| Parachain | A blockchain that connects to the Polkadot relay chain and inherits Polkadot’s shared security and interoperability with other parachains. Parachains are essentially shards. Polkadot will initially support 100 parachains. |
| Relay Chain | The main network that parachains plug into and where transactions are finalized. |
| Substrate | An SDK that developers can use to build highly customizable blockchains. It is the primary SDK that developers use to build Polkadot parachains. |
| XCM/XCMP | Polkadot’s cross-chain message-passing protocol. It allows communication between Kusama, Polkadot, and their parachains. |
| Pallets | Pallets are basically... |
