Author: Solaire, YBB Capital

Introduction

“The only true voyage of discovery, the only fountain of Eternal Youth, would be not to visit strange lands but to possess other eyes.”

This famous quote from the French writer Marcel Proust, from his novel “In Search of Lost Time”, suggests that the real journey of discovery lies not in seeking new lands but in seeing things from a new perspective.

On June 28, at the Polkadot Decoded conference, Gavin Wood, the founder of Polkadot, used this quote as the central thought for his speech, looking at Polkadot from a new perspective. He proposed seeing Polkadot as a multicore computer, focusing on providing a more fundamental resource for blockchains, i.e., computing cores, not just the original parallel chains and relay chains.

This article will use Gavin Wood’s latest speech to interpret Polkadot under a new paradigm in an easy-to-understand way.

Polkadot in the Traditional Paradigm

To understand Gavin Wood’s idea about Polkadot’s new direction, we need to first review the current structure of the Polkadot network and slot auction.

The Polkadot network is composed of several main parts:

1. Relay Chain: The heart of Polkadot, responsible for ensuring the security of the entire network, handling cross-chain transactions, and shared security.

2. Parachains: Multiple independent chains connected to the relay chain. Each parachain has its own on-chain logic and functions and can be designed to perform any specific purpose, such as data storage, identity verification, or financial transactions, etc.

3. Bridges: Allow the Polkadot network to communicate with external blockchains (such as Bitcoin and Ethereum) and achieve cross-chain interoperability.

The network structure can be understood as follows:

In the Polkadot network, different blockchains (called parachains) can connect to a unified relay chain. This relay chain is responsible for ensuring the security of the entire network and handling cross-chain transactions. This means that different parachains can communicate and interact with each other, achieving cross-chain interoperability.

However, the resources of the relay chain in the Polkadot network are limited, meaning that only a limited number of parachains can be connected to the relay chain at the same time. These connectable positions are called “slots.” To fairly decide which parachains can obtain these slots, Polkadot introduces a mechanism called “slot auction.” In this auction, parachains wishing to obtain a slot need to bid. The parachain offering the highest bid will get the slot. Bidding is done with Polkadot’s native token DOT. Once a parachain wins the auction, it can use this slot for a certain period (e.g., two years). During this time, the parachain can perform its operations and interact with the relay chain and other parachains. When this period ends, the parachain needs to participate in the auction again to retain its slot or give it to other bidders.

To simplify, the Polkadot network is like a stack of Lego blocks. Each block is like a small network (“parachain”), each with its own tasks and functions. These small networks can work independently, doing their own things. However, sometimes these small networks need to communicate with each other. This is when a larger network (“relay chain”) is needed to help them communicate. This larger network is like a super Lego connector, connecting all the small blocks (small networks) together so they can exchange information. The so-called parachain slot auction refers to the fact that this super Lego connector interface has a limit. To fairly decide who can use these interfaces (slots), they need to be auctioned for rental.

Although this structure is more secure than the Cosmos IBC standard andhas better interoperability, the high threshold of slot auctions is a pressure for both the community and developers, which leads to Polkadot’s ecosystem not being as good as Cosmos’s in terms of diversity. The main use cases of the Polkadot token are currently only participating in slot auctions, governance, or security collateral, in which DOT is only pledged and is not non-retrievable. Hence, DOT currently has almost no consumption scenarios, and the products offered are only parachain slot auctions. This results in some issues with the economic system. Gavin Wood’s new perspective is intended to view Polkadot in a new light and address its current pain points under this approach.

Polkadot as a Multicore Computer

As previously mentioned, Polkadot’s relay chain currently serves like a super Lego connector, with its primary role being to ensure the security and interoperability of parachains. From this perspective, Polkadot resembles a blockchain hosting platform. However, in Gavin Wood’s new vision, Polkadot can be considered a multicore computer capable of long-term operation. Developers can build applications through this computer, and users can use applications via this computer. In this machine, each core can run simultaneously, executing different tasks. A blockchain running on a core is a parachain that constantly operates on a reserved core. This is similar to our computers, where different programs can run on different processors without interference. In this new understanding paradigm, the concept of the relay chain vanishes, replaced by cores and parachains.

Performance of the Multicore Computer

According to Wood’s description, the Polkadot computer currently has around 50 cores that continuously operate and can perform parallel computations. Based on benchmark tests and Wood’s ideas on optimization, the number of cores will reach several hundred (500–1000) in the coming years. These cores can be imagined as multicore CPUs, possessing bandwidth (total data volume entering and leaving the core) and computational power. The current performance is a bandwidth of 1Mb/s, with a score of 380 on the Geekbench 5 test (a popular cross-platform benchmark testing tool that can perform performance tests on a computer’s central processing unit (CPU) and graphics processing unit (GPU)), and a delay (the time interval between executing two consecutive work blocks) of 6 seconds. As hardware advances, bandwidth and computational power will continue to improve.

Imagination in the New Paradigm

These cores are not only capable of running parachains. By changing perspectives and thinking paradigms, we can imagine running smart contracts directly on cores in the future. Compared to running on a smart contract chain (like Ethereum), the multicore computer performs better in terms of cost and computational capabilities. Their versatility is excellent. As a continuously operating world computer, compared to chains, Polkadot has a larger realm of possibilities.

From Blockchain to Block Space — Core Time

We can start by understanding what cores and core time are, as depicted in the following illustration:

As shown in the diagram, there are five rows of parallel blocks in different colors. Each row represents a core, and each block can be referred to as core time (this evolution from chain to space). The different colors on each row represent different parachains, such as blue parachains, green parachains, etc. There are a total of five parachains on the diagram, each using a core. This usage is currently how Polkadot operates, but in reality, cores can be used in various ways.

For example, as shown, parachains can be randomly allocated on any available core without performance impact. Based on this feature, cores can be used in many different ways. Wood refers to this as exotic scheduling.

Range Partitioning

As shown in the diagram, each core has 11 core times (for example), and we can partition them by range. For instance, in the first row, the orange parachain operates for six core times. When it no longer needs to process transactions, it can yield to the blue parachain to operate for the remaining five core times. The fourth row demonstrates the situation where three parachains are operating on a single core. Of course, it can also be more complex, with five or six parachains operating on one core.

Range Stratification

Wood refers to this as stratification. We can understand it simply as a way to change the usage order of core time. The first and second rows demonstrate the situation where two parachains take turns using a core. The third row demonstrates a case where the light blue parachain operates for two-thirds of the time and the yellow parachain operates for one-third of the time. The fourth row shows three parachains equally sharing the use time on a core.

Core Compression

Core compression refers to a single core simultaneously processing or verifying multiple blocks. In other words, it’s like an ultra-efficient factory producing multiple products on a single production line to enhance production efficiency and reduce waiting time.

Multicore Allocation

Multicore allocation is somewhat similar to a combination of elastic and fixed servers, or parallel computing by CPUs, designed to handle complex situations (Wood uses the example of the same paraID or task assigned to multiple cores). As shown in the diagram, the blue or orange parachains have a core for long-term fixed use and intermittently used cores, thus processing two blocks in a time period. The pink color represents the combination of intermittently used cores and additional allocated cores, which can handle high transaction throughput.

Multiple Chains on One Core

Unlike stratified operation, the future multi-chain on one core concept involves placing two or three parachains on a single core for full use to share the cost of a core.

Combination

All the above methods can be combined, just like assembling Lego blocks of different shapes, various needs from different parachains can form countless ways of usage. This forms a highly flexible, ubiquitous computational power.

Economics of Core Time under the Flexible Polkadot

Understanding the diverse, flexible use cases for cores makes it clear that they can be freely combined according to the needs of different parallel chains. Thus, the high-threshold slot auction of Polkadot can be transformed into a core auction. This mode is akin to choosing servers on Amazon Web Services today — adjusting rental duration and the number of servers based on your needs. This flexible choice mechanism can also better harness the performance of Polkadot.

Gavin Wood, based on this, proposes two potential modes, bulk purchase and instant purchase, and also introduces some new concepts: Core time assets and axiom (broker) .

Core Time Assets

· No need for direct deployment or allocation.

· Core time is essentially homogeneous but can be divided into different non-fungible assets (similar to NFTs).

· Tradable and can be assigned to one or more parallel chains for use.

Axiom (Broker)

· A proprietary broker parallel chain system.

· The broker parallel chain system can buy large blocks of core time and split them into smaller pieces.

· Broker parallel chains can publicly trade these non-fungible assets on other parallel chains.

· Purchased small blocks of core time are consumed on the broker parallel chain, allowing the owner to allocate computational resources on Polkadot’s core.

Understanding these two concepts, we can look at bulk purchase and instant purchase. The form of bulk purchase is a monthly sale, selling a month’s worth of core time assets at a uniform price each time. The sales target is set at 75% of available cores, which may fluctuate, with the price adjusted up and down according to the deviation from the target. Unrented cores will enter the instant market, with possible special consideration for existing parallel chain tenants. Remaining cores after bulk purchase enter the instant market and are sold through the broker, aiming to achieve 100% utilization of core time. Small blocks of core time in the instant market can be used to increase transaction throughput, reduce latency (current parallel chains have one block every 12 seconds, multi-core allocation can compress it to 6 seconds), and do more things such as core contracts. For those who want to use a core for a long time, the broker will record past purchase prices for reference in the following month. Purchasers can choose to buy core time or more core time at the same or similar price, making it easy to budget for cyclical costs and risks.

Regarding the impact on existing parallel chains, the leases remain the same, and the pricing of nucleus time purchases is determined by governance. Wood believes that it should start at a very low price to lower the entry barrier, and existing tenants have the right to purchase first, mainly at the floor price, which will ensure the guarantee of long-term availability. Wood also talked about parallel chains having more flexible block production times. For a better understanding of this, I have placed Wood’s usage of nucleus time earlier in the article. At present, we understand the flexible use of nucleus time and can easily comprehend what a more flexible block production time is.

Currently, Polkadot’s block production time is fixed at around 12 seconds, which could potentially be optimized to 6 seconds in the future. Combining the flexible block production time method with the use of nucleus time could result in several scenarios:

· Multi-chain single core: Multiple parallel chains share a single core, producing a block every 12 or 18 seconds. The advantage is cost-sharing.

· Multi-core allocation: In situations requiring multi-tasking or high transaction throughput computation, parallel chains can automatically enter the instant market to purchase additional nucleus time.

· Core compression: Multiple parallel chain blocks are combined into the core, with the same core processing or validating multiple blocks simultaneously. Compression can reduce latency, but it increases the cost in terms of bandwidth. Fees need to be paid for the opening and closing of a block.

· Combination: There are multiple scenarios for combinations. Wood, for example, mentioned that having two cores compute simultaneously can reduce latency by half, e.g., from 12 seconds to 6 seconds, or from 6 seconds to 3 seconds. Essentially, this is a form of multi-core allocation.

In the age centered on the nucleus

Many aspects of Polkadot have been controversial in the past. However, in the new paradigm of multicore computing described in the first part of Gavin Wood’s speech, a new way is proposed to solve the past problems of Polkadot, such as fixed resource allocation and leasing in slots. Nucleus time provides different options for parallel chains with varying demands. The much-criticized slot auction threshold can also be greatly reduced, thereby leading to diversification of the ecosystem. By slicing the essential asset of nucleus time into different gameplay, it can inject more vitality into the Polkadot token and Polkadot’s economic system. The different uses of the nucleus, and the resulting multicore computers after combination, open up a wealth of imagination for us. Perhaps all controversies stem from us looking at problems from only one angle. In fact, some problems can be solved by just changing the perspective. Gavin Wood has made a perfect demonstration. Let us look forward to the new Polkadot era centered on the nucleus.

About YBB

YBB is a web3 fund dedicating itself to identify Web3-defining projects with a vision to create a better online habitat for all internet residents. Founded by a group of blockchain believers who have been actively participated in this industry since 2013, YBB is always willing to help early-stage projects to evolve from 0 to 1.We value innovation, self-driven passion, and user-oriented products while recognizing the potential of cryptos and blockchain applications.

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