Both Polkadot and Cosmos address blockchain scalability and interoperability, but their approaches cater to different needs. Polkadot’s sharded model uses parachains that operate in parallel, with the Relay Chain handling consensus and security. This allows Polkadot to theoretically scale to 1 million transactions per second (TPS), as each parachain processes transactions independently. Its XCMP protocol enables seamless cross-chain communication, but parachains must adhere to Polkadot’s WebAssembly-based meta-protocol, which can limit flexibility for external chains.