The New Era of Web3 Cloud Computing on Polkadot: JAM and JAM Grid

Polkadot aims to be a true Web3 cloud, providing infrastructure for building highly scalable and extremely reliable Web3 applications and services. This is somewhat similar to what AWS does for Web2 applications and services.

How do JAM and JAM Grid drive Polkadot to become a true Web3 cloud? Let's explore the key information about JAM and JAM Grid:

• JAM: Unprecedented scale and computing power
• JAM Grid: Unlock 1 billion TPS
• Comparison with Other Blockchains
• Applications that can be realized by JAM
• Applications that can be realized with JAM Grid
• How JAM Grid Empowers Developers
• How DOT Drives JAM Grid

Before we begin, let's take a brief look at the timeline of the Polkadot cloud:

Polkadot Cloud --- Genesis Phase: May 2020

Polkadot has launched, producing the first block, marking the official "launch" of the Polkadot cloud.

Polkadot Cloud --- First Milestone (Parachain), November 2021

This is the birth of the first cloud service of Polkadot cloud. This service allows developers to build custom blockchains and connect them to the Polkadot cloud, achieving shared security.

First Cloud Service Deployment --- Second Milestone, December 2021

The first cloud service (parallel chain) is online, and different teams are starting to use it to deploy their parallel chains.

Polkadot Cloud --- Third Milestone (JAM), to be determined, possibly before the end of 2025

JAM (Join-Accumulate Machine) is a trustless supercomputer that forms the foundation of the Web3 cloud.

Polkadot Cloud --- Potential Fourth Milestone (JAM Grid), Pending

The JAM Grid will be a hypothetical interconnected supercomputer cluster, with each computer running the JAM protocol.

Today's blockchain, even the so-called "high-performance" blockchains, struggles to handle real-time, data-intensive workloads. In contrast, JAM Grid theoretically can achieve a billion transactions per second (TPS), exabyte-level storage, and hundreds of GB/s bandwidth, which could provide Web3 services with capabilities comparable to modern cloud data centers.

Introduction to JAM and JAM Grid

JAM is a single supercomputer that enables people to build scalable and reliable Web3 applications and services. The main goal of JAM is to provide a flexible and efficient framework for managing data and computation in the network. It aims to simplify data integration and maintenance while ensuring the integrity and security of the network.

JAM Grid is a network composed of multiple supercomputers that can theoretically achieve one billion transactions per second (TPS), exabyte-level data availability, and high-performance computing (HPC) level bandwidth.

Regarding the TPS metric, it is worth noting that in Gavin Wood's year-end summary article, he mentioned that the computing power could reach ten trillion EVM-equivalent gas per second. Due to the significant differences in gas consumption across different transactions, there is no universally applicable "transactions per second" (TPS) metric. For example, on Ethereum, a simple ETH transfer may require 21,000 gas, while more complex smart contract interactions may require hundreds of thousands or even millions of gas.

For transactions that consume a large amount of gas, the upper limit of JAM is approximately 1 million TPS, while the upper limit of JAM Grid is about 1 billion TPS. However, it is worth noting that these figures are approximate.

JAM: Unprecedented scale and computing power

What is JAM?

JAM (Join-Accumulate Machine) is a trustless supercomputer that forms the foundation of the Web3 cloud. It is a new computing model and protocol designed to enhance the capabilities of Polkadot and address scalability challenges in blockchain technology. JAM will support 1 million transactions per second (TPS), 2 PB of data availability, and 857 MB/s of bandwidth.

Why is it important?

JAM is the next upgrade that will bring Polkadot closer to its original vision - to become a permissionless global supercomputer.

How do other blockchains compare?

The scalability of JAM is designed to support large-scale real-time applications that traditional blockchains cannot handle.

JAM Grid: Unlock 1 billion TPS

What is JAM Grid?

JAM Grid is a hypothetical interconnected supercomputer cluster, where each computer runs the JAM protocol, promising to achieve 1 billion transactions per second (TPS), 1 exabyte of data storage, and 600 GB/s of bandwidth.

Why is it important?

These numbers far exceed today's blockchain standards, indicating a scale similar to high-performance computing (HPC). If realized, it would be capable of handling applications on a global scale while maintaining decentralized security.

How do other blockchains compare?

Projects like Solana, Aptos, Sui, and Avalanche have driven higher throughput than traditional blockchains, but still haven't reached the storage or bandwidth levels of exabyte-scale or high-performance computing (HPC).

comparison with other blockchains

• TPS (Transactions Per Second): A measure of raw throughput - how many transactions a blockchain can process per second. Higher TPS usually indicates more scalable decentralized applications (dApps) and a better user experience.

• Data Availability: The ability of a blockchain network to store and manage data on-chain. It includes the total amount of data and its accessibility across all network nodes. Strong data availability ensures consistent access and verification of transaction records, application states, and user data, while maintaining the integrity, security, and decentralized characteristics of the blockchain.

• Bandwidth: Reflects the capacity of the network - the speed at which data is transmitted within the system. High bandwidth is crucial for blockchains designed to handle a large volume of transactions (and related data) in order to prevent bottlenecks.

• Architecture: Highlight design approaches - for example, the difference between single chain and sharding or subnet architectures. Architecture affects TPS as well as the difficulty of blockchain scalability and evolution.

Key Points

• Exabyte storage and HPC bandwidth: The JAM Grid concept provides 1 exabyte of data storage and 600 GB/s throughput - comparable to large data centers, rather than typical blockchains.

• Comparison with the current network: Although blockchains like Solana, Avalanche, and Aptos surpass older platforms in TPS, they cannot come close to the HPC-level data availability or sustained bandwidth.

• Multiple "supercomputer" mode: There will be multiple supercomputers, each running the JAM protocol. This will create a network where all supercomputers can communicate with each other and potentially share resources. How these supercomputers communicate with one another will be a key challenge.

What applications can JAM implement?

With approximately 1 million TPS, 2 PB of data availability, and 857 MB/s of bandwidth, the JAM supercomputer brings a significant leap beyond most existing blockchains. Here are some application examples that JAM can unlock:

Real-time games and virtual worlds (city level or national level)

The current blockchain cannot handle the frequent game state changes of thousands (let alone millions) of players.

How JAM helps: 1 million TPS means that fast interactions in city-level or country-level virtual worlds can be maintained on-chain, thereby reducing reliance on centralized servers.

Real-time IoT and Automation (Enterprise or City Level)

IoT devices generate millions of events per second in urban or industrial deployments. Most blockchains cannot handle such a large number of on-chain events, leading to severe congestion.

How JAM helps: Approximately 1 million TPS throughput combined with PB-level data availability means that each device can reliably publish millions of events per second on the chain, making it ideal for large enterprises or smart cities. Hundreds of MB/s bandwidth ensures fast synchronization of sensor data between global nodes - sufficient to meet the needs of urban or enterprise-level applications, but unable to cover all IoT devices across the globe.

High-traffic stablecoins or payment systems (national level)

Traditional blockchains face network congestion and high fees under heavy loads, limiting the mainstream application of on-chain micropayments.

JAM can provide: a capacity of approximately 1 million TPS (assuming simple transactions) allowing stablecoins or payment networks to serve the economy of a country or region. Fast throughput keeps costs low, and transaction confirmations are quick. While it cannot achieve billions of micropayments globally every day, it is sufficient to surpass the limitations of most existing L1s.

After implementing JAM, Polkadot Cloud will greatly exceed many existing L1s in terms of throughput, storage, and bandwidth, enabling support for real-time, data-intensive dApps that are currently not feasible on existing blockchains.

![JAM and JAM Grid: A New Era of Web3 Cloud Computing on Polkadot]###https://img-cdn.gateio.im/webp-social/moments-00ae23da1752cbc296aff3400dbcce26.webp(

What applications can ) JAM Grid achieve?

Today's blockchains - even "fast" ones - struggle to handle real-time, large-scale workloads. In contrast, JAM Grid, which supports billions of TPS, exabyte-level storage, and hundreds of GB/s bandwidth, can provide modern cloud data center-level performance for Web3 services. Here are some application examples that could potentially become a reality under these conditions:

Large-scale multiplayer virtual world and games

The current blockchain cannot handle real-time updates for millions of concurrent players, let alone store large amounts of game assets, states, and logs on-chain.

How JAM Grid helps: With billions of TPS and massive bandwidth, JAM Grid can handle frequent state updates (such as player actions and world changes), with all data kept on-chain, eliminating the reliance on centralized game servers. Byte-level storage allows for a vast library of 3D assets, character inventories, and item histories to remain verifiable and persistent.

Real-time IoT and Automation

IoT devices continuously generate data streams - such as temperature, vehicle telemetry, sensor updates - potentially producing millions of events per second. No mainstream blockchain can process and verify such a massive amount of data in near real-time.

How JAM Grid helps: High throughput and scalable data availability allow each device to directly record updates on the chain without overwhelming the network. High bandwidth ensures that data can be quickly disseminated among globally distributed nodes.

Global scale social network

Social platforms generate billions of interactions every day (such as likes, posts, comments, messages), which require immense throughput and storage. Existing blockchains cannot handle such a massive amount of on-chain activity.

How JAM Grid helps: Billions of TPS can support almost instant publishing, while byte-level storage can preserve rich media and user history without relying on off-chain solutions. The built-in decentralization ensures that no single company controls user data or content moderation.

Decentralized AI and Large-Scale Machine Learning

The training and inference of large AI models require substantial computing power and vast datasets, which are often handled by centralized high-performance computing (HPC) clusters.

How JAM Grid helps: The HPC-like throughput and bandwidth of JAM Grid can host distributed AI workloads on-chain, ensuring data auditability, verifiability of training results, and providing equal access to HPC resources for everyone.

Global Stablecoin Payment System

Traditional stablecoins have already faced congestion and high fee issues on L1 blockchains under high loads. Billions of daily micropayments (such as IoT microtransactions and everyday purchases) have become unfeasible.

How JAM Grid helps: High throughput + fast confirmation enables stablecoins to scale globally without astronomical fees or bottlenecks. This lays the foundation for a universal and low-cost payment system, surpassing any enterprise offering.