Robonomics won the Polkadot auction #75 – What's next!

Launch of the Robonomics Parachain in Polkadot

The past two years of Robonomics' presence on the Kusama network have been extremely beneficial: we tested the operation of the web3 cloud for IoT in numerous R&D projects with 5 million+ transactions through the parachain over 2 years; delivered a dozen updates with the help of the technical committee; experimented with managing the treasury in the DAO format of token holders; and acquired many other skills important for the project's development in the Polkadot ecosystem.

Launching the production of our own IoT devices under the Robonomics brand, the emergence of the first multi-apartment building projects with Robonomics technologies in Cyprus, and of course the maturation of the Polkadot ecosystem itself - all of these things have led to the decision for the project to push to be connected to the Polkadot Relay Chain.

The process of launching a parachain on Polkadot will be very similar to how Robonomics was initiated in Kusama, but there will still be differences due to the existing parachain in Kusama:

1. The launch on Polkadot does not mean stopping the parachain on Kusama. Kusama will be a network for obtaining free IoT subscriptions, while Polkadot will allow you to purchase a monthly pro-subscription for XRT.
2. Collators can now decide which network they will support - Kusama, Polkadot, or both. Both parachains on Kusama and on Polkadot will offer the same rewards for block preparation in XRT.
3. The ability to purchase a pro-subscription for XRT will appear after testing the bridge between Kusama <> Polkadot.
4. The XRT treasury will be transferred from Kusama to the Polkadot network.
5. The technical committee that helped ensure the operation of the parachain in Kusama will undertake a similar task for Polkadot.
6. Name registrars for addresses will operate in parallel for now - the current one for the Kusama parachain, and a new registrar will be created for Polkadot.
7. The ability to activate a free subscription in Kusama will appear following the implementation of the ability to activate RWS tokens, which in turn is awaiting the bridge to Ethereum.

The launch of the Robonomics parachain on Polkadot will be an interesting event, representing the start of a multi relay chain project with unified tokenomics. Establishing the Robonomics parachain in Polkadot will involve testing system on BridgeHub, making them part of the architecture. Importantly, Polkadot will introduce the oldest project in the DePIN field, bringing new application scenarios to the Polkadot ecosystem.

What will happen to the Robonomics parachain on Kusama?

The Robonomics parachain on the Kusama network has processed more than 5 million extrinsics to date and has been used in dozens of R&D projects to connect robots and smart devices over the past 2 years.

The project team does not plan to stop the parachain on the Kusama network but wants to turn it into an opportunity to create a free version of the web3 cloud for smart homes for users. You can read more on my Twitter: Freemium Pattern to Rescue Kusama.

The Robonomics parachain on the Kusama network will be subsidized by the project’s developers, will have a bridge to the Polkadot network to allow switching from a free plan to a paid one, and the developers do not plan to completely abandon the maintenance and further support of the Kusama network. I want to emphasize once again that Kusama is a great place to create free versions of your products for any project in the Polkadot ecosystem, and I urge teams to subsidize free versions of their products within the Kusama network! It is inexpensive and will provide greater security than your own testnet, and users will get a real product instead of a toy.

Robonomics Plans for the Next 2 Years in the Polkadot Network

Connecting to Polkadot opens up opportunities for Robonomics to build XCM communication with other existing projects in the ecosystem, which can expand the functionality of Robonomics and improve the project's tokenomics. We plan to integrate with at least 5 parachains by the end of the current year.

The second important element of establishing on the Polkadot Relay Chain for Robonomics will be the launch of commercial services, which the team avoided during its existence in the Kusama network. The first commercial Roboservice, under the hood of which will be Polkadot, will launch in October 2024, and by the end of the year we expect the first users in Cyprus, who have purchased new apartments with smart home features.

Thirdly, we want to pay more attention to the topic of on-chain governance in management issues of the DePIN infrastructure and Network States topic, as new interesting questions may arise in this direction, such as managing street lighting or making decisions based on public sensor networks. The Robonomics team will try to be more active around scenarios where the world of IoT will be part of collective online decision-making. For example, check out our report from Decoded 2024!