Polkadot‘s experimental network Kusama has seen its first parachain rolled out, marking the next milestone on the project’s roadmap.
Kusama, a testnet of sorts for Polkadot, has seen its very first parachain go live soon after Polkadot creator and Ethereum co-founder Gavin Wood announced that the project is entering the final phase of its mainnet launch.
Parachains refer to different blockchains that connect with Polkadot and run in parallel within one unified network. Each chain enjoys access to key features like a proof-of-stake consensus algorithm and on-chain governance. It's a key feature of the network and one which will distinguish it from hundreds of other blockchain competitors. And with yesterday's rollout on Kusama, this feature is one step closer to going live on Polkadot.
Launched last summer, Kusama is Polkadots sister network designed to serve as a live testbed for new features before they are fully deployed on Polkadot.
Wood said that despite Polkadots “highly decentralized and inclusive staking system,” the network “has so far existed only as a single chain in isolation.”
“With the launch of parachain functionality, this is about to change,” he stated, adding that the final vision of the network is now “about to become reality.”
The rollout of Kusamas first parachain follows the release of Polkadot v0.9 earlier this month, which included the requisite logic for deploying parachains to the network.
Developed by the Web3 Foundation and Parity Technologies and launched in May 2020, Polkadot is a proof-of-stake protocol with the ultimate goal of creating an internet of interoperable blockchains.