What are Parachains? Complete List of Parachains in Polkadot and Kusama

The term "parachain" comes from the word "parallel", reflecting the essence of how such blockchains work. Parachains in ecosystems like Polkadot or Kusama operate simultaneously, i.e. in parallel, with other parachains.

Unlike traditional blockchains like Bitcoin or Ethereum, which operate in isolation, parachains distribute the load, process transactions independently, and increase scalability.

This approach removes bottlenecks that arise in monolithic systems where transactions go through a single chain. Parachains are customized for unique tasks without interfering with the work of other chains.

Through bridges, parachains integrate with external blockchains, providing flexibility and opportunities to create decentralized applications adapted to projects.

• Kusama has 45 parachains. Five of them were sold at auction.
• Polkadot has 112 parachains.

Parachain List

Here's a quick rundown of what each parachain does and where each parachain currently sits on the roadmap:

• Statemine is Kusama's first live parachain.
• Karura is a decentralized financial services hub within the Kusama ecosystem. It provides the kUSD stablecoin, a decentralized exchange, liquid staking, and a smart contract platform.
• Moonriver is a platform for deploying Ethereum-compatible dApps on the Kusama ecosystem. It allows developers to test and implement new solutions in an experimental environment before porting them to Moonbeam on the Polkadot network.
• Shiden is a platform for developing dApps on the Kusama ecosystem that supports EVM and WebAssembly. It serves as a testnet for innovations that may later be ported to Astar in Polkadot.
• Khala is a smart contract platform for confidential contracts focused on confidential computing. It allows decentralized applications to process data securely while providing a high level of protection.
• Bifrost is a DeFi protocol for liquid staking on PoS chains. It allows users to participate in staking while maintaining the liquidity of their assets. This means that you can continue to use the staked tokens for trading or other operations, while receiving income from staking.

At the end of the article, a table will list all the parachains available on the market.

Ultimately, parachains will allow Polkadot to implement its scalable multi-chain architecture. As stated in the Polkadot whitepaper, parachains are the last piece of core functionality provided for the platform.

List Parachains Available in the Marketplace

The table below lists all parachains.