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. https://t.co/2fo4DIsJiG
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.
@Polkadot's Substrate framework can also be used to build broad, more general-purpose chains such as @MoonbeamNetwork for Ethereum-compatible smart contracts on Polkadot (for ETH teams going multi-chain) or @Plasm_Network for a general Dapp platform (dubbed ETH2 on @Polkadot)
See a repository of the hundreds of @Polkadot and @KusamaNetwork projects at https://t.co/bMPslMhX8c
Each chain built on @Polkadot is a "parachain".

Legacy networks like #Ethereum are called "layer 1" chains. These are single blockchains, operating in isolation. Parachains are also layer 1 chains. Polkadot is one level below, a "layer zero" multi-chain growing to 100+ networks.
Legacy networks of course will not go away bc Polkadot has launched.

@Polkadot will be bridged to existing networks like @ethereum and #bitcoin via bridges built by teams like @InterlayHQ (BTC), @snowfork_inc (ETH), @ChainSafeth & @centrifuge (ETH), @chainx_org (BTC), and more.
So, now you understand @Polkadot better. What is @KusamaNetwork?

Kusama is essentially the exact same code/archtr as Polkadot, but its on-chain governance moves 4x faster (7 days) and there are lower barriers to entry for teams to get a slot on the network (more on this below).
@kusamanetwork is a mainnet where all @Polkadot code moves after being rigorously tested on testnets such as Westend or Rococo. https://t.co/XhVYprXwoo

The model is Testnet->Kusama mainnet->Polkadot mainnet.

This ensures code is as flawless as possible before going to @Polkadot
The code coming to @KusamaNetwork first does bring some risk, which is why Kusama is sometimes referred to as a cypherpunk heaven. This is for lean, fast teams who want to ship code fast.

For the sim/difs between @Polkadot and Kusama, check out this post: https://t.co/3aYG3jWTgo
To serve the needs of both communities/networks, many teams will actually launch on both @Polkadot and @KusamaNetwork.

Teams like Acala are launching @AcalaNetwork on Polkadot and @KaruraNetwork on Kusama. @purestakeco is similarly launching Moonbeam (DOT) & Moonriver (KSM).
The @Polkadot $DOT and @KusamaNetwork $KSM ecosystems will also be bridged, providing ability to communicate between the networks.
So, now what is a Crowdloan and Parachain slot auction?

@Polkadot has 100+ parachain "slots" (see below) which must be 'leased' for access to Polkadot's security and ability to communicate with other chains.

In fact, no team is "built on Polkadot" until they win an auction!
To occupy a parachain slot, any team must win a candle auction using DOT (on @Polkadot) or KSM (on @KusamaNetwork). Tokens for this auction can be gathered in a variety of ways, such as self-funding, VC, or a community-driven "Crowdloan".

Candle auction: https://t.co/6ZI6hwNux1
When a team wins the auction, they immediately gain access to this specific parachain slot, and all the tokens used in the auction are then locked for the duration of the @Polkadot parachain’s lease (usually 1-2 years), removing the tokens from circulating supply.
Many teams will host a Crowdloan to gather tokens for the auction. In a Crowdloan, people will contribute/lock their DOT or KSM in support of a parachain's auction. In return they are issued some of the parachain's native token. All principal is returned after the ~1-2 yr lease.
You can read more detail on the Crowdloan process coming up for the Acala team's @KaruraNetwork's Crowdloan and parachain auction on Kusama in my blog post here: https://t.co/KnW1MIfhoJ
Going forward, @KusamaNetwork parachain auctions will start, then @Polkadot parachain auctions will begin soon after. There will be parachain auctions then happening on a recurring basis, in theory, in perpetuity. If a team doesn't win one auction, they can simply try again.
The plan for @Polkadot and @KusamaNetwork is to have 100+ parachain slots occupied at once, with the ability to continue scaling up from there.

This will enable an meta-infrastructure running myriad blockchains and applications on those chains, all in sync and sharing security.
What does Web3 built on @Polkadot and @KusamaNetwork look like?

Just like the databases/protocols powering the apps we use every day, end users and consumers shouldn't even know Polkadot and Kusama are there: Web3 apps that operate as good or better than their Web2 counterpart.
The best ways to learn more about Polkadot basics would be to watch @BillLaboon and my Polkadot for Beginners video - https://t.co/c2OjPdsGW9 (@Polkadot's most viewed video ever), you can spend hours in the incredibly well-done Polkadot wiki https://t.co/xCWLMHz7Nw,
You can subscribe to a fantastic @Polkadot and @kusamanetwork ecosystem newsletter run by Bruno @bitfalls called DotLeap at https://t.co/ScKdyXtwkD

More from Tech

Thought I'd put a thread together of some resources & people I consider really valuable & insightful for anyone considering or just starting out on their @SorareHQ journey. It's by no means comprehensive, this community is super helpful so no offence to anyone I've missed off...

1) Get yourself on the official Sorare Discord group
https://t.co/1CWeyglJhu, the forum is always full of interesting debate. Got a question? Put it on the relevant thread & it's usually answered in minutes. This is also a great place to engage directly with the @SorareHQ team.

2) Bury your head in @HGLeitch's @SorareData & get to grips with all the collated information you have to hand FOR FREE! IMO it's vital for price-checking, scouting & S05 team building plus they are hosts to the forward thinking SO11 and SorareData Cups 🏆

3) Get on YouTube 📺, subscribe to @Qu_Tang_Clan's channel https://t.co/1ZxMsQR1kq & engross yourself in hours of Sorare tutorials & videos. There's a good crowd that log in to the live Gameweek shows where you get to see Quinny scratching his head/ beard over team selection.

4) Make sure to follow & give a listen to the @Sorare_Podcast on the streaming service of your choice 🔊, weekly shows are always insightful with great guests. Worth listening to the old episodes too as there's loads of information you'll take from them.
Ok, I’ve told this story a few times, but maybe never here. Here we go. 🧵👇


I was about 6. I was in the car with my mother. We were driving a few hours from home to go to Orlando. My parents were letting me audition for a tv show. It would end up being my first job. I was very excited. But, in the meantime we drove and listened to Rush’s show.

There was some sort of trivia question they posed to the audience. I don’t remember what the riddle was, but I remember I knew the answer right away. It was phrased in this way that was somehow just simpler to see from a kid’s perspective. The answer was CAROUSEL. I was elated.

My mother was THRILLED. She insisted that we call Into the show using her “for emergencies only” giant cell phone. It was this phone:


I called in. The phone rang for a while, but someone answered. It was an impatient-sounding dude. The screener. I said I had the trivia answer. He wasn’t charmed, I could hear him rolling his eyes. He asked me what it was. I told him. “Please hold.”

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THREAD: 12 Things Everyone Should Know About IQ

1. IQ is one of the most heritable psychological traits – that is, individual differences in IQ are strongly associated with individual differences in genes (at least in fairly typical modern environments). https://t.co/3XxzW9bxLE


2. The heritability of IQ *increases* from childhood to adulthood. Meanwhile, the effect of the shared environment largely fades away. In other words, when it comes to IQ, nature becomes more important as we get older, nurture less.
https://t.co/UqtS1lpw3n


3. IQ scores have been increasing for the last century or so, a phenomenon known as the Flynn effect. https://t.co/sCZvCst3hw (N ≈ 4 million)

(Note that the Flynn effect shows that IQ isn't 100% genetic; it doesn't show that it's 100% environmental.)


4. IQ predicts many important real world outcomes.

For example, though far from perfect, IQ is the single-best predictor of job performance we have – much better than Emotional Intelligence, the Big Five, Grit, etc. https://t.co/rKUgKDAAVx https://t.co/DWbVI8QSU3


5. Higher IQ is associated with a lower risk of death from most causes, including cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, most forms of cancer, homicide, suicide, and accident. https://t.co/PJjGNyeQRA (N = 728,160)
Great article from @AsheSchow. I lived thru the 'Satanic Panic' of the 1980's/early 1990's asking myself "Has eveyrbody lost their GODDAMN MINDS?!"


The 3 big things that made the 1980's/early 1990's surreal for me.

1) Satanic Panic - satanism in the day cares ahhhh!

2) "Repressed memory" syndrome

3) Facilitated Communication [FC]

All 3 led to massive abuse.

"Therapists" -and I use the term to describe these quacks loosely - would hypnotize people & convince they they were 'reliving' past memories of Mom & Dad killing babies in Satanic rituals in the basement while they were growing up.

Other 'therapists' would badger kids until they invented stories about watching alligators eat babies dropped into a lake from a hot air balloon. Kids would deny anything happened for hours until the therapist 'broke through' and 'found' the 'truth'.

FC was a movement that started with the claim severely handicapped individuals were able to 'type' legible sentences & communicate if a 'helper' guided their hands over a keyboard.