Let's hear what Jan-Jan, the technical project manager at @paritytech responsible for bringing Solidity smart contracts to the @Polkadot Hub, has to say!
Jan Jan: Let me first talk about its 'not special' aspects. For example, the development experience will be great — developers can continue to use familiar Solidity to write contracts on Polkadot, and the accompanying tools and infrastructure will remain consistent with the Ethereum ecosystem, plus there will be real-time technical support.
But these are not special enough — because other chains can provide these as well, so the real area where we want to differentiate is network performance.
1. For example, we focus on low latency and fast finality, aiming for a final confirmation within 30 seconds, which is much faster than the seven-day confirmation period on Ethereum. We also plan to shorten block times to 500 milliseconds, allowing users to almost instantly receive transaction execution results.
2. Another aspect is reliability. We not only need to be fast but also consistently fast — providing users with clear and reliable signals every time, so that even before final confirmation, you can use these signals to build your applications.
3. We will also provide a Reliability Dashboard, allowing everyone to monitor these performance metrics in real time. Over time, we will continuously optimize these metrics, giving developers more confidence in deploying contracts on Polkadot.
4. Another very unique point: deep integration with Polkadot. Besides standard precompiled contracts (S-precompiles), we have many features that can only be used on Polkadot, such as XCM, staking, and governance. In particular, the XCM cross-chain communication capability is very interesting; on other chains, you often operate in 'island mode', but on Polkadot, your contracts can communicate seamlessly with all the parallel chains within the ecosystem, allowing for many new possibilities. We are also very curious about how developers will use staking and governance mechanisms to build innovative applications — the potential in this area is huge.
5. Additionally, we are building a new execution environment called Polkadot VM, which will also be the operating environment for JAM parallel chains in the future. It is the next generation virtual machine that solves some performance and resource limitations of WASM. With it, developers can handle more complex mathematical logic on-chain, meaning you can accomplish more complex functions with fewer off-chain facilities, reducing operational costs.
6. The last point, which is also very important — a smooth scalability path. Now on other blockchains, you often have to make a choice: either start with your own chain or choose to deploy contracts on someone else's chain. On Polkadot, you can 'first rent a family sedan', get a smart contract project up and running, and when your business grows and you have more customers, you can seamlessly migrate to your own chain, just like upgrading to a school bus. This greatly reduces the technical and decision-making risks in the early stages of entrepreneurship.
7. Additionally, what you build on Polkadot now will run seamlessly on JAM after its launch. JAM is not a replacement for Polkadot; it is simply the future form of Polkadot. So, if you deploy a smart contract on Polkadot today, it will continue to run on JAM once it goes live.
What do you think? Are you optimistic about Polkadot's contract capabilities? Will you use Polkadot contracts to deploy your applications? Feel free to leave comments and discuss!
You can also check out the latest articles from PolkaWorld to learn more about the progress of Polkadot contracts! (What exactly is Polkadot Hub? Why add contract capabilities? Will it support Solana VM?)
