Skip to content

Moonbeam

Goal

Moonbeam onboarded as a parachain to Polkadot on December 17th 2021. Moonbeam is the most Ethereum compatible smart-contract parachain in the Polkadot ecosystem. It allows developers to port their projects with minimal to no code changes, enabling them to tap into the Polkadot ecosystem and all its assets.

In order to collect as much feedback as possible and provide fast issue resolution, you can check out the dedicated Moonbeam Network section on Discord.

Initial Configurations

Currently, Moonbeam has the following configurations:

  • Runs as a parachain connected to the Polkadot relay chain
  • Has an active set of 76 collators
  • Has infrastructure providers that provide API endpoints to connect to the network. Projects can also run their own node to have access to their own private endpoints

Moonbeam Diagram

Some important variables/configurations to note include (still subject to change):

Variable Value
Minimum gas price 125 Gwei*
Target block time 12 seconds (expected to be 6 seconds)
Block gas limit 15,000,000 (expected to increase by at least 4x)
Transaction gas limit 12,995,000 (expected to increase by at least 4x)
Variable Value
Minimum delegation stake 50 GLMR
Maximum delegators per candidates 300
Maximum delegations per account 100
Round 1800 blocks (6 hours)
Bond duration delegation takes effect in the next round (funds are withdrawn immediately)
Unbond duration 28 rounds

*Read more about token denominations

Network Endpoints

Moonbeam has two types of endpoints available for users to connect to: one for HTTPS and one for WSS.

If you're looking for your own endpoints suitable for production use, you can check out the Endpoint Providers section of our documentation. Otherwise, to get started quickly you can use one of the following public HTTPS or WSS endpoints:

Provider RPC URL
1RPC
https://1rpc.io/glmr
Blast
https://moonbeam.public.blastapi.io
Dwellir
https://moonbeam-rpc.dwellir.com
POKT Network
https://moonbeam-mainnet.gateway.pokt.network/v1/lb/629a2b5650ec8c0039bb30f0
UnitedBloc
https://moonbeam.unitedbloc.com
Provider RPC URL
Blast
wss://moonbeam.public.blastapi.io
Dwellir
wss://moonbeam-rpc.dwellir.com
UnitedBloc
wss://moonbeam.unitedbloc.com

Quick Start

Before getting started, make sure you've retrieved your own endpoint and API key from one of the custom Endpoint Providers. Then for the Web3.js library, you can create a local Web3 instance and set the provider to connect to Moonbeam (both HTTP and WS are supported):

const { Web3 } = require('web3'); // Load Web3 library
.
.
.
// Create local Web3 instance - set Moonbeam as provider
const web3 = new Web3('INSERT_RPC_API_ENDPOINT'); // Insert your RPC URL here

For the Ethers.js library, define the provider by using ethers.JsonRpcProvider(providerURL, {object}) and setting the provider URL to Moonbeam:

const ethers = require('ethers'); // Load Ethers library

const providerURL = 'INSERT_RPC_API_ENDPOINT'; // Insert your RPC URL here

// Define provider
const provider = new ethers.JsonRpcProvider(providerURL, {
    chainId: 1284,
    name: 'moonbeam'
});

Any Ethereum wallet should be able to generate a valid address for Moonbeam (for example, MetaMask).

Chain ID

Moonbeam chain ID is: 1284, or 0x504 in hex.

Telemetry

You can see current Moonbeam telemetry information by visiting Polkadot's Telemetry dashboard.

Tokens

The tokens on Moonbeam are called Glimmer (GLMR). Check out the Moonbeam Foundation site for more information on the Glimmer token.

Token Denominations

The smallest unit of Glimmer (GMLR), similarly to Ethereum, is a Wei. It takes 10^18 Wei to make one Glimmer. The denominations are as follows:

Unit Glimmer (GLMR) Wei
Wei 0.000000000000000001 1
Kilowei 0.000000000000001 1,000
Megawei 0.000000000001 1,000,000
Gigawei 0.000000001 1,000,000,000
Microglmr 0.000001 1,000,000,000,000
Milliglmr 0.001 1,000,000,000,000,000
GLMR 1 1,000,000,000,000,000,000
Kiloglmr 1,000 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

Proof of Stake

The Moonriver network is a fully decentralized Delegated Proof of Stake network where users of the network can delegate collator candidates to produce blocks and earn rewards. It uses the Nimbus framework framework for parachain consensus. The number of candidates in the active set will be subject to governance. The active set will consist of the top candidates by stake, including delegations.

Limitations

Some precompiles are yet to be included. You can check a list of supported precompiles on the Solidity Precompiles page. However, all built-in functions are available.

Last update: January 25, 2024
| Created: December 8, 2021