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The MoonBeam project is planning to create a custom parachain that emulates the Ethereum virtual machine environment, effectively recreating Ethereum (ETH) on Polkadot (DOT).
Developers on Polkadot and some other interop projects usually have to set up an entire blockchain to host their decentralized apps. Although Polkadot’s Substrate framework aims to make this process easier, not all DApps need that level of control over their environment.
MoonBeam seeks to become something of an Ethereum emulator for Polkadot, running on the same virtual environment that currently powers all smart contracts on Ethereum.
The team says this allows Ethereum’s DApp developers to make only minimal changes to their code and maintain the use of development tools like Truffle and Metamask. At the same time, integration with Polkadot would allow for easy interoperability with the rest of the Polkadot ecosystem. Other Substrate modules will still be available, allowing developers to implement on-chain governance, social recovery for wallets and other features with ready-made code.
The team says MoonBeam is a more cost-effective smart contract platform with strong on-chain governance, often pointed out by Polkadot co-founders as a necessity for blockchain systems.
MoonBeam will also be interoperable with Ethereum and Bitcoin (BTC), thanks to dedicated bridges built by other teams.
However, the competition in the DApp scale space is tough, as multiple tier one chains compete with Ethereum’s native tier two solutions. While DeFi has largely cemented Ethereum’s dominance in the smart contract space, the limitations of its blockchain became apparent in the summer of 2020. MoonBeam and Polkadot are some of the many projects that seek to take advantage of this by providing an alternative platform. . Other names include Solana, Binance Smart Chain, Near Protocol, and Cosmos.
MoonBeam’s launch date is yet to be determined, as it depends on the auctions offering Polkadot’s Parachain live. While most expect it to happen around the first quarter of 2021, no clear launch date has been set.
