Polkadot stands out as one of the leading blockchains in cryptocurrency today, supporting over 40 parachains while being one of the most energy-efficient blockchains. However, it is becoming apparent that improvements need to be made to its core allocation processes to streamline its growth. To this end, Polkadot introduced Agile Coretime, a new core allocation system that allows developers to buy even more coretime whenever they want.

Background to Agile Coretime

By definition, a “Core” in the Polkadot ecosystem is the virtual computing power provided by the central Polkadot blockchain, known as the Relay Chain. This computing power secures and validates the blocks of smaller, independent blockchains called parachains. As such, instead of dedicating fixed resources to each parachain, the Relay Chain assigns a random group of validators to perform these tasks, ensuring that all parachains operate smoothly and securely.

Until Agile Coretime was introduced, all blockchains built for Polkadot competed in parachain auctions to acquire periodically provided parachain slots. Each slot came with a core, and because of the limited availability, this approach was intended to ensure only the most committed and viable projects could secure a place on the network.

However, with the introduction of Agile Coretime, parachain auctions were phased out for direct coretime sales, allowing parachains and other dApps to buy as much coretime as they needed to keep running smoothly. Due to this, all existing and potential parachains can choose from three options. First, Parachains already hosted on the relay chain when Polkadot’s upgrade was migrated automatically from a legacy lease into a bulk coretime model, where parachains can buy coretime for fixed periods, usually lasting up to 28 days. Other parachains start with the bulk coretime model from scratch or run their parachain with a pay-as-you-go model known as on-demand coretime.

What Is Agile Coretime?

Source: polkadot

Agile Coretime is a new transaction model introduced by Polkadot as part of its Polkadot 2.0 upgrade. It aims to enhance the network’s performance and scalability, give developers greater economic flexibility, and enable Polkadot to expand beyond its current capacity.

The key offering of Agile Coretime is its ability to support both long-term planning through bulk purchases and provide on-demand access for immediate needs. Thus, Agile Coretime serves as a more effective way for developers to use Polkadot’s resources to handle their project’s requirements. This flexibility makes it ideal for various projects, from startups to large-scale decentralized applications (dApps).

Additionally, Agile Coretime introduces secondary markets for trading unused core time, which enhances the network’s economic efficiency by aligning resource allocation with actual usage. This trading system allows developers to optimize their resources based on real-time demand.

Agile Coretime also scales elastically, meaning it can adapt to different workloads, helping it reduce transaction fees and congestion. This adaptability is essential to achieving Polkadot’s broader vision of creating a robust and versatile blockchain environment that supports a diverse range of applications in decentralized finance (DeFi), gaming (GameFi), and governance.

History of Agile Coretime

Polkadot was created as a blockchain that could host other blockchains on its central Relay Chain. The hosted blockchains are known as parachains, and part of Polkadot’s vision was to have them compete for slots.

However, this process raises a few concerns. Parachain slots typically last 6 to 24 months, requiring projects to make long-term commitments to the Polkadot ecosystem. This created a barrier for many developers, especially those unable to dedicate substantial resources or maintain flexibility in their development timelines. Thus, Agile Coretime was launched in September 2024 to address these issues affecting traditional parachain leasing on Polkadot.

How Does Agile Coretime Work?

Agile Coretime provides a flexible solution for developers and project owners to purchase coretime in bulk, with allocations available for one month. This model is particularly beneficial for parachains that must create a block as quickly as every 12 seconds. Agile Coretime helps shield users from price fluctuations by prioritizing coretime renewals over new purchases, thus enabling better budget planning and cost management.

Additionally, Agile Coretime divides bulk coretime into smaller segments for sale. This, in turn, facilitates the creation of secondary markets and enhances the overall efficiency in allocating coretime. Moreover, Agile Coretime includes an on-demand feature, enabling parachains to author new blocks when needed.

The Agile Coretime system offers two distinct formats for coretime allocation: bulk coretime and instantaneous coretime. Bulk coretime is available on the specialized Coretime Chain, allowing users to reserve resources in advance and can be ordered up to 28 days in advance. On the other hand, instantaneous coretime can be acquired on the relay chain at the current market price, providing immediate access and flexibility.

The introduction of Agile Coretime also allows the Relay Chain to support up to 100 cores seamlessly and another 100 cores after further technical upgrades. Initial tests showed promising results, with 80 cores operating at block times of 12 seconds each.

Main Features of Agile Coretime

Standout features of Agile Coretime include:

Coretime as NFTs

This innovative strategy allows coretime to be handled like non-fungible tokens (NFTs). This allows users who have excess coretime to trade or sell it to other applications or parachains that need it. As a result, resources can be used more effectively. This method also creates new trading opportunities within the Polkadot ecosystem.

Lower Entry Barrier

Agile Coretime lowers the barrier of entry for new developers and smaller projects by providing access to Polkadot’s robust infrastructure without needing large amounts of DOT (Polkadot’s native token) as collateral. This allows more projects to join Polkadot, which in turn provides more opportunities for innovation and participation within the ecosystem.

Additionally, Agile Coretime enables developers of all sizes, including individuals, to quickly launch proofs of concept, allowing them to use the capabilities of Polkadot without needing substantial upfront investments. This level of shared access to resources marks a significant change in the Polkadot landscape, as previously, only larger projects could afford the necessary resources for their development.

Elastic Scaling

Agile Coretime also facilitates Elastic Scaling, allowing networks to increase their coretime resources as needed when they hit their limits. This flexibility enables additional bandwidth to be temporarily added, ensuring that the interconnected networks continue to operate effectively during periods of high demand or during events like airdrops.

Scheduling

Scheduling involves allocating specific tasks to available resources, like CPU cores, at set times or based on certain conditions. This approach helps ensure that resources are utilized efficiently, enabling prompt completion of tasks while reducing delays. With the introduction of Agile Coretime, Polkadot has enhanced how it manages its computational resources, empowering developers to make the most of resources while maintaining financial flexibility in their operations.

Multi-threading

Multi-threading refers to a programming technique that creates several small sequences of instructions (or threads) to handle different tasks within the same application. This method enhances software performance by allowing different sections of a program to run at the same time. It’s important to note that while concurrency allows multiple threads to be managed at the same time, it doesn’t mean that they all run simultaneously.. Instead, it enables the system to switch rapidly between different threads.

Coretime Marketplaces

Secondary coretime marketplaces include:

Lastic

Source: lastic

Lastic is a marketplace that provides developers with the computing power they require, while allowing blockchain providers to effectively monetize their excess capacity.

Unlike traditional blockchain auctions, which can be rigid and limiting, Lastic operates as a genuine block space marketplace. This dynamic environment supports Layer 2 solutions and application chains, enabling them to access necessary resources such as data availability and co-processing power. Developers can also select from various pricing options, allowing them to pick the most cost-effective solutions for their projects.

Lastic also prioritizes user experience through its protocol-agnostic design. This feature enables developers to leverage the best functionalities of different blockchains, including Polkadot, without compatibility issues. Furthermore, Lastic has an ambitious vision to extend beyond the blockchain industry. It plans to integrate real-time market dynamics and spot markets across different digital ecosystems, helping Lastic create a future where resource allocation becomes more efficient and accessible.

RegionX

Source: regionx

RegionX is another decentralized Coretime marketplace, designed to facilitate efficient operations for its users. It uses an order book model that classifies the marketplace into two types of regions: active and inactive. Active regions are integrated with the Polkadot network, while inactive regions are set aside for future use. The pricing structure also differs for these regions: inactive regions have fixed prices decided by sellers, whereas active regions have dynamic prices that change over time due to depreciation.

The order-based system also allows parachains to specify how much Coretime they need. This is similar to Polkadot’s parachain slot auctions, where the most supported orders receive the best Coretime deals.

At the moment, the Coretime chain doesn’t support smart contract deployment, so the RegionX team decided to set up its marketplace outside of it. Coretime assets are treated as NFTs (non-fungible tokens), and they initially thought about using XCM (Cross-Consensus Messaging) to transfer these NFTs to the marketplace. However, the team faced challenges with validating the NFTs’ metadata during transfers. To address this, RegionX switched to using state proofs to access metadata from the Coretime region, simplifying the integration with parachains. This fits their long-term goal of automating how Coretime is acquired directly from parachain runtimes.

Conclusion

The Polkadot network has always focused on parachain auction “slots” since its launch, serving as the primary method for integrating the diverse Layer 1 blockchain that makes up its ecosystem.

As Polkadot prepares to upgrade to Polkadot 2.0, it’s important to ensure that the teams involved are not negatively impacted during this change. With this upgrade, the current parachain slots will automatically change into “legacy” leases.

These legacy leases will give each parachain a basic structure until their original slot runs out. Additionally, teams will have the choice to buy extra “coretime” in advance, which will help make the transition smoother.

Useful References

For the latest updates on Agile Coretime, you can visit:

• Website