Before answering the question How to mine Polkadot, it is important that you first learn about the consensus mechanism on which this platform is based and how it works. The Polkadot network has a highly sophisticated governance system in which all DOT holders have a voice and help to protect it. As you have probably already read in another article dedicated to Polkadot, Polkadot has 4 parts that are at the heart of how it works: nominators, validators, classifiers and fishermen who perform various tasks to help protect and maintain the network and root out misbehaviour.

Polkadot’s first decentralised governance system was pretty interesting at the time: a tri-cameral (three-chamber) structure with a technocratic committee managing upgrade timelines, an approval-voted, elected executive “government” to manage parameters, admin and spending proposals as well as a general voting system for everything else which rewarded long-term stakeholders with increased influence. It was loosely based on parliamentary democracy and has been functioning reasonably well over the first 2–3 years of operation, helping ensure good use of treasury funds, keeping a fast clip with the rollout of upgrades, and managing the deployment of more critical fixes in a timely fashion. However, it has its drawbacks.