Asset Hub

Asset Hub (former Statemint), which is Parity Technologies' parachain for generic assets, is being proposed as one of the initial "common good" parachains on the Polkadot network. Its purpose is to facilitate the deployment of assets with significantly lower fees compared to other solutions.

A generic assets chain would enable a user to deploy an asset once they have deposited DOT (or KSM in the case of Kusama). However, in the case of approval from the relay chain governance, an asset could be deployed without a deposit. 

Polkadot ensures that accounts have a minimum balance, called an existential deposit (ED), which allows them to continue operating. If an account falls below the ED threshold, then it is deleted in order to prevent low value “dust” accounts building up.  

The Asset Hub (former Statemint) parachain would enable a whole range of entities, from artists issuing NFTs of their work, to CBDTs (Central Bank Digital Tokens) to have their assets deployed to the Polkadot network.  

By allowing users who do not hold DOT or KSM to use these assets, they will be subject to less friction and lower fees. Therefore, Asset Hub (former Statemint) can be seen as an excellent use case for becoming one of the first common good parachains.