Introducing krest, peaq’s canary network on Polkadot’s Kusama

In a nutshell: peaq unveils krest, its canary network set to be launched on Kusama. Kusama, Polkadot’s canary chain, enables developers to test their decentralized application on a network designed for trying (and breaking) things. The peaq community will be able to connect their devices, such as Raspberry Pi’s, to krest and earn from their use and other activities on the network as developers use these devices to simulate vehicles, robots, and machines creating value within the Economy of Things. 

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peaq unveils krest, its canary network set to be launched on Kusama, Polkadot’s own canary chain. The krest network will enable the peaq community to develop and test decentralized applications (dApps) and tools in a real IoT environment to simulate the behavior of all kinds of machines, vehicles, robots, and devices before they go live on the peaq mainnet. 

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“We are very excited to welcome krest to the kusama ecosystem, bringing real-world IoT connectivity to web3 and opening the floodgates of innovation for dApp builders on the canary network,” says Siddharth Singhal, Director for Enterprise at Parity Technologies, the Web3 company which launched Polkadot. “This is a pivotal stepping stone for web3 networks creating real-world value and creating a playground for fostering innovation!” 

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Simulation, the use of computers to digitally model a specific process or event without having to conduct it in the real world, has become a crucial part of many of today’s industries. In manufacturing, it enables companies to experiment with production line setups and other variables without having to invest money and time in costly real-world modifications; startups similarly rely on simulations to tailor their products to the market faster. While simulations usually run on a purely digital basis, krest brings this up a notch, giving projects building on peaq an environment for live tests leveraging real Internet of Things (IoT) hardware and connections.  

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By connecting their devices, such as Raspberry Pi mini-computers, to krest, the peaq community will create a pool of live devices capable of simulating the operations of various machines, such as drones, electric vehicles, and more. Users will receive rewards in the network’s native token for performing certain actions on the network.  

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Entrepreneurs and developers building machine-focused projects on krest will be able to leverage this pool to test their dApps with real-world IoT connectivity. This way, they can assess their dApps’ performance and wider societal impact, and uncover bugs and risks in cooperation with the wider community before releasing them for use with real-world machines on the peaq network. They can also develop and foster the adoption of their own simulation packages, tailored to their specific needs, besides using the existing ones. 

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“On krest, builders and devs will be able to check the code for vulnerabilities not found in prior audits,” says Leonard Dorlöchter, co-founder of peaq. “They can trial the larger underlying business logic, and experiment with economic and community initiatives not possible on a test network, without the risks that would have included on peaq. In the future, builders will also be able to leverage krest to ensure a smoother and more secure development process. As such, Kusama is crucial for the quality of dApps launching on peaq.”    

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The network will be powered by krest, its native digital token, which will be openly accessible on public exchanges. The token will fuel the network by being used for transaction fees, economic incentive mechanisms and working as a reward tool for community initiatives such as users connecting their devices and opening them for developers to leverage for simulating machines. 

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“peaq’s entire ecosystem is geared specifically to real-world processes, outcomes, and services,” says Till Wendler, co-founder of peaq. “This makes rigorous trials in a production-grade environment evermore important, as an error or a vulnerability in the code can potentially result in disaster. Imagine an unpatched security gap in a dApp for vehicle access – a breach can result in real-world damage. krest is the community’s best bulwark against this scenario.”

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Crucially, krest network will also host ambitious social experiments centered on a variety of concepts and models underpinning peaq’s vision of a decentralized, community-owned Economy of Things. The approach was inspired by Gavin Wood, the Co-Founder of Polkadot, who famously said that “Kusama is really there for interesting experimentation, particularly social experiments.” One such experiment will be ‘Universal Basic Ownership,’ or UBO, a radical Web3 reimagination of the idea of Universal Basic Income (UBI) in the context of the looming threat of automation. 

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“krest will offer people a ‘sneak peek into the future’ – a lot of the features that launch on krest will eventually make it to peaq as well,“ says Max Thake, co-founder of peaq. “The ability to grant the community an environment like that is unique to the Polkadot and Kusama ecosystem, and we are happy to be leveraging both networks for distinct purposes. krest is the peaq community’s best opportunity to make sure a project does not result in real-world harm.”

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peaq is working on a permissionless and decentralized digital infrastructure that will enable users to have more of a stake in the abundance that increasingly intelligent connected machines create during their 24/7 operations. With krest, the peaq team and community can model various scenarios for the Web3 Economy of Things and make more informed decisions for network and ecosystem governance.

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About Polkadot

Polkadot is a network that provides the technical advances necessary to make blockchain technology practical, accessible, scalable, interoperable and future-proof. It removes limitations and barriers to entry, and thereby fuels innovation, growing the decentralized technology space and bringing the Web3 vision to life.

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About Parity Technologies

Staffed by some of the world’s leading blockchain innovators, core engineers, Rust developers, and solutions architects, Parity Technologies has offices in Berlin, London and Lisbon. It launched Polkadot in tandem with Web3 Foundation in May 2020 and continues to support and develop the network.

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Want to build the Web3 Economy of Things?

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- Want to stay in the loop? Visit our website and join the conversation on our channels.

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