What is Polka Dot coin?

Out of nowhere comes Polkadot to the top of the crypto market.  I am not very familiar with Polka Dot but what I have read sounds cool.  They are trying to make a blockchain that functions in a superior way to Ethereum.  Ethereum is currently the main blockchain for Defi and Smart Contracts.  Ethereum has a couple of problems.  It is not fast enough and it is very expensive.  Every time you do a transaction on the Ethereum network you need to pay a mining fee.  If you want to use Defi, you will often need to approve the spend by paying a mining fee and then send the coins into the Defi protocol and pay another feed.  Of course when you want to take them back you get charged again.  What I learned was that you need to use larger sums and do transactions less often.

Polka Dot is supposed to solve that.  It is supposed to have lower fees and it is supposed to be able to handle much more volume and do it incredibly fast.  Dot uses a technology referred to as parachains which allow it to license its blockchain out to other users.  I believe there were going to be 100 but they decided to keep some to use for common good.

Dot is the best paying coin on Kraken right now.  If you stake Dot, you can get a 12 % return.  Staking a coin means that you are giving control of the coin to another party so they can use the value of the coin for other purposes.  Also, many coins are going away from proof of work and going to proof of stake.  Proof of work requires mining and lots of computing power.  Proof of stake requires people to stake their coins instead.  It uses much less computing power and is considered much better for the planet.