New To Dot – Learn about DOT

Questions asked frequently by New users in Polkadot Kusama Blockchian

Polkadot

Kusama

In order to send funds from one account to another, you may use Polkadot JS Apps Wallet or use a third-party exchange to transfer funds.

Follow the steps below in order to know how to transfer funds using Polkadot JS Apps:
Step 1: Go to the Polkadot.js.org/Apps page
Step 2: Make sure you have both accounts attached to the Polkadot JS
Step 3: Go to Accounts/Transfer
Step 4: Make sure you choose the right Address and Address to details
Step 4: Enter the amount you want to transfer.
Step 5: Check the Existential Deposit value in the Account you want to transfer funds from
Step 6: Click on Make Transfer and sign the Transaction.

In order to know how to transfer funds using Third Party Wallets or Exchanges, you may contact the respective teams, as they might be custodial accounts and may have different modes and regulations while transferring funds.

For an Intermediary and beginner, Polkadot JS Apps Wallet is considered the best and simplest wallet that exists.

Polkadot Bridges allow another blockchain to connect with Polkadot so that they can communicate and deal with assets among each other.

The Genesis block (First block of the chain) of the Polkadot network was launched on May 26, 2020, as a Proof of Authority network. the network transitioned from PoA into its second phase, Nominated Proof of Stake (NPoS), on June 18, 2020.

Supported Wallets are:

Parity Signer by Parity.
Polkadot JS-Desktop by Parity
Polkadot JS-UI by Parity
Ledger by Zondax

Third-Party Wallets are funded by the community through either the Polkadot or Kusama Treasury. You should use your own due diligence in researching and using them. The official Polkadot Support cannot provide support for issues with these wallets or other non-Parity-developed wallets.

Fearless Wallet by SORAMITSU

Polkawallet by Polkawallet
Stylo by Thibaut Sardan
Nova Wallet* by Nova Foundation
Talisman by TalismanSociety
Subwallet by Subwallet
Polkadot JS Plus by Polkagate

Note for *: There’s another Nova wallet that is unrelated to the Polkadot ecosystem. Users are advised to ensure that they use the correct Nova wallet by downloading the app from their official website: https://novawallet.io/. You may refer to the below link in order to know more about these wallets and their functionality: https://wiki.polkadot.network/docs/build-wallets

Polkadot unites and secures a growing ecosystem of specialized blockchains called parachains. Apps and services on Polkadot can securely communicate across chains, forming the basis for a truly interoperable decentralized web. Polkadot empowers blockchain networks to work together under the protection of shared security. The Web3 allows people to own things digitally, have more control of their personal data, let us run a system consensed by the community, and easily transact online. Blockchain and crypto ecosystems already have working products for Web3. For example, users can make peer-to-peer (P2P) payments and collect digital items with crypto wallets. All this facilitates the growing Polkadot ecosystem.

In order to set account Identity, you may go to the Accounts tab under Polkadot.js.org/apps, and make sure you have managed to connect the account to the Polkadot JS. Finally, click on the three dots button on the right side of the account name and select Set On-Chain Identity. You may also clear the Identity from the same On-Chain Identity button. You should have minimum funds available in the account to set On-Chain Identity. The amount will be returned when you clear the identity. However, transaction fees are non-refundable and might vary on the Network you choose.

A prime member is the one whose vote acts as the default for other members that fail to vote before the timeout in the Governance of Polkadot Network. The prime member is selected based on a Borda count. The purpose of having a prime member of the council is to ensure a quorum, even when several members abstain from a vote. Council members might be tempted to vote a “soft rejection” or a “soft approval” by not voting and letting the others vote. With the existence of a prime member, it forces councillors to be explicit in their votes or have their vote counted for whatever is voted on by the prime.

No, DOTs that are bonded cannot be sent from one DOT address to another. In other words, you can only transfer a DOT that shows up as “transferrable” in your account.

Next in the pipeline

There are several changes here with Governance version 2. The way the new governance model reflects its decentralised character is by:

Migrating all responsibilities of Council to token holders via democracy votes
Dissolving the current Council collective
Allowing users to delegate voting power in more ways to community members

The Council in Governance 1 has fulfilled its role as the representative of passive token holders, guardian of the treasury and initiator of legislation, but is often seen as a centralized entity. To further decentralize Polkadot and Kusama networks, Governance 2 proposes to return the responsibilities of the council back to the community.

There are multiple ways a user can vote on Polkadot and Kusama Governance Referenda. Some of them are as follows:

Polkadot JS UI < Governance < Democracy Tab
Polkassembly : A third-party governance discussion platform
Bright Treasury – a treasury governance tool funded by the W3F Grants program
Litentry App – an upcoming mobile governance app by the Litentry team
Substrate Telegram bots – a suite of alert bots built by the validator Ryabina
Kusama Referendum Alert – a governance alert bot built by an anonymous community member.

Many more which are still being built!
Announcements and community discussions related to governance happen in Kusama Direction and Polkadot Direction channels on Element. In case you are interested in participating in governance, please join the discussions in these channels.

The address format used in Substrate-based chains is SS58. SS58 is a modification of Base-58-check from Bitcoin with some minor changes. Notably, the format contains an address type prefix that identifies an address as belonging to a specific network.

For example:
Polkadot addresses always start with the number 1.
Kusama addresses always start with a capital letter, such as C D, F, G, H, J.

Existential Deposit is the minimum amount you should have in an account to let it active/alive in the Network. The existential deposit amount for the Polkadot account is 1 Dot and for Kusama account is 0.00003333 KSM.

1 milliKSM is one-thousandth of 1 KSM. one MilliKSM (mkSM) is 0.001 KSM

A validator validates a block by signing the information shared by collators and sending them further on the chain. It is a node running on a blockchain that gets block production rewards to distribute among nominators based on their contributed staked tokens. They also can participate in consensus with other validators.

Kusama is the experimental project of Polkadot which was founded in 2019 by Gavin Wood, founder of Polkadot. Polkadot is an open-source project which can be built by community members and developers.

Polkadot takes its name from the designs of Japanese artist and designer Yayoi Kusama.

KSM is the native token of the Kusama Network which is used for governance of the network, to be staked for the operation of the network, and to be bonded to connect a chain to Kusama as a parachain.