Kusama is about to start continuous parachain auctions!
On October 19, the Kusama Council approved Motion 377. The proposal was proposed by community member Jam and aims to open continuous auctions on the Kusama network.
In the Kusama parachain slot auctions of the past few weeks, in order to monitor the stability of the network, the Kusama Parachain Slot Auction adopts a robust batch format. After two rounds of Auction, this is no longer an urgent issue. Therefore, unlike Kusama’s first two manual executions and batch auctions, this proposal proposes to conduct regular and continuous auctions.
Because the longest parachain lease period on Kusama is only 48 weeks, even if we have a complete batch auction plan, we will eventually have up to 48 parachains allocated through auctions running at the same time. This is a soft limit on the number of parachains allocated by Auction, as well as a suspension of the auction speed. Kusama’s Parachain Slot Auction should run at the reasonable rhythm it should have. In this case, in order to demonstrate that Kusama is the Canary Network, we recommend more frequent auctions in order to stay ahead of Polkadot and push the limits of the technology.
Therefore, the purpose of the proposal is to arrange an Auction once a week for the next 8 Leases, which means that an auction will be held once a week for the next 48 weeks. Unlike the previous auctions, the winners will not connect the Kusama relaychain immediately but will connect at the beginning of the next lease period. If there are any problems, the Kusama Council will suspend the auction.
At present, the Motion has been passed through Kusama council, but the specific time schedule has not been announced. PolkaWorld estimates the following schedule according to the content of the proposal, for reference only:
- Current Lease Period: 16 (Note: Lease Period is the time range of the parachain slot. 1 Lease is 6 weeks. The maximum Lease Period of the slot in the Kusama network is 8 Lease, which is 48 weeks.)
- Auction Lease Period: 17–24 Lease Period
- Winners onboarding time: On November 27, 2021
Because Lease 16 has been started, within this Lease, only 5 auctions can be held. The approximate time is as follows:
- Auction 12: October 23, 2021-October 30, 2021
- Auction 13: October 30, 2021-November 6, 2021
- Auction 14: November 6, 2021-November 13, 2021
- Auction 15: November 13, 2021-November 20, 2021
- Auction 16: November 20, 2021-November 27, 2021
In the same way, when Lease 17 starts, the five winners will all be connected to the Kusama network at one time, and the auction for the 18–25 lease period will start at the same time. And in Lease 17, there will be 6 auctions. The approximate time is as follows:
- Auction 17: November 27, 2021-December 4, 2021
- Auction 18: December 4, 2021-December 11, 2021
- Auction 19: December 11, 2021-December 18, 2021
- Auction 20: December 18, 2021-December 25, 2021
- Auction 21: December 25, 2021-January 1, 2022
- Auction 22: January 1, 2022-January 8, 2022
And so on, until the auction of Lease 24-Lease 31, if there is no suspension due to major issues, there will be a total of 47 auctions. And just before Lease 24, the first and second batches of Kusama parachain slot leases will all expire.
