The Top Projects Building On Polkadot Right Now

Innovation within the blockchain ecosystem is developing at an immense pace, and Ethereum is no longer the immediate platform of choice for many interesting new decentralized apps. 

It became clear several years ago that in order to accelerate blockchain development, superior and more scalable protocols would be required. Several have since been born, and one of the most promising of all is Polkadot, which offers the perfect combination of high throughput, low latency and multichain infrastructure. 

This combination of strengths allowed Polkadot to emerge as a serious contender to Ethereum, home to numerous exciting projects. Within Polkadot, there is a rich, vibrant and growing ecosystem of decentralized applications that is very quickly catching up. To understand what we mean, here’s a quick take on the most promising Polkadot projects to emerge thus far. 

Kusama

As one of the first-ever Polkadot projects, Kusama simply has to merit a mention. It’s billed as a scalable and multichain network that’s purpose-built for radical innovation. It first launched in 2019 as a “canary network” for developers to test updates to the main Polkadot relay chain. Kusama thus serves as a test bed for all manner of new innovations, giving developers the chance to see how their applications will run when they’re applied, ahead of time. 

In this way, developers can ensure their dApps are ready to take advantage of any new changes to how the Polkadot network runs from the moment they become available. It also offers key benefits including cost-efficiency and fast iterations

Moonbeam

Moonbeam is a developer-focused network that aims to provide full compatibility for Polkadot-based projects with the Ethereum network and its developer tools. In this way, it promises to push the boundary of cross-chain integration by providing a bridge between what many believe are the two most powerful blockchains of all. It does so via a complete EVM implementation, the use of a Substrate-based Web3-enabled API and bridge to the Ethereum network. 

Moonbeam was one of the original parachains on the Polkadot network and that ensures it benefits from the Relay Chain’s unique shared security and can merge with other parachains when required. Within Moonbeam there are two cryptocurrency tokens. They include Glimmer, which is the utility token for the main Moonbeam platform on the Relay Chain, and Moonriver, which is the token for Moonbeam’s deployment on Kusama. 

T3rn

One of the newest projects on Polkadot is T3rn, a unique smart contract hosting platform that aims to facilitate trustless, cross-chain transaction execution with guaranteed success. In the event that a complex, multichain transaction fails at any point during the process, it will reverse every step of that transaction to ensure the user doesn’t lose out in any way. 

T3rn, which has just raised $6.5m in a strategic funding round led by Polychain Capital, is dedicated to solving the problem of absolute finality in blockchain transactions, or in other words, the principle that transactions can never be reversed. This is a huge problem for atomic, multichain transactions that involve multiple steps – for instance, borrowing tokens from one protocol to lend to another, so as to take advantage of an arbitrage opportunity. The danger of such transactions is that if one of the steps fails, the funds might end up lost or being stuck somewhere, as there’s no way to reverse those previous steps. 

T3rn has created a concept known as reversible interoperability to solve this conundrum that essentially involves creating a kind of escrow service for the funds. In this way, if one step of a transaction fails, everything that happened up until that point can be reversed. T3rn therefore enables trust-free collaboration across multiple blockchains.

Polkaswap

Polkaswap aims to be the Uniswap of the Polkadot network. It’s an open-source, noncustodial DEX that’s built on Polakdot using the Sora Network. It’s main purpose is to facilitate quick cryptocurrency swaps with low transaction fees. To do this, it relies on an automated market maker algorithm that’s deployed on Sora’s Hyperledger Iroha 2.0 technology that ensures it has enough liquidity to meet user’s needs. 

Unlike most centralized cryptocurrency exchanges, Polkaswap is fully permissionless, with no middleman or intermediary that controls the trades behind the scenes. It’s a decentralized, community-led project, so if any of the code behind Polkaswap needs to be updated, any decisions on how to implement that will be take in consensus with a vote by token holders. 

Polkastarter

Polkastarter is a fundraising platform for Polkadot-based crypto projects that works by creating cross-chain tokens pools and auctions. Early stage projects that need to generate funding from their communities can use Polkastarter to raise funds and distribute their tokens among their backers. 

It provides an easy way for projects to construct a cross-chain swap pool, allowing them to generate funding safely. Polkastarter’s native token is POLS, which serves a number of functions including governance, liquidity mining, transaction fee payment and more. 

Polkastarter launched in late 2020 and has rapidly become one of the most popular platforms for investors interested in participating in IDOs. Not only does it perform due diligence of each project, but also ensures they are fully compliant. The platform’s defining characteristic however is its ability to perform cross-chain swaps, which means investors can use a wide range of tokens to fund projects, with increased throughput for multichain transactions. 

Acala

Another early Polkadot project is Acala, which aims to provide the most comprehensive DeFi functionality within its ecosystem. Acala is based on dual protocols, including Homa, which ensures staking liquidity, and Honzol, which supports the collateralized aUSD stablecoin that powers its ecosystem. The Acala network is decentralized and community-ran, with all governance decisions taken based on a vote by token holders. 

Acala provides an Ethereum-compatible platform for DeFi apps in the Polkadot ecosystem to leverage smart contracts and built-in protocols together while taking advantage of its cross-chain capabilities and high level of security. Some of its best features include a trustless staking derivative known as liquid DOT, the multi-collateralized aUSD stablecoin that’s backed by cross-chain assets, and its AMM-based DEX. For investors, one of the main benefits is Acala’s micro gas fees, which can be paid in any token the platform supports. 

The project has made strong inroads, integrating with popular wallets such as MetaMask and tools like Truffle and Waffle, which means developers can create a similar user experience to the one found on Ethereum. 

KILT Protocol

The KILT Protocol is an innovative application that’s focused on providing trustless and anonymous identity verification within the blockchain ecosystem. 

KILT has created a decentralized way for people to issue verifiable, anonymous and revocable credentials through its DIDsign application. With it, users can sign any kind of file, such as an image file, audio file or PDF, and then give it a unique, decentralized identifier (DID) that’s recorded on the blockchain. Other users can then check the authenticity of that file through DIDsign.io to ensure it hasn’t been tampered with in any way. The idea is that KILT can foster greater collaboration in a Web3 world, with the protocol being used as a way to securely send untampered contracts to more than one cosigner, for example. Alternative use cases include verifying software code, or lab reports, etc. 

More recently, KILT has expanded into the area of digital identity with the launch of web3name, which gives users a single username to represent themselves across the Web3 space. With it, users can link their username to multiple wallet addresses within the Polkadot ecosystem, in addition to compatible services such as email, Discord, Twitter, GitHub and others. So instead of using a complicated wallet address made up of multiple numbers and letters, users can create a human readable name that’s instantly recognizable to their friends and contacts.