Moonbeam Wins Second Polkadot Parachain Auction; Expands Rewards Pool By 50%

Table of Contents

• Strong Community Support 
• Setting A New Precedent 
• Expanding The Reward Pool 
• The Road Ahead 
• Acala Edges Out Moonbeam For First Parachain Slot 

After losing the first parachain auction to Acala, Moonbeam has announced that it has won the second Parachain auction, thanks to a hugely successful crowd loan campaign. Moonbeam’s community contributed over 35 million DOT ($1.4 billion) to help Moonbeam secure the slot. 

Strong Community Support 

Moonbeam has gone on to set a record of sorts for crowd loans during the auction, with the project receiving the largest total contributions from the largest number of contributors. The auction saw more than 20,000 participants contributing DOT to sources such as the Moonbeam Foundation decentralized application and supporting wallets, exchanges, and liquid staking providers. 

Setting A New Precedent 

The auction saw an average contribution of 170 DOT from each participant, indicating the scale of participation from the Polkadot community. By the close of the auction, 95 million DOT ($3.8 billion) had been locked in crowd loans for different parachain projects across the ecosystem. 

The Moonbeam Foundation released a statement after the auction, stating, 

“This is a landmark moment for the Moonbeam community and the Polkadot ecosystem as a whole. At the close of the second auction, over 95 million DOT (approximately $3.8 billion USD) had been locked in crowdloans for parachain projects across the ecosystem. This is a telling sign as Polkadot rolls out parachains, including smart contract functionality, for the first time.”

Expanding The Reward Pool 

To show its appreciation for the unprecedented community support, Moonbeam has gone ahead and added 50 million GLMR tokens to the crowdloan reward pool. The addition increases the total rewards to 150 million GLMR, which equals 15% of the genesis token supply. The payout has seen an increase of 50% for all participants. However, other aspects of the rewards have not been changed. 

The Road Ahead 

Crowdloans are designed to allow parachains to bootstrap their connection to Polkadot and its network. Moonbeam’s community managed to raise over a billion dollars worth of DOT. These DOT will remain locked for the entire duration of the parachain lease. The lease is for a period of 96 weeks and starts on 17th December 2021. It is essential to highlight that Moonbeam’s team cannot access these funds, which will be returned once the lease has been completed. 

Moonbeam’s launch will be conducted in three phases, following a similar process as the launch of Moonriver. Any additional functionality will be gradually added over the three phases to ensure the stability of the network. Complete functionality will be achieved around January 2022, when GMLR tokens will be transferable. 

Acala Edges Out Moonbeam For First Parachain Slot 

Acala had secured the first parachain slot after it barely managed to beat Moonbeam during the candle auction. Acala took to Twitter to break the news and thank those involved, 

“Thank you to everyone who took part in this historic event. We’re looking forward to kicking off the multi-chain future with you!”

Acala received a total of 32,515,989.5 DOT from 81,218 contributors, with the total value of the contributions valued at $1.27 billion. 

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.