Acala Network became the first-ever project to win a parachain slot auction on Rococo, the ‘testnet’ of high-speed blockchain network Polkadot. The project now occupies the first public parachain slot on Rococo.
Acala has won the first parachain slot auction on @Polkadot testnet Rococo, and now Acala occupies the first public parachain slot on Rococo 🥳.
Keep on building 🛠️ pic.twitter.com/EscaM8dGqQ
— Acala – DeFi Hub of Polkadot (@AcalaNetwork) March 26, 2021
Acala, a Substrate-based protocol, is a so-termed ‘financial hub’ of Polkadot and is building solutions across decentralized stablecoins, staking derivatives, and even a decentralized exchange (DEX).
As per developers, the network is secured under Polkadot’s shared security model, ensuring high resilience and forkless upgradability.
The project aims to issue an Acala Dollar (USD), a stablecoin pegged on a 1:1 basis with the US dollar, meaning it always holds that price with users receiving awards for every Acala Dollar they hold. This would allow users to send and receive USD across any blockchains connected to the Polkadot network.
In addition to the Acala Dollar is the Acala Network Token (ACA)—a governance token that allows users to determine the protocol’s future and take major decisions.
Other usecases from the Acala stable in the future is the release of staked assets (DOTs) as fungible & liquid assets (L-DOTs). These are meant to extract the derivative value of staked assets to fuel DeFi without otherwise affecting the security of the entire network.
About Rococo and parachains
For the uninitiated, Rococo is Polkadot’s testnet built for parachains. The latter are exclusive slots for an application-specific data structure that allows developers to “register” a Substrate-based blockchain.
Such ‘parachain’ projects are globally coherent and validatable by the validators of the Polkadot Relay Chain. They send transfers and messages between parachains and the Relay Chain, and function as individual blockchains while remaining a part of the Polkadot network.
Meanwhile, it’s not just the Polkadot ecosystem that Acala aims to disrupt. The project’s developers are also behind Karura, a similar DeFi hub based on Kusama.
Kusama parachain auctions are getting dangerously close!
Karura is building your all-in-one DeFi hub on @KusamaNetwork that you can use with your $KSM on day 1. Sneak peak below 👀👀
Join 21,500+ ppl on the waitlist to be included in bonuses and updates https://t.co/iwoEcgzmIv pic.twitter.com/a31VpqW2W3
— Karura – DeFi Hub of Kusama (@KaruraNetwork) March 17, 2021
Acala is yet to release its token. Polkadot (DOT), on the other hand, has a market cap of $31 billion and trades at $31 at press time.
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