Simplifying RFC-1: Understanding Agile Coretime for the Polkadot Network
You may have been hearing about Polkadot’s shift to “Agile Coretime.” So what is it anyway?
Well, it’s described by Polkadot founder Gavin Wood in RFC-1, the first “Request for Comments” in the RFC process that allows anyone to submit their ideas for upgrades to Polkadot.
What’s the Big Idea?
At the heart of this proposal is a new way to allocate “Coretime” on the Polkadot Network. If you’re wondering, “What’s Coretime?” think of it as real estate property on Polkadot where projects can build on and run their operations. What blockchains offer as a product is their blockspace, and Coretime is the access to that blockspace.
Previously, teams could lease this space through a somewhat rigid system called “parachain slot auctions.” These auctions had unpredictable pricing, which made it difficult for projects to forecast how much they would need to spend and when they would be able to get a slot. This system has proven to be limiting, especially for smaller innovators.
The new proposal, Agile Coretime, aims to make this allocation more predictable, accessible, dynamic and user-friendly. Lastic aims to make this access even easier and more predictable.
Why the Change?
A few challenges with the old system:
- Inflexibility: Teams could only lease space in chunks of six months to two years. Not only that, they couldn’t determine how much blockspace they could get in that time — they needed to buy the full slot. Imagine being able to only rent an entire apartment complex with 2-year contracts — this is not very convenient!
- Barriers for Small Projects: The old method made it challenging for small innovators to get their foot in the door. Due to the high barrier of entry, they could either not participate or be forced to choose developing on a platform they could not easily adapt to.
- Lack of Future Planning: Teams couldn’t predict the cost of running their projects beyond two years due to the highly fluctuating costs of parachain slot auctions.
Agile Coretime aims to address these issues, ensuring the Polkadot ecosystem remains vibrant, innovative, and inclusive.
How Does Agile Coretime Work?
Instead of the old leasing method, Coretime will now be sold in two formats:
- Bulk Coretime: Think of this as buying in bulk at a wholesale market. Teams can purchase Coretime in advance and use it later.
- Instantaneous Coretime: This is like a pay-as-you-go phone plan. Teams can buy Coretime instantly, as they need it.
Now, instead of being tied to a specific project, each piece of Coretime is dedicated to a “Task.” This Task can change frequently, providing greater flexibility. Think of Tasks as different activities or operations you’d want to perform on the Polkadot platform.
Dynamics of Bulk Sales
Here’s how it works:
- A specialized Coretime Chain enshrined on Polkadot hosts sales periodically on a monthly basis.
- Each sale offers a set number of “Regions” (akin to real estate plots) for allocation.
- Each Region represents a distinct resource within Polkadot, available for a predetermined duration.
- Once the sales window concludes, prices for the upcoming sale get determined, factoring in the demand and supply from the recent sale. If fewer cores are sold than targeted for, the price will decrease, and if the cores are sold out, the price will increase in a rent-controlled fashion.
Renewals and Manipulations
- Renewals: Similar to extending a subscription, regions of Coretime can be renewed.
- Manipulations: Ownership of these regions is versatile — be it transferring, dividing, interlinking, task-assigning, or pooling into a collective Coretime reserve.
Key Terms Decoded
| Name | Value | Type |
|--------------------|---------------------------|------------|
| BULK_PERIOD | 28 * DAYS | specified |
| INTERLUDE_PERIOD | 7 * DAYS | specified |
| LEADIN_PERIOD | 7 * DAYS | specified |
| TIMESLICE | 8 * MINUTES | specified |
| BULK_TARGET | 30 | suggested |
| BULK_LIMIT | 45 | suggested |
| RENEWAL_PRICE_CAP | Perbill::from_percent(2) | suggested |- BULK_PERIOD: The designated period when Coretime goes on sale.
- INTERLUDE_PERIOD: A brief phase right before regular purchases. This is the time slot when renewals are entertained. Consequently, the actual Purchasing Period equates to
BULK_PERIOD - INTERLUDE_PERIOD. - LEADIN_PERIOD: During the onset of the Purchasing Period, there’s an initial phase known as the Leadin Period. Throughout this timeframe, the selling price undergoes fluctuations until it stabilizes. This stabilization occurs at the culmination of the Leadin Period.
Other key concepts
- BULK_TARGET: Imagine a store wants to sell 30 items during a sale as their goal. That’s the target they’re aiming for. Here, the target is selling 30 units of the resource.
- BULK_LIMIT: This is the maximum number of items the store can sell during the sale. Even if they want to sell only 30 (BULK_TARGET), they won’t sell more than 45. It’s like a cap on sales.
- RENEWAL_PRICE_CAP: Think of this as a loyalty discount. If you come back to renew or buy something again, the price increase is limited or capped to ensure you don’t pay excessively more than before. Here, it’s suggesting the price won’t increase more than 2%.
What’s the Coretime-Chain?
This is a new system introduced in the proposal to keep track of all these Coretime transactions. It’s like a specialized ledger or record-keeper for all things Coretime. It keeps track of who owns what, what cores can be renewed, and which cores have been split up, and other activities that may come soon to Polkadot as well.
Why introduce the Coretime Chain? The overarching objective is to transfer the computational load from the primary Relay chain in the Polkadot framework onto the parachains. This strategic move ensures the Relay chain can zero in on its pivotal tasks without distractions.
Lastic bringing Agile Coretime to all
Let’s say you want to buy pay-as-you-go instantaneous coretime, a core in bulk, split it up and re-sell it. Where does the fellowship expect that to be done?
In the past, teams have relied on the powerful, but complicated UI of Polkadot-JS. which offers quite the unfriendly onboarding, user-flow, and error messages, all while making the users use a multitude of information portals to assess the market and make informed market decisions.
Standing on the shoulders of giants and building on the cutting edge, Lastic is building the premier interface to Agile Coretime for developers and enthusiasts alike. Lastic will be the place for users to buy, transform, and sell coretime, and will focus on building the most user-friendly design that guides users in a helpful way.
Dive deeper
Intrigued? For those eager to dive deeper:
Thank you for reading this article!
This article is a part of Lastic. Lastic is an emerging Polkadot Blockspace Marketplace. Follow us on our journey to learn more!
✍️ Written by Aurora Poppyseed, Edited by Asynchronous Phil
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