Polkadot was developed by Gavin Wood, one of the original Ethereum founders and the developer of the Solidity language. Polkadot is a multi-chain blockchain intended to facilitate interoperability between other blockchains. It uses a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, which means it consumes a small fraction of the energy used by other blockchains. The original whitepaper markets Polkadot as a “sharded version of Ethereum” in which any Polkadot-based chain can interact without relying on third party intermediaries.