain slot auction.

8. Zenlink

Zenlink is a cross-chain DEX protocol based on Polkadot, aiming to enable DEX order book sharing among various parachains in the Polkadot network. By integrating the Zenlink DEX Module, Zenlink allows parachains to quickly acquire DEX capabilities and share liquidity with other parachains. The parachain auction-related plans of the Zenlink project include:

1. Zenlink will launch a 1.0 test version based on the progress of parachains to solve the liquidity issues of staking KSM and DOT during the auction process. It plans to prioritize integration with Acala, Bifrost, Stafi, and other Polkadot ecosystem projects, allowing Polkadot ecosystem users to complete related DEX transactions on Zenlink;

2. Zenlink plans to allocate a portion of special tokens to support projects cooperating with Zenlink in participating in the slot auction.

In December, Zenlink completed the first cross-chain transaction case between parachains on Polkadot, which means that assets issued through the Zenlink module can be transferred across chains based on XCMP messages. At the same time, the development of Zenlink DEX smart contracts received a grant from the Web3 Foundation and has been successfully delivered, making the DEX smart contract open source.

9. Crust Network

Crust Network provides a decentralized storage network for the Web3 ecosystem, supporting various storage protocols including IPFS, aiming to build a distributed cloud ecosystem that values data privacy and ownership. The plan for Crust Network to participate in parachain auctions includes:

1. The Crust team has added a parachain on the Polkadot parachain testnet Rococo and entered the queue for the Rococo testnet in October, maintaining real-time support for updates related to parachain technology;

2. Airdropping CRU tokens to users who support Crust in participating in the auctions for Kusama and Polkadot slots.

Crust Network has launched the "Ark Plan" incentive testnet, with the first phase distributing rewards worth approximately 300,000 CRU tokens. As of December 30, the total storage amount of the "Ark Plan" testnet reached 65.706 PB, with a total of 521 validators and candidates.

10. Plasm Network

Plasm Network is a scalability Dapp platform based on Substrate in the Polkadot ecosystem, where developers can build any application without worrying about scalability issues. Plasm Network's preparations for the parachain slot auction include:

1. The Plasm project will temporarily freeze part of the network two days before participating in the Polkadot parachain auction, and trading on the Plasm mainnet will be temporarily suspended;

2. When the parachain registration starts, Plasm will apply and attempt to become one of the earliest Rococo parachains.

11. MXC

MXC is a one-stop solution provider for blockchain + IoT, utilizing Polkadot cross-chain technology to achieve global interconnectivity of low-power wide-area networks through the realization of the Internet of Things. MXC's plan for the Polkadot parachain slot auction includes:

1. Adopting a dual-token incentive mechanism with the project's native token MXC and the "Data Highway" project token DHX, with the project team making every effort to compete for the first batch of Polkadot parachain slots;

2. The design mechanism of the DHX parachain allows different tokens to be airdropped to supporters of the slot auction, increasing the attractiveness of the project's parachain auction to supporters.

12. Konomi Network

Konomi Network is a decentralized currency market protocol based on Substrate, aiming to provide currency markets for assets in the Polkadot ecosystem. According to the Konomi project, the plan for participating in the parachain auction includes:

1. The project will first establish an independent testnet, then participate in the Kusama parachain auction, and subsequently in the Polkadot mainnet parachain auction;

2. As the parachain auction locks in DOT and KSM liquidity, Konomi will provide basic lending services to generate returns and more financial products for the assets locked by parachain auction projects.

13. Moonbeam

Moonbeam is an Ethereum-compatible smart contract platform based on the Substrate framework, allowing for the rapid construction of applications that work collaboratively with users and assets on remote chains through the compatibility of Moonbeam smart contracts and Ethereum network tools. The information announced by the Moonbeam team regarding project participation in the parachain auction is:

1. Moonbeam is currently running a testnet and plans to participate in the Kusama parachain auction as soon as possible, expecting to officially launch before the Polkadot parachain auction;

2. The Moonbeam team is still waiting for a more precise schedule for the parachain auction from the Parity team;

3. The Moonbeam team is formulating a funding plan for parachain slots, which is expected to be announced soon.

14. ONT

Ontology is a public chain project and distributed trust collaboration platform, including a complete distributed ledger and smart contract system support. As an established public chain, Ontology announced around October that it would develop on the Polkadot chain, integrating its decentralized digital identity DeID into the Polkadot chain, and also announced participation in the parachain slot auction:

1. Ontology will integrate the decentralized identity solution DeID into the Polkadot chain, which will help Ontology build parachains on the Polkadot chain in the future and participate in parachain slot auctions;

2. In addition, Ontology's credit score Oscore and DDXF technologies will also be gradually applied to the Polkadot ecosystem.

15. Edgeware

Edgeware is a high-performance and self-upgrading WASM smart contract platform in the Polkadot ecosystem, aimed at solving scalability issues through different architectures. The parachain slot plan for Edgeware is still in the discussion phase among the team and community, with the main parachain incentive plans including:

1. Allocating 1.5%-3.5% of the Edgeware network to crowdfunding supporters of the auction;

2. Distributing 10%-20% of the staking rewards of the Edgeware project EDG tokens to crowdfunding supporters of the auction.

16. Equilibrium

Equilibrium is a decentralized interoperability asset market based on Substrate, allowing users to trade, lend, and collateralize crypto assets through Equilibrium. According to feedback from the Equilibrium team, the current plan for the project's parachain auction is:

1. First, Equilibrium will have a swap plan, where the team will sell EQ tokens and exchange them for DOT for the reward plan;

2. Secondly, Equilibrium will ensure that the opportunity cost of DOT is covered during the crowdfunding module auction, with a premium above the cost price to attract more investors' support;

3. Specific mechanisms and detailed arrangements are still under discussion.

Conclusion

Currently, the specific timeline for the Kusama and Polkadot parachain slot auctions has not been announced, but this does not prevent Polkadot ecosystem projects from starting their preparations early, including officially announcing parachain incentive plans, updating technologies for parachain integration, and so on. There are many other Polkadot projects that want to participate in the first batch of parachain slot auctions beyond those mentioned, and we will continue to follow the news related to parachain auction projects.