What is Substrate (Polkadot Development Framework)?

Substrate is a blockchain integration platform and application development framework that was designed by Parity Technologies, the creator of blockchain interoperability pioneer Polkadot. The purpose of Substrate is to help simplify the process of building dApps or independent blockchains that run on the Polkadot network. Substrate accomplishes this by offering a fully adaptable blockchain design framework that features software development in numerous languages, forkless upgradability, light-client architecture, and multifaceted development tools. As a result, Substrate is one of the most powerful components of the Polkadot ecosystem. However, blockchains on the Polkadot network do not need to be built with Substrate.