Moonbeam Lays The Groundwork For A New Era Of DLT With A Truly Multichain Blockchain Ecosystem

Labelled the “future of multichain,” Moonbeam, a Polkadot-based smart contract parachain that offers full compatibility with EVM and its corresponding tools, is among the most highly anticipated blockchain projects of 2022.

Developed and launched in 2020 by PureStake, a blockchain infrastructure and API service provider, Moonbeam is a developer-oriented blockchain platform that allows developers to quickly deploy their existing Ethereum-based dApps to Polkadot with minimal changes. The platform is not only Ethereum compatible, but it also extends Ethereum’s base features by including Polkadot’s built-in features like on-chain governance, staking, and cross-chain integrations.

Moreover, as a parachain on the Polkadot network, Moonbeam ensures that dApp developers access faster transactions, lower gas costs, and enterprise-grade security. Moonbeam supports all EVM-based code and tools by design, making it extremely easy for developers to migrate their dApp from Ethereum to Polkadot without major changes to the existing code structure. 

Simply put, Moonbeam merges the best attributes of both Ethereum and Polkadot while offering add-on features such as seamless interoperability across multiple individual chains, access to all other parachains and parthreads deployed within the Polkadot (and Kusama) ecosystems.

Simplifying Cross-Chain Interoperability Since 2021

Moonbeam is backed by a consortium of industry leaders, venture capitalists, and angel investors. Following its launch in 2020, Moonbeam received a Web3 Foundation grant. Within months, the platform successfully raised $1.4 million from its seed funding round, led by Hypersphere Ventures. 

Moonbeam made its public debut on the Kusama network, Polkadot’s canary net, after the Moonriver testnet won the second round of the Kusama parachain slot auctions in June 2021. The Moonriver team raised upwards of 205,935 KSM tokens from the community via its crowdloan initiative, highlighting the widespread support it has received from the community. 

Moonriver went live on Kusama in August 2021 following the five-phase launch process and is currently the largest and most active parachain with over $240 million in total value locked (TVL). Since then, the network has expanded quickly, securing the ninth slot in the list of Top 10 Fastest-Growing Ecosystems With 50+ Developers compiled earlier this month by Electric Capital.

From a developer’s perspective, Moonbeam isn’t just another EVM-compatible platform. Instead, it offers many additional features that can help extend Ethereum’s base functionalities. 

Moonbeam offers pre-built integrations for multiple token standards, APIs, bridges, and oracles. The platform also supports the transfer of tokens natively across all Polkadot parachains, parathreads, and individual networks via bridges. At the same time, migrating an existing dApp doesn’t require any significant changes, making it easy for developers to overcome Ethereum’s scalability and cost issues. 

Furthermore, blockchain interoperability is the next big thing, and Moonbeam accomplishes just that by enhancing interoperability while maintaining scalability, security, and cost-efficiency. Some of the biggest existing projects like Chainlink, Band Protocol, Injective Protocol, and Metamask, among others, have already joined hands with Moonbeam. With end-to-end EVM-compatibility merged with Polkadot’s interoperability, Moonbeam is fully-equipped to support all developers who want to build dApps that can natively interoperate across chains and tap into the emerging cross-chain market

By design, all projects that build on Moonbeam must first deploy on Moonriver. As such, the ever-expanding Moonriver community clearly indicates that projects are queueing up to leverage this third-gen layer-1 protocol. More than 60 dApps have joined the Moonriver network in recent months, testing out their code and functionality. 

These applications include DeFi solutions like Solarbeam, MoonBeans, Zenlink, Huckleberry, TOAD, Polkamarkets, Impermax Finance, C.R.E.A.M Finance, Ocean Protocol, Lido, Moonlit Finance, and Beefy Finance, blockchain explorers like Subscan, Polkassembly, Dapplooker, and Etherscan, NFT platforms like Banksea, RMRK, Unifty, and myNFT, as well as several other APIs, tools, wallets, bridges, and collators. All these dApps will eventually be deployed on Moonbeam, which is currently working out the final stages of its full launch on Polkadot. 

Moonbeam has also secured a slot in the recent Polkadot parachain slot auctions. It was launched as a “parachain” on Polkadot on December 17, 2021. The Moonbeam team has already completed adding the decentralization feature and has also added new third-party collators to the existing set of active collators. Once the transition is complete, the Moonbeam team will remove the Sudo key, handing over the protocol’s governance to the community members. While the proposed date for this handover hasn’t been established, it is expected that Moonbeam will be fully live on Polkadot by the end of this month.

Due to its interoperability, ease of use, and cost-efficiency, Moonbeam has established itself as the go-to space for many blockchain projects, ranging from NFTs to gaming, DeFi to decentralized storage, and much more. To top it all, Moonbeam is continuously integrating new bridges and APIs to expand its network and make other individual networks a part of the multichain future.