Agile Coretime: Polkadot beyond parachains

Agile Coretime is a major evolution of how Polkadot allocates resources, offering greater scope and flexibility so that every type of Web3 project can enjoy the network's benefits. It officially went live on Polkadot earlier on Thursday, and is expected to accelerate the rate at which new apps can join Polkadot, at the same time amplifying enterprise adoption for the ecosystem.

Parity engineer Dónal Murray welcomed the launch, saying: "Everybody can't wait for JAM and what that brings, but there are also amazing things happening right now on Polkadot that are changing the game.

"Agile Coretime is a paradigm shift on Polkadot. Combined with Async Backing, Elastic Scaling and the Plaza project bringing EVM smart contracts to asset hub, the possibilities for building and deploying on Polkadot are more diverse than anywhere else in blockchain."

To understand the new status quo, you really need to start at the beginning. Polkadot's emergence as a blockchain ecosystem for real-world use cases started with the first parachain auctions in late 2021. The vision then was for individual blockchains to be built on top of Polkadot's central Relay Chain, and to compete against each other for slots that would be made available on a sequential basis.

Parity's Donal Murray: An advocate of Agile Coretime, and one of the team that built it

Under that model, each core was assigned to a "parachain", the name given to Polkadot's various appchains. As cores in any computing system are limited, parachain projects had to go through an auction process to win a two-year slot. This limited the number of projects that could run on Polkadot, as each needed to be prepared to make a long-term commitment to the network.

Agile Coretime rips up Polkadot's original blueprint by allocating time on cores more dynamically. This makes the entire network more efficient, while just as importantly lowering the barrier to entry for new teams.

A multicore computer taking shape

In essence, Agile Coretime is an innovation that transforms Polkadot into a computational resource, a true multicore computer. According to the Polkadot Direction page on the wiki, we now have an "an application-focused ecosystem where we remove the assumption that each application [effectively, parachain] owns a core, and instead that all cores are a resource to be consumed and used as needed by all applications."

Now let's move onto definitions, specifically this: what actually is coretime? In essence, it is simply a resource which transforms into blockspace when put to use. During 2023, you may remember Polkadot being described on marketing materials as "the blockspace ecosystem for boundless innovation" - well, thanks to Agile Coretime, it now is exactly that.

On Polkadot, blockspace is of unusually high quality, bringing both high scalability and exceptional "shared" security via the native Relay Chain. Crucially, access to that blockspace is no longer solely available to teams who are prepared to secure an entire core.

In the new model, coretime will be available on a rental basis with the requirement for slot auctions eliminated. Coretime will be sold "on demand" (for immediate use), or purchased on a bulk basis, whereby it is effectively ordered up to 28 days in advance.

There will also be a middle ground in between: secondary markets offering smaller "bulk" offerings, that's to say at a lower scale than a full core for an entire month.

The on-demand model lowers the barrier to entry and thus is useful for early-stage projects and individual developers starting new projects on Polkadot. It will still provide immediate access to Polkadot's shared security and ecosystem, helping projects get a proof of concept on-chain.

By contrast, bulk orders of coretime are likely to be better suited for more established projects with high bandwidth needs, who are then able to predict pricing better. The price of coretime can rise in periods of high demand; but when selecting bulk coretime, heavy spikes - which make other platforms uneconomical to builders - are avoided. Renewal prices for bulk are capped within a percentage, making cost predictions even better.

Coretime buyers simply need to select the coretime extrinsic on Polkadot JS (if purchasing on-demand) or through RegionX or Lastic if requiring bulk coretime.

Resources, roadmap and practicalities

Agile core usage and coretime allocation allow any application to access Polkadot's computational resources based on their precise requirements, without letting valuable blockspace go to waste. Scalability will follow as space is freed up, maximizing the volume of utilized coretime.

As with every new technical upgrade hitting Polkadot, Agile Coretime was required to pass rigorous testing processes before it was pushed live on the mainnet. That of course involved significant trialling on Kusama, the "canary network" used by Parity developers and others to stress-test new products.

A natural next step is to use Agile Coretime for Elastic Scaling, whereby chains can add on-demand coretime if they reach capacity. This means bandwidth can be added on a temporary basis, and keeps networks functioning smoothly during spikes of high demand, for example during airdrops.

Secondary marketplaces, again supplied by Lastic and Region X, will allow people to re-sell coretime in a similar method, so that those unable to use pre-purchased coretime can save costs by selling to a buyer in need of it.

What about the existing parachains?

It is well known that the Polkadot network, since its inception, has been centered on parachain auction "slots". It's been the de facto method for onboarding the rich, varied array of L1s that comprise the existing ecosystem.

It's important that the experience of these teams is not impacted. Accordingly, current parachain slots are due to be converted into "legacy" leases automatically in the sam runtime upgrade which has brought Agile Coretime to Polkadot.

The new legacy lease will grant each parachain a core until the natural expiration of the purchased slot. These teams have the opportunity to buy bulk coretime in advance to enjoy a seamless transition. For more details on this, and most other important aspects about how Agile Coretime works in practice, consult the FAQ page.

Agile Coretime is the second of the three big cogs in the engine that bring Polkadot 2.0 on board (with asynchronous backing already operating and elastic scaling the final product). It is ready to open up a world of Web3 building designed for those who understand the inherent advantages of Polkadot, but need a more user-friendly platform to build on.