Development within the Polkadot (DOT) ecosystem has been slowly unfolding over the past year and a half, and the work put in by developers is finally starting to bear fruit as parachain auctions finish and the first chains launch on the mainnet.
The next phase of interoperability within the ecosystem is set to kick off now that cross-chain functionality is about to go live. This next step will allow Polkadot-based parachains to communicate with each other and transfer assets between chains.
After passing community vote, v0.9.19 has been enacted on Polkadot. This upgrade included a batch call upgrading Polkadot’s runtime to enable parachain-to-parachain messaging over XCM and upgrading #Statemint to include minting assets (like NFTs) and teleports. pic.twitter.com/uqIB5di2Q1
— Polkadot (@Polkadot) May 4, 2022
Here’s a look at what the launch of the XCM messaging system means for the price of DOT, the options that are now available to DOT holders and how this development increases its functionality within the Polkadot ecosystem.
Polkadot is unshackled
Up to this point, DOT had limited uses and was basically isolated on its own network without much functionality. Its main functions included staking, governance and contribution in parachain crowdloans, which helped reduce the circulating supply but did little else to really spark demand.
The introduction of cross-chain communication enabled DOT transfers to various parachain networks and the number of use cases for the DOT token on parachains like Moonbeam and Astar Network.
1/ $DOT is now live & usable in DeFi on Moonbeam!
Following this morning’s #XCM release to @Polkadot, Moonbeam has added xcDOT, an XC-20 representation of DOT on its parachain.https://t.co/gCXIqwlXWb
— Moonbeam Network (@MoonbeamNetwork) May 4, 2022
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that the price of DOT has been hard hit by the six-month downtrend in the crypto market as its price has declined 73% from its all-time high at $55 on Nov. 4.
DOT/USDT 1-day chart…...