Thread by @AustinBarack

1/n Last week @MoonbeamNetwork won the 2nd parachain slot auction and will soon be connecting to the @Polkadot relaychain. Here's why it's a big deal

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2/n As a refresher, parachains are the Layer 1 blockchains built on top of the Layer 0 @Polkadot relaychain.

Kusama (Polkadot's canary/beta network) has the same architecture

3/n One of the special properties of Polkadot/Kusama's architecture and the Substrate development framework is that it allows for purpose-built chains to be created, each designed specifically for a particular use case or application

4/n These parachains (short for parallel chains) then connect to the relaychain in a hub and spoke model. By all sitting above the same relaychain, they can seamlessly interoperate, simultaneously leveraging the security provided by the main Polkadot chain

5/n So what is @MoonbeamNetwork?

Moonbeam is building a general purpose smart contract parachain. However, its key differentiation compared with other general purpose smart contracting parachains is its focus on EVM compatibility

6/n What this then enables is any app that is built in Solidity (Ethereum's native programming language) can deploy on @MoonbeamNetwork with virtually no changes to their codebase and instantly be connected to all other parachains on @polkadot, along with its broad user base

7/n Additionally, any application that wishes to start off in the Polkadot ecosystem but with the intention of deploying multi-chain in the future, can build with an Ethereum compatible codebase from the onset

8/n And finally, a crucial element of this EVM compatibility is that #Ethereum users or users from any other EVM compatible chain will be able to easily access applications built on Moonbeam, doing so via Ethereum style addresses, using familiar wallets such as @MetaMask

9/n The user and dev tooling makes Moonbeam the natural gateway for any existing EVM based applications looking to connect to the Polkadot ecosystem and vice versa

10/n What level of traction has @MoonriverNW ($MOVR), @MoonbeamNetwork's sister chain on Kusama, had since deploying to the $KSM relaychain in August?

Short answer: A LOT

300K wallet addresses
10MM transactions (average of ~116K / day)
#1 by TVL on @kusamanetwork at $349MM

11/n Keep in mind this traction is likely a fraction of what Moonbeam can achieve. Kusama was built initially as the canary/beta network for Polkadot where projects would deploy first and deploy their most experimental early products

12/n At $40.3B, $DOT's capital base (measured by market cap) is 10x that of $KSM ($3.9B mc). $KSM has the ability to grow into much more than $DOT's canary network (subject for another post), but initially this capital difference will likely drive more activity to $DOT chains

13/n Recently, @Polkadot kicked off its parachain slot auctions. For a parachain to connect to the relaychain and in turn access the rest of the network and the relaychain's shared security, it must bond $DOT to the relaychain over the term of a lease (typically 96 weeks)

14/n These parachain auctions allow projects to borrow $DOT from their community in order to secure a slot on the relaychain. In return for a 96 week $DOT loan, backers are distributed native parachain tokens, in Moonbeam's case $GLMR tokens

15/n @MoonbeamNetwork won last week's parachain slot auction by raising 35.8MM $DOT (~$1.4B) from 200K+ contributors worldwide. Not only is that an incredible showing of support, to put it in perspective, 3.4% of all $DOT in circulation was contributed to this one crowdloan

16/n Winning the parachain auction is very much just the beginning of this next chapter. I'm incredibly excited to see @MoonbeamNetwork deployed and live, and for all of the unique applications that will be built atop it

17/n @coinfund_io has been an active supporter of @MoonbeamNetwork and @MoonriverNW, backing Moonbeam from its early days and supporting the parachain crowdloans for both networks

18/n @MoonbeamNetwork is led by an incredible team, and I'm privileged to have been able to work closely with and support @derekyoo @Nate_Ham1 and the rest of the Moonbeam team over the past year

19/n Keep an eye out over the next few weeks as @MoonbeamNetwork gears up for its full launch!

20/20 For more of my thoughts on @MoonbeamNetwork, see below for @coinfund_io's Moonbeam thesis, published after @MoonriverNW won its $KSM parachain slot auction in June
blog.coinfund.io/moonbeams-inte…