Centrifuge Wins Polkadot’s 9th Parachain Slot

Centrifuge – a decentralized asset financing protocol –  just won an auction for a parachain slot on Polkadot. Like other parachains from Polkadot’s second group of parachain auctions, it is expected to launch on March 11th.

Centrifuge Meets Polkadot

The protocol announced its auction victory in a blog post on Thursday. The team says they are “all systems go” to bring its functionality to Polkadot.

Centrifuge is used to bridge non-digitally native, real-world assets into decentralized finance. It is intended to allow users to finance real estate and earn royalties without the use of intermediaries and banks, among other things.

Meanwhile, a ‘parachain’ is a blockchain that runs parallel to Polkadot’s central Relay chain, but with an application-specific data structure. They are designed to achieve scalability and added functionality for the Polkadot ecosystem.

The initial parachain launch will reportedly be an “empty shell”, in order to confirm its stability on Polkadot. That means it will produce blocks, but without any functionality to the chain, nor any concept of governance, balances, staking, or user accounts.

Afterward, the current Centrifuge chain will undergo a hard fork, transitioning from being a standalone chain to Polkadot’s 9th parachain. Upon launch, Tinlake – a Defi protocol and marketplace for real-world asset pools – will go live on the chain as well, connecting liquidity from both the Polkadot and Ethereum ecosystems.

“We can’t wait to launch Centrifuge as a parachain and start bringing RWAs to Polkadot,” said Lucas Vogelsang – CEO and cofounder at Centrifuge – to CryptoPotato. “This wouldn’t be possible without the amazing support from our community!”

Centrifuge (CFG) is currently trading at $0.64, with a market cap of over $100 million.

Polkadot’s Developments

Two weeks ago, CryptoPotato reported Moonbeam’s launch as the first fully operational parachain on Polkadot. It won the second Polkadot parachain auction in October, securing nearly $1.5 billion in contributions from supporters. It already has over 80 projects waiting to be deployed in its ecosystem.

As a top-ten cryptocurrency, Polkadot may be about to make it mainstream. It is currently competing with Spotify to be the official Jersey sponsor for FC Barcelona.