Parity Technologies Launch Substrate Blockchain Framework for a Multi-Chain World

During the Web3 Summit in Berlin on Tuesday, Oct. 23, a U.K.-based blockchain infrastructure firm Parity Technologies demoed a live blockchain launch in a few minutes. The demo was shown by Parity founder Gavin Wood, who is also the co-founder of Ethereum (ETH).

As reported by TechCrunch, Wood demonstrated a group of assembled blockchain developers that how easy it is to launch a new blockchain. He showed that it requires very little time and set-up with a few tools to create a blockchain network which otherwise would take a few days and even longer, based on the complexity of the project.

The blockchain framework demoed at the Web3 Summit, by Wood, is called “Substrate”. In addition to building blockchains, this new framework is also used to develop the underpinning tech of “Parity’s Polkadot protocol”. Polkadot is a form of ‘para-chain’ linking different types of blockchain and scheduled to release by the next year-end, 2019.

However, Parity has issued an explanation that although Polkadot and Substrate share a common goal, they are distinct in their technological behaviour. Substrate is more like a “software or PC’ which one can choose for an application. On the other hand, Polkadot is more “like plugging a network card into that computer,” given the protocol’s ability to interconnect blockchains.

At the Web3 Summit, Wood also announced that the 1.0-beta version of Parity’s Substrate shall be out by November 2018, next month itself. Wood calls this as “the biggest bet against blockchain maximalism.”

Wood’s yesterday’s presentation is more like an antidote to an extremely “nationalistic” blockchain space wherein “maximalism creates barriers to entry and reduces the fun for technologists.” He also said that the Substrate software will be “highly customisable” and “adaptable” giving the developers “maximum freedom with minimal effort”. He said that substrate is designed more like an “upgrade path” to be interoperable with Polkadot.

Additionally, Substrate will give developers the freedom from the lifecycle of Ethereum platform and its recent development. The software is very much “generic” to remain compatible with all the future versions of Ethereum platform. Wood believes that Substrate will be “a turning point” in the transition to a “multi-chain world.”

Trent McConaghy, a fellow speaker at the Web3 Summit said that Polkadot has pushed the blockchain ecosystem forward by “2 to 3 years”.