Building With Substrate
Substrate allows for a prime area for innovation from both an ecosystem and technical standpoint.
Polkadot has created a cohesive technical stack for developing applications. This all begins with Substrate, which is a framework for building blockchains. By using Substrate, Societal will develop our own layer-1, highly customized blockchain. Substrate allows Societal to feature the following customizations for its platform: multiple token standards (including ERC-20, ERC-721, and DOT native tokens), zero transaction micropayments or gas fees, and highly customizable governance.
Next, Polkadot offers industry leading cross-chain communication. This will allow for easy integrations with partnering applications across Decentralized Finance (DeFi), Identity, and Privacy Services that would otherwise be siloed on another chain. Polkadot does this by operating with sharded blockchains known as parachains. These parachains are highly specialized layer-1 blockchains that connect to the relay chain, which provides communication and shared security.
Sharing security with other blockchains provides two main features: First, it allows each blockchain to not have to bootstrap a group of validators, enabling them to go online more quickly. When a blockchain has to bootstrap its own validators or nodes, it is more susceptible to attacks before it is properly decentralized. Second, by sharing the same security, it allows for a secure transfer of assets across chains. When one chain is transferring assets to another, it does not need to blindly trust the other chain to have an appropriate level of security.
Finally, Substrate is the only blockchain framework that allows for forkless upgrades. Polkadot does this by storing the runtime module directly on-chain, which allows for it to be upgraded without a hard fork. This prevents downtime during an upgrade and also does not require the blockchain nodes to upgrade to the new chain.