The Polkadot protocol connects public and private chains, permissionless networks, oracles and future technologies, allowing these independent blockchains to trustlessly share information and transactions through the Polkadot relay chain (explained further down).
Polkadot’s native DOT token serves three clear purposes: providing network governance and operations, and creating parachains (parallel chains) by bonding.
Polkadot has four core components:
- Relay Chain: Polkadot’s “heart,” helping to create consensus, interoperability and shared security across the network of different chains;
- Parachains: independent chains that can have their own tokens and be optimized for specific use cases;
- Parathread: similar to parachains but with flexible connectivity based on an economical pay-as-you-go model;
- Bridges: allows parachains and parathreads to connect and communicate with external blockchains like Ethereum.
