Latest! Elastic Scaling officially launches on Kusama, Parity expects to launch on Polkadot in early September!

After Kusama Referendum #569 was successfully passed and ran smoothly for a week, RFC103 has now been officially deployed on Kusama! This marks a historic milestone worth celebrating together for the entire Polkadot ecosystem.

This upgrade means that Kusama's parachains can now safely utilize multiple cores for computation, bringing higher throughput, lower latency, and stronger scalability and flexibility.

What is Elastic Scaling?

To understand elastic scaling, we first need to review Polkadot's architecture.

Polkadot's uniqueness lies in its multi-chain parallel execution—parachains operate by sharing security and consensus, but in the past, each parachain could only use one slot at a time, i.e., one core, making computing resources relatively fixed.

This led to two problems:

• Performance limitations: High-load dApps (such as DeFi protocols or large-scale games) could not break through the single-core limitation.
• Resource waste: Low-load chains (such as test applications or niche projects) could not flexibly release surplus computing power.

The capability of elastic scaling is: allowing parachains or rollups to request and use multiple cores as needed, and flexibly allocate and release computing resources through the Agile Coretime interface.

This means the performance of parachains is no longer fixed but can dynamically scale according to actual workload.

Four Core Capabilities

1. Higher Throughput

If you remember the Spammening event on Kusama at the end of last year, the tested rollup used 23 cores in Kusama, reaching a TPS of 143,343, and this was when each core was not fully loaded. This was made possible by the elastic scaling feature, which was still being tested on the Kusama network at the time.

So, it should now be easy to understand: if a parachain can only bind to one core, the processing power of a single core is naturally limited. As the number of users and applications increases, this fixed resource model inevitably leads to congestion and transaction backlog.

But elastic scaling breaks this bottleneck—parachains can use multiple cores at once to process transactions in parallel.

This means:

• DeFi protocols can handle larger-scale trade matching and clearing;
• Blockchain games can support tens of thousands of players interacting simultaneously;
• Cross-chain operations and complex smart contract calls can also be executed smoothly while ensuring security.

Now, throughput is no longer the ceiling for the expansion of the Polkadot ecosystem.

2. Lower Latency

Latency refers to the time from when a user initiates an action to when it is confirmed by the network.

Most blockchains (including Ethereum and Bitcoin) have block times ranging from several seconds to several minutes, resulting in a "laggy" user experience that is difficult to support real-time scenarios.

With elastic scaling, rollups can reduce block times to 500 milliseconds under high load, approaching the instant interaction perceived by humans. This is significant for:

• Gaming: Character actions receive near-instant feedback, truly achieving an "e-sports level" on-chain experience;
• Payments: Settlement speeds are closer to everyday payment experiences, no longer requiring confirmation waits;
• Social applications: Instant message transmission is smooth, rivaling Web2 experiences.

The significance of 500ms block times is that it gives Web3, for the first time, a user experience foundation to compete with Web2.

3. Greater Bandwidth

In blockchain, bandwidth corresponds to Data Availability (DA). Even if blocks are produced quickly, if data cannot be broadcast to the network in time, the system still cannot support large-scale applications.

When scaling up to 12 cores, data availability can reach 20 MB/s.

What does this number mean?

• Large-scale DeFi: Sufficient to support high-frequency order books, real-time clearing, and complex derivatives contracts;
• Social and content platforms: Capable of carrying massive message, image, and even audio/video content transmission;
• Metaverse and blockchain games: State updates, asset transfers, and real-time interactions can all run smoothly.

20 MB/s bandwidth will enable Polkadot to serve as a "highway" capable of carrying truly mainstream application traffic.

4. Stronger Flexibility

In the past, blockchain computing resources were often "hard-bound": a chain had a fixed resource quota, which could not be dynamically adjusted regardless of demand.

The result: resource waste and performance bottlenecks coexisted.

Elastic scaling, through the Agile Coretime interface, gives parachains the ability for "elastic scheduling":

• During peak periods, chains can temporarily request more cores to handle the load;
• During off-peak periods, they can release surplus resources to reduce usage costs.

This flexibility brings two major benefits:

• Economic efficiency: Chains do not have to pay for idle resources, keeping costs controllable;
• Ecosystem win-win: Dynamic resource flow ensures more applications run fairly and efficiently.

Ultimately, Polkadot's network resources will become truly on-demand public infrastructure, just like cloud computing.

Why is Elastic Scaling the "Final Piece" of Polkadot 2.0?

Polkadot has always been known for "multi-chain parallelism," but to achieve true on-demand scaling, it has always lacked a key capability: dynamic allocation of computing power.

Elastic scaling happens to fill this gap:

• Developer perspective: No need to worry about performance bottlenecks, allowing for the design of complex applications with confidence;
• User perspective: Whether it's blockchain games, DeFi, or social, the experience is close to or even surpasses Web2;
• Ecosystem perspective: Polkadot can simultaneously support "small and beautiful" chains and "large and comprehensive" super applications, maximizing network resource utilization.

Therefore, elastic scaling is not just a technical upgrade; it is the key leap for Polkadot from 1.0 to 2.0.

Weathering the Storm, Becoming More Robust

It is worth noting that this solution was not born in a vacuum.

During the testing process on Kusama in Q2, the "dispute storm" exposed flaws in the protocol, especially in the dispute resolution mechanism. But it was precisely this extreme situation that allowed the development team to quickly locate and fix the issues, resulting in:

• Greater protocol resilience
• More stable operating environment
• Preparation for large-scale applications in the future

This once again confirms Kusama's mission: to ensure the stable progress of the Polkadot mainnet through "experimentation in chaos."

Next Step: Launch on the Polkadot Mainnet!

With RFC103 running stably on Kusama, the deployment of elastic scaling on the Polkadot mainnet is already underway. Parity expects to launch on the mainnet in early September, with the exact date to be announced after the relevant referendum is submitted.

Elastic scaling is not just a feature; it is the signature capability of Polkadot 2.0.

It transforms block space from a "scarce resource" into "scalable public infrastructure," truly allowing developers to unleash their creativity and build large-scale, mainstream Web3 applications.

Which rollup in the Polkadot ecosystem do you expect to be the first to start using elastic scaling? Leave your answer in the comments!