Introduction to Polkadot

Overview

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Developed by the Technical Education team at the Web3 Foundation, this course provides a comprehensive overview of Polkadot Network, its technology and ecosystem.

This course features the founders of Polkadot who introduce its vision, features and architecture. First, the learners are introduced to the key terminology and are shown how to interact with the Polkadot network with numerous hands-on activities. Later, we dive deeper into the concepts of the shared security, interoperability, cryptography and networking aspects of Polkadot. We wrap up the course by taking a look at the development happening on the Polkadot ecosystem and how to get involved.

The course is open to learners with foundational knowledge on Blockchain.

Syllabus

Polkadot and Parachains

Introduction to Polkadot from the founders, vision of Polkadot and an overview of Polkadot network architecture - relay chain, parachains and network protocol. Introduction to the concepts of scalability, interoperability and security. Introduction to Kusama - testnets and canary networks. Becoming a Parachain on Polkadot.

Interacting with Polkadot Network

DOT as a network utility token. Creating and restoring accounts, existential deposit, balance transfers, wallets, staking and validating, participating in governance, setting on-chain identity. Block explorers. On-chain Governance and treasury.

Polkadot Security and Consensus

Nominated Proof of Staking. BABE. GRANDPA Finality gadget. Role of Nominators and Validators. Availability and Validity. Erasure coding. Shared Security - Ethereum vs Polkadot vs Cosmos. Security and Consensus improvements.

Polkadot Cryptography and Networking

Account keys and session keys. Overview of networking - gossiping, distributed service, storage and availability, authentication, transport and discovery. Polkadot telemetry. Full nodes and Light clients. Path of a Parachain block. Challenges and scope for improvements.

Interoperability and Scalability

Polkadot interoperability protocol in depth. Relay chain vs parachain. Validity and availability. Cross chain messaging (XCM). Introduction to parathreads and common good parachains. Statemint. Teleporting assets.

Polkadot for Developers

Introduction to Rust. Introduction to Substrate . Polkadot-JS and APIs. Wasm and Polkadot as a Wasm meta-protocol. Polkadot ecosystem and developers social channels. Substrate recipes and Playground. Westend and Rococo. Ink! smart contracts. Polkadot ecosystem.