# Parachain > A parachain is an application-specific data structure that is globally coherent and validatable by the validators of the Relay Chain. They take their name from the concept of parallelized chains that run parallel to the Relay Chain. Most commonly, a parachain will take the form of a blockchain, but there is no specific need for them to be actual blockchains.

Image from https://wiki.polkadot.network/docs/learn-parachains

Basically, **parachains** are layer-1 blockchains that connect to the **relay chains** (Polkadot, for example), which validate the state transition of connected parachains, providing a shared state across the entire ecosystem. Since the validator set on the relay chains is expected to be secure with a large amount of stake put up to back it, it is desirable for parachains to benefit from this shared security. Moreover, by using heterogeneous sharding, each parachain could be easily tailored through the [substrate](https://substrate.io/) framework, optimizing them for a specific use case and running in parallel rather than the same across all shards. To serve as the backbone platform for various Litentry products and achieve a transparent and decentralized user experience, our parachain was launched with customized features: * [Heima](broken://pages/SegzWaiaEtOxYTEld15m) (Previously known as Litentry) on Polkadot (onboarded on July 4th, 2022) {% hint style="info" %} The source code of our parachain can be found here: [https://github.com/litentry/heima](https://github.com/litentry/litentry-parachain) {% endhint %} ### Heima Network (Polkadot) * Chain ID: **2013** * [Parachain info](https://parachains.info/details/litentry) * [Polkadot-js endpoint](https://polkadot.js.org/apps/?rpc=wss://rpc.litentry-parachain.litentry.io#/explorer) * Blockchain Explorer: [**Statescan**](https://heima.statescan.io/#/) --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://docs.heima.network/ecosystem-connect-with-heima/ecosystem/parachain.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.