With the last 10 auctions happening on Kusama, the community should think about the next schedules to come for the network to be truth to its goal: being the canary network in the ecosystem.

When thinking about this schedules, there are a few things to take into consideration:

• Kusama is working well with a large number of paras, so it seems we can speed up on Polkadot's schedules.
• For Kusama, the first batch of 5 parachains will end their leases on LP20. Then the second batch of 6 will end on LP22. Currently we have 5 auctions scheduled per lease. A short term solution is to have 5 auctions for LP21, 6 for LP22 and further: but that is still not going to be a good solution for all chains: meaning we are not going to have more parachains because existing ones will want to renew lease. 6 auctions per lease could be helpful: We will have 4, 5 or 6 for previous parachains to renew, some more for new parachains (adding new parachains doesn't mean one of the existing parachain needs to become a parathread).

All in all, two points need to taken into account for both Kusama and Polkadot:

1. Always have Kusama move forward faster than Polkadot in auction numbers;
2. Make sure current parachains have an opportunity to renew the slot.

Below you will find the current schedule and a proposed one to follow - take into account that dates and times are expressed in UTC.

Current Schedule, enacted by motion 384:

10 auctions scheduled are left:

5 to be held during LP19, onboarding on LP20 (Start: 20 Feb 2022)

1. 20 Feb 2022 - block #11,491,800
2. 28 Feb 2022 - block #11,592,600
3. 07 Mar 2022 - block #11,693,400
4. 14 Mar 2022 - block #11,794,200
5. 21 Mar 2022 - block #11,895,000

5 to be held during LP20, onboarding on LP21 (04 April 2022)

6. 04 April 2022 - block #12,096,600
7. 11 April 2022 - block #12,197,400
8. 19 April 2022 - block #12,298,200
9. 26 April 2022 - block #12,399,000
10. 03 May 2022 - block #12,499,800

Leases are 48 weeks long.

Proposed schedule for Kusama:

In order to allow existing parachains to renew while new chains onboard, the first step is to replace the last 5 auctions scheduled for LP21 and replace them with the following schedule:

By replacing the current schedule for LP20 for the one above, we ensure that those parachains ending their lease on LP20 can participate in a new auction to onboard on LP21, and add two more auctions for new parachains that want to participate.

Kusama Target for the new schedule:

30 new auctions by the end of the year - dates approx:

1st Batch:

2nd Batch:

3rd Batch:

4th Batch:

5th Batch:

Auction design:

• Duration: 27,000 blocks (45hs, 3hs overall - time for the winner to be picked).
• lease_period_index: LP22, LP23, LP24, LP25, LP26.
• threshold: 13 / 19 council (greater than 2/3)
• Ending period: will be an additional 5 days (this is hardcoded on-chain)

Considerations:

• Auctions of 7 days long each;
• Chains onboarding on the next LP (ensuring full period for projects) with the expectation of the first 3 auctions per lease, this will allow having at least 3 previous parachain to renew and some more for new parachains;
• This would cover 6 auctions per LP.

Call Design

utility.batch(
	calls: [
		// First, we need to cancel the set of auctions for LP21. We'll replace
		// them with a new schedule.
		scheduler.cancel_named(
			id: 'Auctlp21'
		),
		// First 5 auctions, for LP21. during LP 20.
		// LP21 starts on block 12,700,800, estimated 15 May 2022
		scheduler.schedule_named(
			// Auction ID
			id: 'auctlp21',
			// Start block of first scheduled auction
			when: 12_197_400,
			// How often to start auctions, and how many of this config to hold
			maybe_periodic: (100_800, 5),
			// Top priority
			priority: 0,
			// The auction configuration
			call: auctions.new_auction(
				// Opening period of 27,000 blocks
				duration: 27_000,
				// The first (of 8) lease periods for bidding
				lease_period_index: 21
			)
		),
		// 3 more auctions for LP21. during LP 21.
		// LP21 starts on block 12,700,800, estimated 15 May 2022
		scheduler.schedule_named(
			id: 'auctlp21r2',
			when: 12_701_100,
			maybe_periodic: (100_800, 3),
			priority: 0,
			call: auctions.new_auction(
				duration: 27_000,
				lease_period_index: 21
			)
		),
		// Now for our regularly scheduled programming...
		///
		// 6 auctions for LP22
		// LP22 starts on block 13,305,600, estimated 26 Jun 2022
		scheduler.schedule_named(
			id: 'auctlp22',
			when: 13_003_500,
			maybe_periodic: (100_800, 6),
			priority: 0,
			call: auctions.new_auction(
				duration: 27_000,
				lease_period_index: 22
			)
		),
		// 6 auctions for LP23
		// LP23 starts on block 13,910,400, estimated 07 Aug 2022
		scheduler.schedule_named(
			id: 'auctlp23',
			when: 13_608_300,
			maybe_periodic: (100_800, 6),
			priority: 0,
			call: auctions.new_auction(
				duration: 27_000,
				lease_period_index: 23
			)
		),
		// 6 auctions for LP24
		// LP24 starts on block 14,515,200, estimated 18 Sep 2022
		scheduler.schedule_named(
			id: 'auctlp24',
			when: 14_213_100,
			maybe_periodic: (100_800, 6),
			priority: 0,
			call: auctions.new_auction(
				duration: 27_000,
				lease_period_index: 24
			)
		),
		// 6 auctions for LP25
		// LP25 starts on block 15,120,000, estimated 30 Oct 2022
		scheduler.schedule_named(
			id: 'auctlp25',
			when: 14_817_900,
			maybe_periodic: (100_800, 6),
			priority: 0,
			call: auctions.new_auction(
				duration: 27_000,
				lease_period_index: 25
			)
		),
		// 6 auctions for LP26
		// LP26 starts on block 15,724,800, estimated 11 Dec 2022
		scheduler.schedule_named(
			id: 'auctlp26',
			when: 15_422_700,
			maybe_periodic: (100_800, 6),
			priority: 0,
			call: auctions.new_auction(
				duration: 27_000,
				lease_period_index: 26
			)
		),
	]
)

We ask the community to leave feedback and ask questions on the schedule above!