Projects sometimes ask for help from the community to get a parachain slot on the Relay Chain. It's not mandatory, but it's a popular alternative to self-funding. This article provides step-by-step instructions on participating in a crowdloan on Kusama or Polkadot. You can find more information, including a video tutorial, at the end of the page.

⛔ READ THIS FIRST!

With the introduction of Agile Coretime on Polkadot and Kusama, crowdloans have been deprecated.

The funds used to participate in previous crowdloans will remain locked until the corresponding slot lease expires, but there will no longer be any slot auctions or crowdloans in the future.

This article is temporarily available for reference.

Please note that the process below is not ALL it takes to participate. Read this note carefully before you proceed:

⚠️ ATTENTION

From a technical perspective, you can participate in any crowdloan on Kusama, without KYC and without any restrictions.

However, each crowdloan has its own Terms & Conditions that may exclude certain participants. You need to carefully read and fully understand the specific terms & conditions governing the crowdloan you intend to participate in. They may require KYC or exclude participants from certain jurisdictions.

If you are not eligible to participate in a crowdloan, you should NOT participate.

For any clarification on those terms & conditions, please contact the team of your parachain candidate directly. Web 3.0 Technologies Foundation is not responsible in any way whatsoever for any terms and conditions of any crowdloan campaign.

How to Participate in Crowdloans on Polkadot or Kusama

The technical process to contribute KSM or DOT tokens to a crowdloan on Kusama or Polkadot requires only a few clicks. In this example, the crowdloan is on Kusama, but the steps remain the same for Polkadot.

1. Go to Network > Parachains on Polkadot-JS UI:

2. Navigate to the "Crowdloan" tab and click "Contribute" next to the parachain candidate you would like to support:

⛔ READ THIS FIRST!

If after your contribution your balance drops below the existential deposit (ED) (which is 1 DOT on Polkadot and 0.0003333 KSM on Kusama), any remaining funds will be burned and lost forever! 

So, make sure that either your remaining balance after the contribution will be greater than the ED or that you contribute the full balance. 

In both cases, you need to account for the transaction fees of about 0.02 DOT. So, in the first case make sure to leave at least 1.1 DOT (a bit extra) and in the second subtract 0.02 DOT from your contribution.

The transaction fees may be higher if you're not contributing through the Polkadot-JS UI.

3. On the pop-up screen, select the account you'd like to contribute from (1) and enter the amount you want to participate with (2). Then click the "Contribute" button (3).

4. You will now be asked to sign and submit this transaction.

And that's it! You just helped the project to obtain its parachain slot.

In this video tutorial, our tech lead Bill takes you through the process: