Polkadot DOT

Polkadot was designed as a network of networks: the central relay chain runs no application contracts of its own but provides agreement and block finality for the chains attached to it, the parachains. Each parachain serves its own purpose and sets its own rules while inheriting security instead of recruiting validators itself.

A messaging protocol lets the chains move assets and invoke each other's logic. Where a parachain slot was once won through long auctions in which participants locked up DOT, access to chain capacity is now sold more flexibly, in blocks of time. Governance runs on-chain: an approved proposal executes automatically, protocol upgrades included, without splitting the network.

DOT is the stake put up by nominators and validators under proof of stake, pays for chain capacity, and carries governance rights. A nominator shares the risk of the node it backs: misbehaviour costs part of the stake. The project was founded by Gavin Wood, a co-author of Ethereum, and is developed by Parity.

A parachain recruits no validators of its own but inherits security from the relay chain, and that is the central difference from independent networks.