Substrate Technology

Future-Proof

Blockchain technology is evolving at a rapid pace and has spurred innovation in other areas such as zero knowledge, consensus mechanisms, cryptographic libraries, and much more. It's challenging enough to keep up with technology let alone integrate it. Substrate enables your blockchain to assimilate new technology as it comes along.

Upgradeable

With any structure, the foundation is often the most difficult part to modify, and thus upgrade. For this reason, Substrate's base has intentionally been built on an extremely simple and unchanging foundation using the widely-accepted open protocol WebAssembly.

Changes occur a layer up from the foundation which not only gives developers a non-opinionated design to work with, it also removes legacy design decisions that would otherwise become outdated and baked into the foundation.

Learn how Substrate upgrades work »

Learn how Moonbeam remains a fully Ethereum-compatible smart contract parachain by continuosly adapting.

Case Study

Composable

As a core design principle, composability enables developers to build a blockchain comprised of components specific to their needs on a battle-tested framework. Developers are free to choose from a long list of pallets or create their own to add the specific functionality they need. A developer may choose to have a pallet that enables smart contracts, or specifically not include pallets to keep their blockchain network lean and reduce attack vectors.

For example, a developer may want to enable users to gain access to accounts even if they lose their private keys or other authentication mechanism. In this case, the developer would simply include the Recovery pallet, which enables users to recover an account using trusted friends. Developers don't need to build new functionality on top; it's already available and deployed into the runtime itself.

Explore how FRAME enables composability »

Adaptable

An ever-growing number of pallets are available, created by both Parity Technologies and the community. These can be combined in many combinations to fit the needs of the desired use case. From the Oracle pallet to the Zero-Knowledge Verifier pallet and the Governance pallet, there are numerous existing pallets that can be integrated from the start or added later with forkless runtime upgrades.

Consider a scenario where a small innovation is made with key recovery; a new recovery pallet could be created and deployed in a forkless upgrade automatically. Even with a more drastic innovation such as the advent of large-scale quantum computing, algorithms can be swapped out for quantum resistant ones.

Adapt your runtime by adding a pallet using this tutorial »

Founders and developers can be confident that their blockchain is ready for whatever the future brings.

Learn more about what makes Substrate's technology unique:

Flexible

Substrate's flexibility alleviates the tension of tradeoffs by enabling developers to create the optimal blockchain for their specific needs.

Open

The combination of an open-source, customizable architecture, rich tooling and a robust, active community makes Substrate the most open way to build.

Interoperable

Interoperability without foregoing compatibility, security, or efficiency; learn how Substrate takes a unique, multifaceted approach to address each of these factors.

Developer Hub

Dive into documentation, tutorials, and resources to immediately get started building with Substrate

Start building

Vision

Substrate is the backbone of the Polkadot ecosystem, building the decentralized and fair internet of the future

Discover more

Ecosystem

Access resources, maximize opportunities, and connect with a thriving network of Substrate enthusiasts and builders

Check out the ecosystem