Dubbed the “future of multichain,” Moonbeam Network, the fully EVM-compatible platform, has completed its launch process on Polkadot. Developed by PureStake, one of the leading API service and blockchain infrastructure providers, Moonbeam is among the most highly anticipated projects of 2022.
Earlier in 2021, the Moonbeam team participated and won a slot in the Kusama parachain slot auctions. Moonbeam’s canary network Moonriver secured the second Kusama slot by raising upwards of 205,000 KSM from more than 10,000 contributors. After winning the second slot of the ongoing Polkadot parachain auctions by collecting almost 38.5 million DOT from more than 200,000 contributors through its crowdloan initiative, Moonbeam launched as a “parachain” on December 17, 2021. To put the figures in perspective, Moonbeam’s crowdloan had both the largest number of contributors and the highest amount of DOT received by any parachain on Polkadot to date.
Following this, the Moonbeam development team started adding the decentralization feature and new collators and removed the Sudo key, thereby successfully concluding its launch process. The Moonbeam Network, live on Polkadot since January 11, 2022, has etched its name in history as the first fully operational parachain on the Polkadot network, enabling more than 80 projects in the Moonbeam ecosystem to begin deployment. As part of the launch, a number of infrastructure projects are expected to be deployed by the Moonbeam development team in the coming days, including bridges, multisignature support, and oracle integrations, among others.
Besides support for ECDSA signatures and Ethereum H160 accounts, Moonbeam is always enhancing its interoperability, highlighted by its most recent embrace of EIP-1559, or the Ethereum London hard fork. This Ethereum proposal shifted network fees and the mechanisms responsible for setting them. The newfound support for EIP-1559, which is already live on Moonriver after a runtime 1201 upgrade, means that Moonbeam projects and developers have the building blocks available to reflect these new realities. This change will be reflected in Moonbeam on February 18th.
Additionally, the Moonbeam team has also rolled out native cross-chain capabilities on its canary net Moonriver. Through this upgrade, Moonbeam introduced the XC-20s on the Kusama network, Polkadot’s canary net. The XC-20 is a new type of interoperable token standard that is Substrate-native and conforms to the ERC-20 standard.
Simplifying Cross-Chain Dapp Development
By design, Moonbeam is a developer-friendly blockchain platform that enables developers to migrate their existing Ethereum-based dApps to Polkadot easily. The platform leverages Polkadot’s built-in capabilities such as on-chain governance, staking, and cross-chain integrations to expand Ethereum’s base functionality further. By virtue of being a parachain on the Polkadot network, Moonbeam will also benefit from the shared security and integrations with other parachains connected to Polkadot.
The platform makes it easy for developers to integrate their existing dApps with other individual chains like Bitcoin and Ethereum. Developers can quickly build applications that integrate directly with users and assets on remote chains using Moonbeam smart contracts and the Ethereum developer toolset, either through native Polkadot compatibility or bridge-based integrations. Moreover, Moonbeam supports Solidity smart contracts, allowing developers to swiftly move current projects to the network with minimal code changes.
Owing to the promising features offered by Moonbeam, especially ease-of-use, a myriad of projects have already begun employing its interface to build state-of-the-art dApps. As a faster and more cost-efficient alternative to Ethereum, Moonbeam is now home to more than 80 dApps, spanning DeFi, NFT, P2E games, and several other growing blockchain spaces.
Currently, the total value locked (TVL) in the Moonbeam Network is $187.66 million, and that of Moonriver is $152.77 million, making them the largest ecosystems within both the Polkadot and Kusama networks. Since then, the network has expanded quickly, securing the ninth slot in the list of Top 10 Fastest-Growing Ecosystems With 50+ Developers compiled earlier this month by Electric Capital.
A consortium of promising projects like StellaSwap, BeamSwap, Zenlink, Solarflare, PadSwap, ThorusFi, Synapse, Pickle, Astral Finance, and Connext are already live on Moonbeam, while dozens more are ready to deploy. Moonriver and Moonbeam ecosystem projects include APIs and tools like Multichain, Remix, SubQuery, Moonscan (Etherscan), DappLooker, Magic Link, Figment, and Automata Witness, EthSign, Mars, Waffles, OpenZeppelin, API3, The Graph, and many more.
Other than this, assets and issuance projects like My Wish, Impossible Finance, Ocean Protocol, AllianceBlock, AMPnet, Poolz, and Polimec by KILT Protocol, DeFi Zircon Finance, Nomad, RomeDAO, QiDAO, Unilend, DOT.Finance, Beefy.Finance, Lido, DODO, C.R.E.A.M Finance, NFT platforms like Moonbeans, NFTrade, Banksea, RMRK, myNFT, oracles like Chainlink, Band Protocol, DIA, and Razor, and a ton of other parachains, storage, explorers, bridges, and P2E games are also under construction atop the Moonbeam platform.
Moonbeam is backed by some of the biggest names within the industry, like Arrington Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Fenbushi Capital, Signum Capital, GBV, Hypersphere Ventures, Parafi Capital, and many more, helping it forge forward as one of the most promising blockchain ecosystems designed to support a diverse range of use cases.
Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
