Parachain & Relay Chain

Frequency is one of a set of blockchains that interoperate via the Polkadot protocol, stewarded by the Web3 Foundation. Blockchains participating in this ecosystem lease blockspace from the Polkadot Relay Chain, allowing them to take advantage of shared services provided by the Relay Chain.

Relay Chain blockspace can be leased on a fixed-price basis, making it ideal for highly scalable operation by allowing individual parachains the flexibility to alter the pricing structure of blockchain transactions for their users. Frequency utilizes these foundational economics to provide cost-shifting functionality for users through its Delegation Model and Capacity system in order to better support a high volume of non-financial transactions.

Polkadot uses the term parachain to describe a Layer 1 blockchain that runs in parallel to the Relay Chain and utilizes it for security and finality. Parachains like Frequency benefit from the pooled security, well-defined governance, and overall scalability made possible by the Relay Chain. By operating within the Polkadot ecosystem, parachains can also communicate securely with one another using cross-chain messaging via the XCM protocol.

Frequency's Collator Nodes maintain a full node on both the parachain (Frequency) and the Relay Chain (Polkadot). Because it operates as a parachain, Frequency requires only one honest Collator in order to operate without interruption. See more details about Collators on Polkadot's Wiki Page.

Diagram from Polkadot wiki on Collators

Learn more about Polkadot's parachain architecture.