Kusama Parachain Auctions are Gearing Up, Leveraging Polkadots Technology

After a successful launch of its Shell parachain, the team will bring upgrades to the first fully decentralized, secure heterogeneously-sharded blockchain.

The First of it Kind

The Kusama team announced the next phases of their blockchain release via a blog post on 7 June. The first real-world parachain is set for a major upgrade and the Kusama team hopes to build a flourishing community with parachain slot auctions. Kusama Parachain has taken these innovative steps with the help of technology from Polkadot. 

Just a week after the team released the initial shell, the roadmap for the next steps is awaiting approval by the Kusama Council. The Kusama Council is the de facto governing body that approves the direction of the project. The release is set to come gradually beginning on 15 June and is expected to be completed on 13 July with the 5th and final auction. 

As a canary network of Polkadot, protection of the network increases with exposure. This will allow the protocol to function in the wild and properly develop. Cross-chain connections add exponential complexities and time in the open is a good way to find inefficiencies in the chain’s logic. There is a clear motivation to deploy the logic quickly to best protect Polkadot. As the first chain of its kind, careful steps are a wise approach.

From Shell to Full-Form

The Kusama team completed Statemine testnet last week, their version of Polkadot’s Statemint parachain. The Kusama team posted in a tweet that the Council moved forward with referendum 115 on June 3rd agreeing to fully upgrade the Shell parachain to Statemine. 

The Shell originally released was not complete. As the name implies, it was meant to be filled and invigorated. The Kusama chain now supports important functionality to take their project to the next level. The team successfully started producing new blocks on the chain on June 1. The team plans for a rich and functional ecosystem of chains to emerge once the shell is fully supported. 

Kusama has deployed this code gradually from Polkadot in a step-by-step manner so as to mitigate any chance of unpredictable surprises. The chain looks ready for evolution as the team cannot find any further technical impediments to parachain functionality that could stop the auctions. There is also an external audit of the chain’s logic underway by SR Labs (Parity’s chosen external auditor).

The chain has some exciting new features. First, it is now a low-cost place to hold and transfer the Kuasam token $KSM where the minimum balance and transaction fees are much lower than on their relay-chain. The platform can also transfer permissioned fungible assets (like non-algorithmic stable coins). It will also allow for permissionless creation, issuance, and transfer of both fungible assets and NFTs (non-fungible assets).

The XCM (cross-chain messaging) protocol will allow KSM to move without inhibitions between Kusama and Statemine. The same protocol opens Statemine to interaction with other parachains, one of the main attractions to the whole operation. This seamless connection across chains makes the Kusama protocol a trustless reserve to hold KSM and other assets as well.

How to Participate and get involved

The Kusama chain is unique in that it is not just a single, solitary chain. The heterogeneously-sharded blockchain can become a part of different chains and link together into a community. The Kusama team is hoping to create a community surrounded by its blockchain. 

Kusama will begin participation with a set of auctions beginning 15 June and the path to participation will be different for each interested team. There will be five auctions over the next five weeks. Auctions will last for two days followed by a five-day end period.cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?type=text%2Fhtml&key=96f1f04c5f4143bcb0f2e68c87d65feb&schema=twitter&url=https%3A//twitter.com/hypercube_video/status/1402912889397252099&image=https%3A//abs.twimg.com/errors/logo46x38.png

The Auction Schedule, pending approval from Kusama Council:

06/15/2021 12:00 UTC: First Kusama Parachain Slot auction begins. Bids can be placed.

06/17/2021 09:00 UTC: First Kusama Parachain Slot auction ending period begins. Only bids made prior to this point will certainly be considered in the final result. Bids made following this point have a linearly reducing chance of being considered.

06/22/2021 09:00 UTC: First Kusama Parachain Slot auction bidding ends. No bids can be made on this auction following this point.

06/22/2021 11:00 UTC: First Kusama Parachain Slot auction winner selected. The auction winner is determined as the highest bidder at some randomly selected point over the past five days.

06/22/2021 12:00 UTC: Second Kusama Parachain Slot auction begins.

06/29/2021 12:00 UTC: Third Kusama Parachain Slot auction begins.

07/06/2021 12:00 UTC: Fourth Kusama Parachain Slot auction begins.

07/13/2021 12:00 UTC: Fifth Kusama Parachain Slot auction begins.

The team is giving notice a week in advance to allow the staking community time to unstake their KSM and prepare for the auction. Only bids in the initial two days will be considered in the final result. Bids made after the two-day limit will have a linearly reducing chance for consideration. Auction winners will be declared at random to the highest bidder during the closing period.

Final Thoughts

Vote for the next steps awaits approval from the Kusama Council. Kusama’s protocol is a risk-taking, fast-moving ‘canary in the coal mine’ network. The parachain venture is risky and complicated one however the potentials are enormous. Kusama is definitely a project to keep an eye on. For more information about how the Kusama infrastructure and cross-chain functionality works, Hypercube is making a series of five videos to explain. You can also learn about the Kusama parachain from the source itself.

Source : bsc.news