What occurred
Digital tokens associated to the Polkadot blockchain community are skyrocketing on Friday, Nov. 4. As of 1 p.m. EDT, the Polkadot (CRYPTO:DOT) token confirmed a 24-hour acquire of 19%, whereas the community’s testing token, Kusama (CRYPTO:KSM), was up by 20.3%. As well as, the Enjin Coin (CRYPTO:ENJ), which makes use of Polkadot to handle its non-fungible token (NFT) and Metaverse programs, jumped 26.4% over the identical interval.
These tokens within the Polkadot universe are surging because the underlying community takes an important step towards full performance.
So what
Thursday evening, the Polkadot mission began coming into potential parachains and their associated crowdloans into the parachain slot public sale that may happen subsequent Thursday. This technique is an alternative choice to the initial coin-offering course of that injects funding into most cryptocurrency launches.
The distinction is that Polkadot’s parachain system offers a extra democratic technique to decide which tasks ought to be funded. Anybody can participate on this course of by bonding not less than 5 Polkadot tokens to their favourite parachain concepts. At present Polkadot costs, that works out to a minimal funding of roughly $250.
Polkadot has already accepted one parachain known as Shell, however that is only a preliminary take a look at. Shell does not truly do something helpful, in contrast to a lot of the prime parachain proposals which might be vying for the primary 5 slots in next-week’s public sale.
In the long term, Polkadot envisions a complete of roughly 100 energetic parachains. After that, this public sale will probably be adopted by many others on a rolling schedule, with roughly one new public sale per week. To this point, the primary 10 auctions have been scheduled, stretching into March 2022.

Picture supply: Getty Photos.
Now what
When the primary parachain goes stay on Polkadot, the community will probably be full beneath the phrases of the unique design paperwork. The system will evolve over time with extra auctions, extra Polkadot-based token launches, and the potential for upgrades to the underlying community’s know-how.
If this plan reminds you of Ethereum (CRYPTO:ETH), you are heading in the right direction. Polkadot is commonly seen as a rival to the Ethereum ecosystem, however the community additionally ties immediately into Ethereum by connecting that system to different blockchains.
The primary parachain slot public sale begins on November 11 and ends one week later. The winner will probably be onboarded in mid-December, giving the successful mission entry to the Polkadot community and opening up the freshly launched token for its personal open-market buying and selling.
Those that dedicated Polkadot and/or Kusama tokens to voting for a dropping mission could have their tokens refunded briefly order. Tokens selling the winner will probably be exchanged for the brand new mission’s tokens or, in some circumstances, refunded as much as 92 weeks later. In the meantime, Polkadot retains operating extra auctions on related timelines.
It is a sophisticated public sale system, however the ball is most definitely rolling now. Polkadot and Kusama tokens will profit immediately because the successful parachains enter the general public market and begin operating transactions on the Polkadot blockchain community. The Enjin Coin’s upside is much less apparent, since that token is not an intrinsic a part of the Polkadot community’s core performance. Nonetheless, even third-party tokens like this pre-launch Polkadot shopper ought to reap the advantages of a totally operational community with a thriving universe of Polkadot-based parachains.
The Polkadot token has now gained 1,015% in 52 weeks. Kusama notched a 1,220% acquire over the identical interval, and Enjin Coin have loved a 2,030% one-year return. Of those three, Polkadot strikes me as an investable token that performs an energetic position in a burgeoning blockchain community.
Kusama is much less fascinating resulting from its testing position in the identical ecosystem — Kusama’s real-world utility ought to fade out lengthy earlier than the production-level Polkadot token reaches its peak. As for the Enjin Coin, I actually do not know sufficient in regards to the Enjin community and its NFT ambitions to have an opinion on its token but.
For what it is value, you should purchase and promote each Polkadot and Enjin Coin on Coinbase and different fashionable cryptocurrency buying and selling platforms right this moment, however Kusama is just not an choice.
This text represents the opinion of the author, who could disagree with the “official” suggestion place of a Motley Idiot premium advisory service. We’re motley! Questioning an investing thesis — even one among our personal — helps us all suppose critically about investing and make selections that assist us change into smarter, happier, and richer.