Kraken to Integrate Parachain Auctions This May: Report | Crypto Briefing

Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken is eyeing a launch for its parachain auction service from as early as mid-May, sources told Crypto Briefing.

Eligible Kraken Clients Prep for Parachain Auctions

Kraken already allows customers to earn rewards on Polkadot and its canary network, Kusama, via staking the tokens on the exchange. Letting users participate in parachain auctions also places the exchange ahead of its many competitors.

As soon as Parity, the development team behind Polkadot and Kusama, has launched the auction functionality, Kraken will immediately integrate the service. This is expected as early mid-May, but a launch date has not been confirmed.

Polkadot and Kusama, aim to connect 100 blockchains called parachains via a central relay chain. But, due to the availability of only 100 parachain slots, different teams working on these networks will have to bid against each other in auctions using native tokens. 

To win the auction, several teams are now planning to raise funds through crowd loans, including Acala, Darwinia, Karura Network, Robonomics, Moonbeam, Equilibrium, HydraDX, and others.

In the new fundraising model, the teams ask their supporters in advance to bond their KSM or DOT to a crowdloan created for the project they support. If a crowdloan helps win the parachain slot at auction, contributors are rewarded with the native parachain token.

To contribute to crowd loans, one would need to create a new wallet on Kusama, transfer tokens there, and interact with the smart contracts governing parachains. This process may be too cumbersome for some users. 

Kraken would thus provide users with a platform to contribute to the auctions directly from the exchange. Next month, users will reportedly be able to add their KSM tokens in their exchange wallets to parachains with a click of a mouse. 

The integration also suggests Kraken is optimistic about Kusama, Polkadot, and the parachain auction model.