About

Moonriver is a parachain on the Kusama network. Kusama is a "canary network" which encourages experimental development prior to implementation on the Moonbeam sister chain on Polkadot. Like Moonbeam, Moonriver is an EVM-compatible smart contract platform built using the Substrate framework. The network has a native token called Moonriver (MOVR), which will allow holders to participate in consensus through staking, paying for transactions, and vote on governance proposals.

History

As a canary network to Moonbeam, Moonriver is intrinsically linked to its sister chain. Moonriver will serves as a testing ground for features and changes that may eventually find their way to Moonbeam. The two blockchains share a testnet called Moonrock, which is a parachain on Polkadot's Rococo testnet.

The firm behind the protocol is PureStake, a development outfit that also built developer tools for Algorand and runs Polkadot validators.

As a Kusama parachain, Moonriver uses the Kusama Relay Chain as its security layer and its settlement layers for communication with other parachains. Moonriver and Moonbeam are products of the development firm PureStake. The company built several developer tools within the Algorand ecosystem (including a block explorer) before creating a new network using Parity Technologies' Substrate framework.