🚛Asset Hub Migration FAQ

KSM and DOT are moving from Kusama and Polkadot Relay Chains to Asset Hubs

What is Relay Chain? What is Asset Hub?

You probably know Kusama Relay Chain as just Kusama, and Polkadot Relay Chain as just Polkadot. Relay Chain is the "main" chain. It secures all the parachains in its ecosystem and processes cross-chain transfers between them. Relay Chain only supports its native token: KSM on Kusama Relay Chain and DOT on Polkadot Relay Chain. Before migration, most operations with KSM and DOT happened on their Relay Chains.

Asset Hub is a system parachain that supports other tokens in addition to KSM and DOT. You can think of it as an extension of Relay Chain that allows its users to create and manage other assets: stablecoins, memecoins, tokens from other chains in the Polkadot ecosystem, NFTs, etc. Each Relay Chain has its own system parachain: there's Kusama Asset Hub connected to Kusama Relay Chain and Polkadot Asset Hub connected to Polkadot Relay Chain. Before migration, Asset Hubs were mostly used for operations with tokens beyond KSM and DOT.

What Is Going to Change?

Starting from October 7th, your KSM balances, governance, and staking migrate from Kusama Relay Chain to Kusama Asset Hub.

On November 4th, similar migration will happen for DOT from Polkadot Relay Chain to Polkadot Asset Hub.

Relay Chains will focus on securing chains, while Asset Hubs will take care of day-to-day operations: balance transfers, governance votes and delegations, and staking. Here are the key changes:

• Your KSM/DOT balances will be moved to Asset Hub. Your other token balances on Asset Hub will not be affected. Migrated balance will be added to any KSM/DOT you might've had on Asset Hub before migration.

• The minimum KSM/DOT balance your account needs to maintain will become 100 times lower: from 0.00033 KSM to 0.0000033 KSM and from 1 DOT to 0.01 DOT.

• Any transfers you would usually make on Relay Chain will now happen on Asset Hub. Your addresses will remain the same as before the migration.

• Your transaction fees and deposits (e.g., for multisig operations) will become 10 times lower, and you will be able to pay them in any token.

• Your staking setup and rewards will now be on Asset Hub. All your staking information will be migrated automatically. The staking UI will remain the same: you will be able to do all the same things as before the same way. Your staking rewards will not be interrupted.

• Your governance votes and delegations will now be on Asset Hub. Your past votes and delegations will be migrated automatically. The governance UI will remain the same: you will be able to do all the same things as before the same way.

• Your crowdloaned KSM/DOT will be migrated later, after your candidate's slot lease ends and your tokens are returned to you.

• Your multisigs and proxies will be recreated on Asset Hub. You will still be able to use them on Relay Chain if needed, but most operations will take place on Asset Hub. Ongoing multisig transactions will not be migrated, and you may want to finalize or cancel them on Relay Chain before the migration.

• If you are a validator, you can keep validating blocks as before. You will register your session keys on Relay Chain as before, and other staking-related actions will happen on Asset Hub.

• Fast-unstake will be deprecated after staking migrates to Asset Hub. This feature was only available to users who had inactive stakes for more than 7 days on Kusama Relay Chain or 28 days on Polkadot Relay Chain. It was never supported in Nova Wallet natively.

What Do I Need to Do Before the Migration?

Nothing! Your tokens in Nova Wallet will be migrated automatically, no action needed.

What Will Happen During the Migration?

Your funds are safe during the migration process.

The migration period is estimated to last 8 to 10 hours. During the migration period, you may experience some interruptions:

• Your KSM/DOT balances may take longer than usual to be updated. Your funds are safe! No tokens will be lost, your balances will be updated after the migration ends.

• Cross-chain transfers to or from Relay Chain and Asset Hub will be paused until the migration ends. Regular transfers within Asset Hub will not be affected.

• Some operations on Relay Chain will be paused: governance, multisig operations, proxy operations, and others. They will resume on Asset Hub after the migration ends.

• Some centralized exchanges may experience delays with processing KSM/DOT deposits and withdrawals during the migration period.

What Do I Need to Do After the Migration?

If you receive KSM/DOT on Relay Chain after the migration, send them manually to your own wallet on Asset Hub: Send Tokens Cross-Chain. Tokens sent on the wrong chain post-migration will NOT be lost.

Your staking rewards and governance votes before and after migration will be shown together in Nova Wallet. You won't miss any staking or governance data in Nova Wallet.

Your transfers and other operation history will be shows separately: View Operation History. To view your pre-migration history, check your Operation history on Relay Chain. Your post-migration history will be on Asset Hub.