Polkadot (DOT) is the native cryptocurrency of Polkadot, a network designed to let many specialised blockchains run side by side, share one security system and exchange messages. DOT is staked to secure the network, used to vote in its on-chain governance, and spent to buy blockspace, called coretime, for the chains that run on it. The project was created by Gavin Wood, a co-founder of Ethereum (ETH), and is supported by the Web3 Foundation in Switzerland and the engineering firm Parity Technologies.
The coin and the network share a name but are different things: DOT is the asset, while Polkadot is the system of a central relay chain plus the connected chains once called parachains and now often described as rollups. Polkadot is frequently compared with Cosmos (ATOM), which pursues the same goal of a network of blockchains but usually lets each chain secure itself.
Polkadot in plain terms
Think of Polkadot as a shopping centre. Each shop is its own business with its own products and house rules, but they all share the same building, the same security guards and the same corridors, so customers can walk from one shop to the next without going outside. On Polkadot the shops are separate blockchains, the guards are the computers on the central chain that check everyone's work, and the corridors let tokens and messages pass between chains.
DOT works like the centre's membership card and rent. Holders lock up DOT to back the guards and earn a reward for doing so. Projects that want a shop pay for space in DOT, either for a long stretch or by the hour. And DOT holders vote on how the building is run.
History
Wood published the Polkadot white paper in 2016 and set up the Web3 Foundation in 2017. An initial coin offering in October 2017 raised about $144 million, but in November 2017 a bug in a Parity multi-signature wallet library froze around $150 million of ether, including a large part of the sale proceeds. The network launched in May 2020, switched to nominated proof of stake in June 2020, and in August 2020 DOT was redenominated so that one old DOT became 100 new DOT. Parachain slot auctions began in November 2021; the DeFi project Acala won the first slot, and the first parachains started producing blocks in December 2021.
How it works
Connected chains produce their own blocks and hand them to relay-chain validators, who check them, so every chain inherits the same security instead of recruiting its own. The network uses a form of proof of stake called nominated proof of stake: validators run the nodes, and nominators back them with DOT and share in the rewards; see staking. A validator that misbehaves can lose part of its stake, a penalty known as slashing. Chains inside the system exchange tokens and instructions through a shared message format called XCM, so they do not need a separate crypto bridge to talk to one another. On 4 November 2025 account balances, staking and governance moved from the relay chain to a system chain called Asset Hub.
Polkadot 2.0 and JAM
A set of scaling upgrades known as Polkadot 2.0 changed how space on the network is sold and used. Asynchronous backing, approved in May 2024, let connected chains produce blocks faster. Agile coretime, released in September 2024, replaced the two-year parachain leases won in auctions with blockspace that can be bought in bulk or on demand. Elastic scaling is designed to let a single chain use several cores at once. The next planned step is JAM, the Join-Accumulate Machine, a redesign of the relay chain proposed by Wood in 2024; JAM test networks ran in 2026, but as of November 2026 no date for switching the main network had been fixed.
Supply and governance
For its first five years DOT had no maximum supply: the network issued about 120 million new DOT a year, a steady source of inflation. In September 2025 holders approved Referendum 1710, with about 81 percent support, capping total supply at 2.1 billion DOT. The new schedule took effect on 14 March 2026 and cut issuance by more than half; further reductions follow every two years, so issuance keeps shrinking as supply approaches the cap, which is not expected to be reached until around 2160. Such decisions are made through OpenGov, in which any holder can propose changes and votes are weighted by locked DOT, with longer locks counting for more. The same process spends the network treasury, which funds development, grants and marketing in a way similar to a decentralized autonomous organization.
Uses
- Staking. DOT secures the network, and stakers earn newly issued DOT in return.
- Governance. Every change to the protocol and every treasury payment is decided by DOT-weighted votes.
- Coretime. Teams that run chains on Polkadot buy blockspace with DOT.
- Fees and applications. DOT pays fees on the network's system chains and is used in smart contracts on connected chains.
- Investment. DOT trades on major exchanges, and in 2025 21Shares applied to list a spot DOT exchange-traded fund in the United States.
Criticism and risks
Polkadot's design is more complex than that of most rival networks, and critics argue that the original auction model, which locked up large sums of DOT for up to two years, slowed adoption compared with platforms where anyone can deploy an application directly. Others point to the large share of DOT sold to early investors and to the central role of Parity and the Web3 Foundation in development. DOT's price is volatile, and stakers face lock-up periods and the risk of slashing if they back a faulty validator.