Kusama Slot Auctions Officially Begin, Karura May Come Out On Top

[Abstract]
The first Kusama parallel slot auction started at 8 pm Beijing time on June 15th (GMT 12:00 June 15th, 2021). As of this writing, Karura is in the first and substantial lead in the auction, raising 401,548 KSM, while Moonriver and Shide are temporarily in 2nd and 3rd with 91,453 and 75,443 pledges respectively. The results of this auction will be announced on June 22nd.

[Keywords] Poca Kusama Slot Auction Karura
If Blockchain 1.0 is Bitcoin, which opened up the world and rebuilt consensus, and Blockchain 2.0 is the landing ethereum that drives technology adoption, then when it comes to Blockchain 3.0, the hot candidate must be the representative of the most popular cross-chain project ---- Polkadot (full name Polkadot, Gate.io codename DOT). Instead of loading smart contracts and running blockchain programs, Polkadot tries to build an intermediate chain (Relay Chain) that can connect to other public chains, and other blockchains can achieve trusted message exchange (ICMP/Interchain Message Passing) through the Relay Chain. According to the vision of Gavin Wood, the father of Polka, after Polka goes live, it will interconnect different public chains and become the Internet of the blockchain world.



Technically, the Polka network is linked to other blockchain projects through multiple parallel chains, while the Polka master chain serves as the relay chain of the system, verifying the parallel chains and providing consensus and security. In order to access the Polka relay chain, the parallel chains need to use "Slots". In July, 2020, Gavin Wood said in China that the number of parallel chains supported by Polka is about 100, which means the maximum number of slots is about 100. However, officials do not rule out increasing the number of slots in the future through technical optimization such as secondary relay chains. At present, Kusama is still in the early stage of testing, and the number of parallel chains supported for the time being is small, and the slot opening and auction will be gradually promoted.

Kusama slot auction mechanism
In the slot auction, what is actually auctioned is the right to use the slot for a certain period of time (ranging from six months to two years). Currently, the Kusama auction mechanism is a bi-weekly auction of 4 parallel chain slots. Each slot is leased for a total of two years, and is divided into 4 periods of 6 months each. The first slot auction was opened at 20:00 BST on June 15th, and the 2nd to 5th slots will be auctioned on June 22nd, June 29th, July 6th, and July 13th BST, respectively.

In the Kusama auction, each participant will be required to pledge and lock in their KSMs, and the bid will be based on the amount of KSMs pledged. The combination that offers the best pledged amount will win the auction (see: Bitpedia: Wave Card Slot Auction). After the auction ends, the winner's pledged KSMs will remain locked for the duration of the slot lease and cannot be removed. The KSM pledged by items that do not win the slot will be unlocked and returned at the end of the auction. Thus, the "bid" of each bidder is actually the opportunity cost of the pledged KSM for one year.

Kusama slot auctions use a unique "candle auction" format. The candle auction originated in England, where a candle is lit and the bidding ends at the time the candle flame is extinguished. Since the world of candles is unpredictable, no one can know exactly when the bidding will end. This form of auction prevents participants from sniping bids before the end of the bidding period and allows for a more reasonable price to be reached. The candle auction format described above has been optimized for the Kusama slot auction. The auction time will be divided into 2 phases: a safe period and a random period. The safe period lasts for 2 days (until June 17th, 20:00 BST), during which items can be freely bid (bid). The random period, on the other hand, lasts for 5 days, and after the auction ends at 20:00 BST on June 22nd, the system will randomly select a point in time within the 5-day period and determine the auction result by the number of KSMs pledged by each item at that moment.

First Kusama Slot Auction Updates
In the first Kusama slot auction currently underway, 12 project parties have participated in the bidding. Among them, DeFi platform Karura (token name KAR) is temporarily ahead of other projects with 401,548 KSM pledged. While Moonriver and Shide are temporarily in 2nd and 3rd place with 91,453 and 75,443 pledges respectively.


Gate.io is currently running the [Pledge KSM, One-Click Participation in KSM Slot Auction] activity, which allows users to participate in the Kusama slot auction with one click on the platform, lock up their KSMs, boost the projects they support, and earn an on-chain prize pool for bidding on the projects.
Participation link: https://www.gate.io/en/hodl



Extended Reading.
Will Polka's Slot be the ticket to the future?



Written by Gate.io Researcher Edward. H
*This article represents the views of the researcher and does not constitute any investment advice.
*The content of this article is original and copyrighted by Gate.io. If you need to reproduce it, please indicate the author and source, otherwise you will be held legally responsible.