Polkadot Teases Jam Upgrade In Potential Network Overhaul

Co-founder of Polkadot Gavin Wood, took to X earlier on Thursday to tease the release of the Join-Accumulate Machine (JAM) upgrade. This proposal is designed to revolutionize the future of Polkadot. 

JAM To Replace Relay Chain

Wood unveiled the JAM Gray Paper at the Token2049 crypto conference underway in Dubai, where he provided details about the groundbreaking protocol that merges elements from both Polkadot and Ethereum. This upgrade marks an evolution designed to replace the existing Relay Chain with a more modular and minimalistic design. 

In the past, the existing Polkadot Relay Chain catered to interoperability across different platforms like PARSIQ which monitors data and automation across blockchains. Polkadot brings a whole new perspective with the introduction of JAM. The protocol is introducing a prospective path to replace the relay chain with a more modular, minimalistic design.

In his X post, he highlighted that the Jam Gray Paper came ten years after Wood releases the Yellow Paper. Additionally, a 10 Million DOT prize pool was announced by Web3.0 Foundation, the entity behind Polkadot. This prize is targeted at fostering diversity within the development of the JAM protocol.

“The JAM Implementer’s Prize is designed to catalyze this by funding and supporting projects that contribute to the development of JAM implementations from the outset,” the firm explained. 

Key Plans for the Polkadot JAM Protocol

Based on the design, JAM is a decentralized hybrid system (Ethereum and Polkadot) that offers users secure and scalable smart contract functionalities. 

It encompasses a global singleton permissionless object environment that is reminiscent of Ethereum’s smart contract environment. There is also a secure sideband computation parallelized over a scalable node network – a concept pioneered by Polkadot, the interoperability powerhouse.

JAM boasts of features like guaranteed seamless compatibility for developers who are conversant with the use of Substrate for blockchain development and deployment. This key feature is facilitated by parachain services that support existing Substrate-based parachains. 

As a Polkadot product, it is not surprising that JAM operates exclusively with DOT, the protocol’s native token. This eliminates the need to issue a new token while simplifying interactions within the protocol and leveraging the existing infrastructure of the Polkadot network.

For the role it will play in the newly exposed future, DOT has inked a 2.3% surge in the past 24 hours to $6.75.