Ethereum’s gas fee issues have rocked the crypto world. Because of the gas crisis and scalability issues, both developers and users have started looking at alternative blockchains. In particular, Polkadot has been the most popular as it is being compared to ETH 2.0, the proof-of-stake (PoS) upgrade of Ethereum. This is because, just like ETH 2.0, Polkadot also uses sharding to overcome the scalability and throughput issues. Recently, Polkadot development has become extremely popular because of the Parachains auctions.
Before we set to understand the fundamental differences between Ethereum and Polkadot, let us first understand the structure of Polkadot: Polkadot is made up of the following 4 structures
This is the heart and core of Polkadot. That is because it is responsible for maintaining Polkadot’s cross-chain interoperability, shared security, and consensus. The relay chain is built with a blockchain building framework known as Substrate.
Parachains are unique individual layer-1 blockchains that run in parallel with Polkadot. However, these are secured by the central Relay Chain. Effectively, the security, scalability, interoperability, and governance of Polkadot are shared by these chains too. These parachains can also connect to external networks like Ethereum with the use of cross-chain bridges.
These are a specific type of parachains that connect to the Polkadot ecosystem with a pay-as-you-go model while the parachains lease the entire slot.
These threads are used by projects that do not need the continuous support of the Polkadot ecosystem.
As the name suggests, the bridges enable interoperability inside and outside the Polkadot ecosystem. These facilitate interoperability among parachains and parathreads, and also Bitcoin-like external chains.
Polkadot vs Ethereum 2.0
The demand for Polkadot blockchain development has increased tremendously over the last couple of years. However, experts believe ETH 2.0 is going to give Polkadot tough competition. That’s because both ETH 2.0 and Polkadot use sharding to solve the scalability issues.
What is sharding?
In simple terms, sharding means breaking something into smaller pieces. In the case of blockchain, it means the blockchain is broken down into small chunks known as shards. These shards record and authenticate transactions in local shards. Let us have a look at how Polkadot and ETH 2.0 differ.
Sharding works differently for ETH 2.0 and Polkadot
ETH 2.0 uses Beacon Chain to control the parallel shards. These shards must have the right structure to connect to the Beacon Chain to put in all the information.
On the other hand, Polkadot uses Relay Chain for connecting shards, known as parachains, and is capable of operating independently. Interestingly, the way Polkadot accepts shards is much more flexible than the way Beacon Chain accepts the shards.
Because of this, Relay Chain is capable of offering bridging. As a result, the applications built on ETH 2.0 will be able to connect to the Polkadot ecosystem but the vice-versa is not true.
For DeFi developers, scalability is the key and the Polkadot ecosystem promises higher scalability because it is capable of bridging. The bridging allows the Polkadot ecosystem to accept outside apps that are faster and cheaper. As a result, Polkadot development gives developers and users access to faster and cheaper dApps.
Also, for Ethereum 2.0 development, developers have to learn Solidity. However, Polkadot blockchain development does not require developers to learn Substrate; they can actually bring their own tools and develop.
One of the most important aspects of choosing between the two is that Polkadot is ready while ETH 2.0 is still a distant dream.
Why Polkadot for dApps?
Undoubtedly, Polkadot is a scalable blockchain and offers faster processing speeds. As a result, the DeFi apps built on Polkadot can process transactions faster and cut down on transaction fee costs too. In terms of security and transparency, Polkadot is a top-notch blockchain.
Moreover, the Polkadot blockchain development team promises to deliver a TPS (transactions per second) of over 1 million. And this is like 10 times of what ETH 2.0 promises to bring in.
Final Thoughts
Polkadot blockchain development has given a new dimension to the blockchain world. Its interoperability with other blockchains has broken the silos and is helping build a truly decentralized internet. Moreover, Polkadot promises to support the development of anti-censorship applications, faster applications, and take blockchain development to a completely next level.
