If you’ve been paying attention to the cryptocurrency market in the past two years, you’ve probably heard of altcoins like Ethereum, Cardano, or Tether. These are all interesting blockchains in their own right that promise a variety of unique features for their users, beyond just providing a simple ledger for a virtual, decentralized currency. But as unique as they may be, they all face a few common hurdles that many see as the eternal stumbling blocks between today’s blockchain technology and a future where internet monopolies are a thing of the past and the web is fully decentralized.

One blockchain you may have seen on cryptocurrency lists but probably don’t know enough about is Polkadot. This is a third-generation blockchain that is positioning itself as the blockchain to rule them all.

While many blockchains boast about the unique features and specific use cases they lend themselves to, Polkadot instead promises to open up a whole space for further innovation and integration between separate blockchains, giving them the ability to work together as a cohesive whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. Where Bitcoin merely serves as a public ledger of transactions made using the currency, and Ethereum and Cardano operate as smart contract-based platforms for users to deploy decentralized apps, Polkadot is a blockchain protocol that weaves together multiple specialized blockchains, allowing them to share and exchange information.

For example, you can integrate your Health app with MyFitnessPal and any running app you use, so that data is automatically shared and processed differently within each app. With Polkadot, data can be seamlessly exchanged between different specialized blockchains to be used for their own unique purposes, without any third party intervention.