Top 5 Polkadot Projects That Are in Prime Position for a Parachain Slot
Who wins?
Introduction
It was announced earlier today that the first Polkadot parachain slot should be live by mid-December. This is particularly bullish news because it feels like the crypto space has been waiting for ages for the parachains to launch… It’s no secret that there has been some impatience around the launch of parachains. However, it looks like DOT holders' patience is finally about to pay off. Plus, as the saying goes, you can’t rush greatness.
So, in celebration of the big announcement, we figured that it would only be right to share the top 5 projects that we think have the best shot at securing a parachain slot.
Just as a side note: Gavin Wood hinted that initially there would only be 4 parachain slots to be filled for testing purposes. Only when everything goes smooth, the next parachains will be activated early next year. This means at least one of our 5 parachain candidates will have to wait a couple of weeks longer… 😉
Without further ado, let’s get to it!
As with everything else on this site, this is NOT financial advice. The picks listed here are pure speculation. Anything can happen that can cause a project to not be listed. So, it is imperative that you do your own research if you are interested in any of the projects listed.
What It Takes To Secure A Parachain Slot
Before we get into each project, let’s first go over how a project even manages to secure a highly coveted parachain slot.
Parachains are allocated in three ways:
Common Good Parachains
Parachain Auctions
Parathreads
All of the projects listed below will be obtaining their parachain slots by way of the auction.
It is to be noted that this list is not meant to be an exhaustive breakdown of each project. More of those will come in the future, but for now, I’d just like to focus on why these projects have the best shot at securing parachain slots.
Moonbeam
First up is Moonbeam. You all know that we’ve been covering this project and its sister project (Moonriver) pretty heavily.
Next to Acala, Moonbeam is one of the most anticipated projects that are likely to receive a parachain slot.
Moonbeam’s sister project (Moonriver) has already managed to secure a slot on Kusama and is currently one of the best projects on the network. It currently sits in the top 150 projects – 147 to be exact – on CoinGecko.
For those who are unfamiliar with the projects, be sure to read our full breakdown on the differences between Moonbeam and Moonriver here. To give you all a brief description, Moonbeam makes it possible for developers to seamlessly deploy ERC smart contracts and Dapps on Polkadot.
If you pay attention to the picture above, you’ll see that Moonbeam has already managed to secure a Web 3 Foundation grant for a Pallet-dPoS for Parachain Staking.
They are actively developing as well. Their GitHub activity shows that just today they’ve had over 88 commits.
Moonbeam also has an impressive list of investors and partners.
Most importantly, the Moonbeam team seems to be very confident in their chances of gaining a slot.
Judging from the success of Moonriver, it would be very surprising to not see Moonbeam gaining a parachain slot.
Acala
Next up is Acala. This is hands down the top dog for a parachain slot.
Acala aims to be Polkadot’s DeFi suite. It would grant all Ethereum financial Dapps the ability to deploy smart contracts and offering staking.
Not only has Acala secured three Web 3 Foundation grants, but all of the deliverables have also been completed.
Many of the industry’s most prestigious investors are backing the project as well.
They have also partnered with the most popular projects that are aiming to secure a parachain slot.
Acala’s tokenomics and utilities are definitely something to pay attention to.
Acala is still actively developing. Their latest GitHub activity had 32 commits.
Acala will be at the top of my radar. The team is top-notch, and their sister project – Karura – won the second Kusama parachain slot.
If you’d like to learn more about Acala, Oma put together an amazing thread explaining the details of the project.
Centrifuge
Centrifuge is a financing protocol that will allow users to tokenize real-world assets into NFTs and use them as collateral.
Centrifuge works concomitant with Celo Protocol, MakerDao, and Circle to allow borrowing and lending on the blockchain.
Centrifuge has also secured and completed the deliverables for two Web 3 Foundation grants.
The project also has a notable list of investors – Galaxy Digital being the most notable – and partners.
Centrifuge’s canary network project (Altair) secured the 10th slot on Kusama.
However, I wouldn’t mind seeing a slight improvement in the distribution of tokens.
The team is also actively developing.
Overall,Centrifuge has an excellent chance at being one of the top projects to receive a parachain slot.
Bit.Country
This is probably the most interesting project on the list. Bit.Country is a project that will allow anyone to build their own metaverse for their community of supporters, family, friends, etc.
We can see that the team secured a Web 3 Foundation grant for a decentralized world that shows a status of Completed.
Also, if you look closely at the list of investors, you’ll see none other than Animoca Brands. If we know anything about Yat Siu (founder of Animoca), we know that he’s been on a hot streak all year with the projects that he’s supporting.
Users will have the ability to mint NFTs, stake tokens (NUUM), and purchase land.
Bit.Country is the only project in the list that is still waiting on a Kusama slot for its canary project.
However, the team’s GitHub is very active.
I’m sure I don’t need to explain how big metaverses and NFTs have become. However, the first metaverse project on Polkadot will be huge.
Astar
This is one that isn’t as popular as the other projects, but its fundamentals are as bullish as ever. Astar is a multichain ecosystem that supports Cosmos, EVM, and other L1 smart contracts.
The team has received five Web 3 Foundation grants with three of the deliverables already completed.
Astar also has a very impressive ecosystem.
The tokenmics and utilities are also on point.
The team also has some very big upcoming events in the roadmap.
Out of all of the projects listed, Astar seems to have the most active GitHub.
Similar to every other project listed, Astar also has a sister project (Shiden Network) that is currently on Kusama. The Shiden Network was the third project to win a Kusama slot.
This is definitely the big sleeper to keep an eye on.
Conclusion
These are all of the projects that I predict to have the best chance at securing a Polkadot parachain slot.
Judging from the quality of the projects listed, this makes me more excited about the future of both Polkadot and Kusama. If these projects live up to their hype, Polkadot will have one of the best ecosystems in the crypto space.
If you would like to stay updated on the Polkadot parachain auctions, here is a thread containing the dates: