Polkadot is complicated as hell! This 24-tweet thread is a beginner's guide to @Polkadot $DOT and @KusamaNetwork $KSM in simple English.

What is Polkadot? Kusama? Parachains? Crowdloan and Parachain slot auction?

Comment with other questions and share if you learn something ⤵️

What is Polkadot?

@Polkadot is a platform on which blockchain networks are built and connected into one unified network. These connected chains, called parachains, form a living organism of networks all in sync and secure. This forms the foundation on which Web3 will be built.

Dr. Gavin Wood, @gavofyork, founded @Polkadot after inventing the Ethereum Virtual Machine and the Solidity programming language for #Ethereum as the co-founder and CTO. Ethereum wasn't going to scale, and thus, Polkadot was born in 2017.

Blockchains built for Polkadot use a dev framework called Substrate (@substrate_io), the easiest and most advanced blockchain-building framework for coders.

Think of it as drag-and-drop blockchain consensus, or even easier, like Music EQ with dials up & down on certain features.

Ethereum is a one-size-fits-all chain. This doesn't work at scale.

Dev teams use @Polkadot's Substrate framework to build custom chains for a specific use/vertical, such as @AcalaNetwork for DeFi, @PhalaNetwork for Privacy, @chainlink for Oracles, or @hydra_dx for liquidity.