Cardano, Starknet, and More Why Choose the Polkadot Technology Stack?

来源： PolkaWorld

As blockchain technology continues to evolve, different projects are exploring their own technical solutions. Avail, Cardano, and Starknet are three prominent examples, all of which have chosen the Polkadot technology stack to build their systems. Each project has its own unique motivations and goals, but what they all have in common is that they all see the potential of Polkadot's technology. In this article, we'll share why these projects chose the Polkadot stack, and explain their technical characteristics and strategic intent.

Avail

Avail is a modular DA layer independent of Polygon that focuses on providing data availability for all rollups and appchains!

Avail uses the Nominated Proof of Stake from Polkadot. It enables Avail to support up to 1,000 validators and brings an efficient distribution of rewards, reducing the risk of stake concentration through its multi-winner election approach.

In addition, Avail uses the Polkadot SDK's BABE and GRANDPA consensus mechanisms. BABE is mainly used to generate blocks. To ensure the viability of the network, it coordinates with validators to determine which node will be the new block producer. GRANDPA IS MAINLY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE FINAL CONFIRMATION OF BLOCKS. When more than two-thirds of validators confirm that a chain contains a particular block, GRANDPA allows all previous blocks to be confirmed to the block of that particular block. By combining these two mechanisms, Avail has created a hybrid ledger that enhances the resilience of its network, allowing it to function in the event of temporary network partitions or a large number of node failures. With any consensus mechanism, there is always a dilemma between liveness and security. **The combination of BABE + GRANDPA helped Avail find a balance between the two. **

Cardano

At this year's Cardano Summit 2023, IOG founder & CEO Charles Hoskinson announced that after 4 years of research, they have chosen to use the Polkadot technology stack in their Partner Chain. IOG is using the Substrate stack as a foundation and integrating it trustlessly with Cardano and extending it. In addition, IOG has contributed a suite of composable Substrate components to unleash the full potential of Partner Chain.

IOG: Input Output Global is a technology company focused on research and development of blockchain technology. IOG is one of the main developers and contributors to the Cardano blockchain (similar to Polkadot and Parity) and was founded in 2015 by Charles Hoskinson, one of the co-founders of Ethereum.

According to Charles Hoskinson, IOG has long shared a common stance and respect for the modular technology developed by the Substrate team. For example, the BABE protocol borrows from Ouroboros Praos, validating a shared trust in basic research. Adopting this modular approach will enable Partner Chain to implement any consensus protocol that meets the requirements of Minotaur and enables Partner Chain to achieve consensus with a specific combination of resources. As a result, Substrate's open-source code is highly complementary to Cardano's technology stack and aligns with our shared vision of an interoperable blockchain world. IOG is working heavily on its new Partner Chain framework, leveraging its global team of researchers, engineers, and developers, and looks forward to pursuing open source opportunities for collaboration within the blockchain space.

Starknet

Madara is an open-source, decentralized Starknet sequencer built using Substrate.

As a sequencer, Madara plays a crucial role in Starknet's architecture, processing transactions and generating blocks. On Starknet, the sequencer receives transactions from users and executes them on the Layer 2 network using a CAIRO virtual machine. The blocks it creates are later proven to be valid by the prover component. Madara has the potential to be used to implement Ethereum-based L2 or even L3 solutions.

Substrate provides Madara with a modular, production-ready stack with architecture and Rust features that can be greatly customizable. It has only a handful of assumptions and compiles efficiently to WASM. In addition to Polkadot, many chains and projects are now taking advantage of Substrate's flexibility. After years of combat testing, Substrate allows even lower-level details to be changed, such as consensus logic, without the constraints of hard-coding.

Substrate offers a unique blend of modularity, customization, production-ready, and innovation, making it ideal for novel projects like Madara to build an effective (ZK) rollup infrastructure on Starknet. No other framework offers this off-the-shelf hybrid.

Why did they choose the Polkadot SDK?

1. The BABE + GRANDPA consensus mechanism used by the Polkadot SDK strikes a balance between liveness and security, solving common problems in consensus models.

2. NPoS Validator Network: Polkadot's Nominated Proof of Stake (NPoS) allows for the construction of a large network of validators, up to 1000 validators. This mechanism alleviates the problem of centralization of staking through efficient reward distribution.

3. Advantages of Polkadot over Ethereum: Polkadot's multi-chain vision was developed and tested for about 5 years, earlier than Ethereum. Polkadot and Ethereum share similarities in many core elements, such as shared sequencers, composability, and rollups, which correspond to relay chains, XCM, and parachains, respectively.

4. Inter-chain standards and formats challenges: The unique standards and formats between different chains present challenges that require ongoing tracking and visibility into upgrades. Polkadot solves this problem with cross-chain messaging (XCM). XCM, as a ubiquitous language, enables each Polkadot SDK chain to speak and understand each other.

5. The Polkadot SDK has no dependencies or preferences for chains, no assumptions about consensus algorithms, and effectively solves the dilemma of shared sequencers.

Through the analysis of Avail, Cardano, and Starknet, we can see that although these projects differ in their applications and goals, they all chose the Polkadot technology stack to meet their respective needs in their own unique ways. The selection of these projects not only demonstrates the diversity and flexibility of Polkadot's technology stack, but also proves its wide applicability and strong potential in the blockchain space. As these projects grow and mature, we look forward to seeing more innovative applications emerge and expect the Polkadot ecosystem to continue to push the boundaries of blockchain technology.