Substrate is a toolbox for building specific types of blockchains. It is not a blockchain per se, but a set of tools used by developers to create unique and powerful blockchains.
Substrate allows developers to create blockchains with the functions they want without being limited by existing designs. Substrate uses the FRAME module architecture to help create different parts of the blockchain. This makes it easy for developers to compose and customize blockchain functionality.
Substrate is part of the Web3 vision to make the web more decentralized and user-friendly. It helps ensure that new blockchains, like Polkadot and parachains, can work better together, not only advancing Polkadot’s mission, but also bringing more functionality and flexibility to all blockchains.
Substrate source
Blockchain technology company Parity Technologies created Substrate . The company was founded by Gavin Wood, one of the co-founders of Ethereum and the founder of Polkadot.
The team at Parity Technologies designed Substrate to address the limitations and challenges they encountered while building Polkadot, a multi-chain blockchain platform. Substrate allows developers to create innovative blockchains and customize specialized use cases without having to start from scratch.
Moonbeam chooses to use Substrate
The Moonbeam platform features integrated cross-chain messaging capabilities, allowing developers to create smart contracts capable of accessing multiple remote blockchain services. Substrate's flexibility allows Moonbeam to adapt to evolving blockchain standards and requirements while also being EVM compatible. This means Moonbeam is well-positioned to innovate Dapps and connect to remote chains such as Ethereum, Avalanche and Solana.
Many new application scenarios require fast final confirmation and high security. Substrate was designed with a focus on efficiency and performance, making it a perfect fit for Moonbeam’s focus on smart contracts and decentralized applications (DApps). This design ensures that Moonbeam's blockchain can efficiently handle a large number of transactions. By fully leveraging Substrate, Moonbeam can fully enjoy the security of the Polkadot network, including its shared security model, thereby improving the overall security and resilience of the Moonbeam network.
As part of the Polkadot ecosystem, Moonbeam has access to the broader Substrate developer community, tools and resources. This all-round support accelerates Moonbeam’s development and enhances its overall strength. Moonbeam’s choice to build on Substrate demonstrates its commitment to creating a versatile, secure and interoperable blockchain development platform. Moonbeam is designed to support a variety of decentralized applications and use cases and be able to fully benefit from the advantages of the wider Substrate-based network.
Enhance Polkadot Ecology
Substrate is the basic framework for building interconnected blockchains within the Polkadot network. It is very easy to build a blockchain using Substrate, and anyone can develop it freely. Additionally, many Substrate-based blockchains are not tied to Polkadot itself and therefore can operate independently outside of the Polkadot ecosystem.
Within Polkadot, Substrate serves as the technical backbone and can be used to create specialized blockchains, namely parachains . These parachains together constitute the Polkadot ecosystem. With Substrate, Polkadot and its parachains can customize, communicate, share governance capabilities, and maintain consistency for developers in a secure environment.
As "Layer Zero" , Polkadot aims to integrate heterogeneous blockchains into a unified network. These blockchains (parachains) have the autonomy to customize their own technology and use cases while connecting to the entire Polkadot ecosystem. Substrate supports and enhances this structure.
Parachains are customizable shards
that Substrate allows developers to directly create blockchains with customizable functions and logic without having to build them from scratch. This allows developers to plan ahead, innovate, and experiment while supporting rapid adaptation to changing technologies and requirements.
Cross-chain communication
Polkadot’s relay chain coordinates the interaction between these parallel chains, enabling them to communicate, share data and secure transactions using Polkadot tools (such as XCM ). Substrate's architecture overcomes the limitations of traditional blockchains, allowing different blockchains to focus on specific tasks while collaborating efficiently. This means that parachains can serve different purposes and work together, or even use the native functionality of other parachains. This allows all parachains and remote chains connected to the Polkadot ecosystem through parachains like Moonbeam to benefit.
Shared Security
Substrate helps Polkadot provide a shared security model in which the security of all parachains is interconnected with the Polkadot relay chain. Parachains validate transactions on their own chain, but Polkadot validators do the final confirmation . This process is called Nominated Proof of Stake. By providing a consistent standardized format for all parachains, Substrate makes parachains fully compatible and therefore able to take full advantage of the security, interoperability and native messaging of relay chains. Substrate provides the security guarantees.
Parachains built using Substrate connect to the Polkadot Relay Chain and become part of a larger secure network. Instead of building a separate security mechanism from scratch, parachains directly benefit from the interconnection of the entire ecosystem, making the entire network more resistant to attacks.
Governance
Parachains based on Substrate can implement their governance mechanisms to enable decentralized decision-making within a single parachain. Thanks to Substrate's customizability, parachains can shape their own governance and upgrade protocols, as well as processes related to community decision-making, without relying on centralized institutions. This innovation empowers communities and stakeholders to participate in protocol upgrades and decision-making processes, further promoting decentralization.
Substrate improves transaction efficiency
Compared to other blockchain frameworks, Substrate is more efficient. Substrate has shown great flexibility in terms of consensus selection, support for parallel processing, lightweight design, sharding capabilities, low-latency communication, and runtime scalability, all of which help improve its transaction efficiency. This makes Substrate an attractive option for blockchain projects that aim to achieve high transaction throughput and low confirmation times (i.e. finality), although finality still depends on the design choices made by the developers.
Substrate allows developers to choose and implement their own consensus mechanism. This flexibility enables blockchain projects to choose a consensus algorithm that aligns with their specific use case. For example, if high transaction throughput is the primary goal, developers can choose a faster consensus protocol such as PoA or PoS.
Substrate supports parallel processing of transactions, which means that multiple transaction verifications can be performed simultaneously, thereby significantly improving transaction throughput. This feature is particularly beneficial for applications that require high transaction speeds, such as DeFi platforms and gaming applications.
What is Substrate Pallet
"Pallet" refers to a modular and composable runtime module. Substrate is designed in this way so that developers can pick and choose different features to include in their blockchain, so the building process will be easier than building from scratch.
Developers use the Substrate Pallet to add specific functionality and capabilities to the blockchain, such as a democracy pallet for managing stakeholder voting, or a lottery pallet that allows network participants to purchase lottery tickets. Modules are used for governance, token transfer, smart contracts, identity management, oracles and more.
Pallets are composable, meaning they can be "stacked" to create more complex blockchain logic. This makes building with Substrate simple yet innovative. For non-developers, using applications on a Substrate-based blockchain means access to more secure cross-chain interoperability.
To learn more about Moonbeam and Substrate, visit: Technology & Architecture | Moonbeam Docs