Zeitgeist Will Migrate To The Polkadot Relay Chain
Zeitgeist is delighted to announce their move from Kusama to the Polkadot relay chain
Zeitgeist will be migrate from Kusama to the Polkadot relay chain in the coming weeks. This has been a very carefully consider move for them, and not one that they take lightly.
After recent activity amongst the Polkadot community, it’s become pretty obvious for those who pay attention that Zeitgeist was working on a Polkadot parachain slot. They are now ready to disclose that Parathread 2092 was indeed Zeitgeist, and we were thrilled to have won Polkadot’s parachain slot auction number 32. Their bid of 37,270 DOT back in November 2022 was enough to win the auction & secure a position as Dot parachain until November 2024.
Exhaustive Research
Before they get into the details of timeline, let’s focus on the why they’re doing this:
They understand this may come as a surprise to some of you. As a team felt that bidding for a Polkadot parachain slot amidst current market conditions was an opportunity seriously worth considering.
Their team began exploring the possibility of becoming a Polkadot parachain back in July 2022 during key executive meetings. In the course of these discussions, they recognized the commercial benefits of operating as a Polkadot parachain, and agreed to look into the feasibility of a migration from Kusama.
After exhaustive research and feasibility confirmations, they felt it would be in the best commercial interests of Zeitgeist to go ahead with a bid. Their blockchain team monitored the Polkadot auctions, and moved forward with a bid in the 32nd slot auction which began on 16 November 2022. After careful review and budgeting, they self-funded a number of bids, eventually winning the auction to secure the place at the cost of the above-mentioned 37,270 DOT.
The price of DOT at the time of the winning bid was $5.95, and because Zeitgeist keeps a portion of their treasury in DOT, it made good business sense to commit to the slot, knowing that these assets will be lock for two years. When one takes into account that parachain slots on Polkadot were costing upwards of 400,000 DOT+ in early 2022, a price below 10% of this range was extremely attractive.
Commercial Benefits
In addition to the slots being attractively affordable, the commercial benefits of being secure on the Polkadot relay chain are myriad. As a project with ambitions of being utilize by corporates around the world, it is paramount that brand reflects the expertise and adeptness that is associate with the Polkadot emblem.
While there is absolutely no doubt in their minds that Kusama as a relay chain is more than sufficient enough for their needs, they needed to look beyond what they are doing within the silos of the Dotsama ecosystem and consider how future clientele of the Zeitgeist SDK would view our tech. It is obvious that Polkadot is the world renown brand of the Substrate stack in the minds of such clientele, and thus the association is one that makes prudent business sense.
Further to the brand image considerations, it is becoming increasingly apparent that the suite of assets on Polkadot parachains have substantial liquidity and trading volume in comparison to their Kusama counterparts. These volumes are important for them as thgey begin to integrate with numerous Polkadot-based DEXs and roll out interoperable functionality with these parachains.
The sheer scale of the Polkadot environment when compared to that of Kusama’s is undeniable, and for us to tap into such a vast array of assets and software makes for an exciting prospect as we strategize the future of Zeitgeist in 2023 and beyond.
Roadmap Evolution
Moving to Polkadot was not necessarily part of original plans as a project. But the evolution of the Dotsama ecosystem, especially considering current market conditions, gave them reason to pause and contemplate various possibilities in their roadmap. They have always communicated that their selves are an evolving protocol who are continually adjusting and adapting to the environment within which they operate, but remember also: they will always seek to make decisions that will ultimately benefit their own ecosystem.
As a team of blockchain developers, we remain huge “fanboys” of Kusama. It is a phenomenal relay chain, & one that they would recommend to any project seeking to leverage the power of blockchain with the efficiency and benefits that the Substrate stack offers. As an isolated ecosystem, Kusama has innumerable benefits to offer its users, & will always recognise its position as an authority in the industry.
The Planned Migration
They plan for the migration of the Zeitgeist protocol from Kusama to Polkadot to be as smooth a process. All assets and wallets will be migrated with minimal disruption to the users, & functionality should not be affected. Of course, there may be a handful of hiccups in the process, but they expect these to be few & far between.
The team of engineers have a number of final adjustments to make before the migration happens, & they hope to have the move in full swing by March 2023. You may well have seen some of the dialogue in the ecosystem in the last few days. This is borne out of an error in their runtime that requires Polkadot governance to mitigate. It is in essence the same issue they had with runtime when they secured the second slot on Kusama.
Polkadot governance approvals of this nature normally take 60 days to be finalize. However, they have asked the Polkadot technical committee to fast-track this. After some aforementioned dialogue, they have approved their request.
This means that the proposal should now be execute on 24 February, after which they will adjust runtime & begin the process of the migration. The final adjustments will likely take a few days, & they expect to be a fully functional Polkadot parachain by March!
About Zeitgeist
A Prediction Markets protocol built on Polkadot. With the world’s leading forecasting minds, they’re building the best prediction markets app available.
