A brief history
Moonbeam is an Ethereum-compatible smart contract platform on the Polkadot network which was started by PureStake in 2020. Moonbeam’s Ethereum compatibility allows developers to deploy existing Solidity smart contracts and DApp frontends to Moonbeam with minimal changes. In essence, this means that the Moonbeam programme serves as a bridge, allowing people to operate on both Ethereum and Polkadot. The idea is that, as time goes on, more people will want to take advantage of features that exist on more than one blockchain, creating things on one platform and then using them on another. Additionally, as a parachain on the Polkadot network, Moonbeam benefits from the shared security of the Polkadot platform. As of now, there are three networks in the Moonbeam family. While Moonbeam aims to be the EVM compatible parachain within the Polkadot ecosystem, its sister network, Moonriver, launched as a parachain on Kusama in June 2021. The third network is Moonrock which functions as a shared test net for Moonbeam and Moonriver.

GLMR in practice
As a multi-utility token, GLMR serves several important functions on the Moonbeam platform. GLMR is used for gas fees when executing smart contracts, paying fees, sending value, and staking, and it is the main governance token for the network. GLMR is also compatible with other services within the Polkadot ecosystem. Users can stake their GLMR and secure low-risk rewards. In Moonbeam you can delegate your tokens to a node. These nodes then gain rewards for their participation in securing the network. These rewards are split between those who delegated based on their contribution to the total amount staked.