Written by yay.oi
What’s hollerin’, loudios? Y’all certainly got noisy this week, but I’m not sure that the incentives matched the decibels. Now that your vocal cords are warmed up, perhaps some strategic posting about Polkadot will prove more rewarding.
If you’ve already got a strong following, it doesn’t take much to top the Kaito Polkadot Yapper leaderboard. IcoBeast (#2) and Mr Shift (#5), for example, are only posting a few times a week. For the up-and-comers, however, you’re going to need to work harder.
AI-generated fodder and outdated posts about parachain auctions aren’t going to cut it. So, let’s get you equipped with a DOT 101 starter pack of solid sources to help you sharpen your takes and boost your credibility.
Polkadot just recorded 25M transactions in May, a monthly growth of 20%. While it’s the protocols and ecosystem builders that are doing the majority of the heavy lifting, a handful of key ecosystem agents ensure that their hard work gets the recognition it deserves.
Our ecosystem’s number 1 yapper Alice und Bob (Tommi) needs no introduction. Though he holds the top spot for mindshare, his professional role is to help shape the direction of the protocol. Tommi initiated the proposal to define Polkadot 2.0, and this week he is proposing a global launch party to kickstart our next chapter.
Then there is Leemo, our resident governance specialist. As Chief Nice Officer for Nova Wallet, he occasionally front-runs some of the ecosystem’s big announcements. Meanwhile, for the latest protocol announcements, Bill Laboon’s daily Polkadot Digest is the go-to source.
For hot-takes and expert engagement advice, few do it better than WagMedia’s own Goku. And when it comes to JAM, look no further than builder Daniel Cukier for insights into how the implementation teams are approaching its design, rollout, and vision. This is just the tip of the iceberg for Polkadot’s elite ecosystem agents, but part of the fun is finding them yourself.
If you’re after top-notch ecosystem media coverage, The Kus delivers with consistent comprehensiveness. Featuring weekly news pumps, data, interviews, and governance discussions, it’s one of the most reliable and well-rounded news outlets in the Polkadot landscape.
We at Wagmedia also strive to keep you up to date with our news roundups and newsletter. Additionally, our Creators Program cultivates standout content as well as fosters the growth of individuals. For instance, Emil, who this week reminded us what Web3 really is. Gbaci saved us time with his TLDR of Gavin Wood at ETH Prague. And we can’t forget CMOSH, who brings the data to back up the chatter.
There’s been a lot of chatter about Hydration this year, with plenty more still to come. On Monday the GigaHydration Campaign was approved by the Polkadot DAO. Two million DOT will soon incentivize stablecoins (including HOLLAR?), liquidity pools, and GigaDOT minting for six months, with an ecosystem-wide incentives proposal to follow.
Until September, Stellaswap will continue its 1M DOT Incentive campaign, funded by Polkadot Referendum 580. The latest incentivized pools are Snowbridge BTC and ETH. Standard APRs are currently around 200%, but with Stellaswap’s customizable liquidity concentration ranges, you might be able to push them even higher.
While Stellaswap has also been preparing the release of veSTELLA, Bifrost is cooking up something too. With Riders (the final stage of the Liquid WAVE campaign) just around the corner, we can soon look forward to the launch of bbBNC.
On the gaming front, Moonbeam is shining brightly with its newly launched gaming hub, featuring tournaments by N3mus. Six Moonbeam games offered prize pools of up to $500 each this week, while outsider Flappy Wud also made its N3mus tournament debut. Traffic on N3mus has been rising exponentially this year, with total gameplays passing more than 614K in May.
Moonbeam’s gaming narrative also includes Evrloot, a dark-fantasy RPG that recently wrapped up Season 2 of its Marks campaign. There’s still time to get yourself a free NFT Citizen by earning 12,000 gilts in Warborn missions, and the best is yet to come. Token genesis is slated for Q3, followed by an array of epic gameplay updates.
Taking an earlier shot on goal is what could be the biggest Polkadot gaming launch of the year. Mythical’s FIFA Rivals will begin rolling out on June 10th. Make sure you pre-register on the Apple or Google store so that you don’t miss out on the day-one rare collectibles pack.
For other rare collectibles, check out the regular generative art drops on Koda. Often limited to 32 mints, they’ve been known to sell out fast. This week’s drops included Trancendence, a collection by White Koala, and Agoston Nagy’s Ascii-Tree, which minted out in 8 minutes.
If you’re looking to transcend from collecting and dive deeper into understanding the Polkadot ecosystem, PBA-X is a great starting point. The next cohort of the online Web3 and Polkadot fundamentals course kicks off on June 23rd. Or perhaps Bali would work out better for ya.
Also kicking off soon is Phase 2 of the Polkadot Ambassador Fellowship, which gives community members like you a chance to help shape the voice of the ecosystem. Highlights from Phase 1 include The Phragmen Initiative, which funded an array of ecosystem agent-led projects such as business development efforts and regional community organizations.
Building on that momentum is the Polkadot Popup Summer campaign, which aims to push closer to the bold ambition of reaching 10K meetups per month. Any ambassador can organize a meetup and be reimbursed for up to $300 in expenses. Each event just needs at least five attendees, three talking points, and photos uploaded to social media.
In last Friday’s X Space, we were told to expect the Phase 2 Ambassador Fellowship treasury proposal soon. While that one has yet to materialize, two pricey proposals did hit OpenGov this week, prompting some scrutiny from the community.
Snowfork is requesting $5M for completed Snowbridge milestones, operational costs, and future incentives. As with previous funding, a significant portion of future incentives vested over 12 monthly payouts, with the possibility of diverting funds for bug bounties and bridge exploit insurance.
Requesting a similar amount, the Marketing Bounty has initiated a top-up of 1.2M DOT to cover expenditure for the next six months. It’s not yet decided whether any of those funds will go toward more Kaito Yapper incentives. This week, ET initiated a discussion about the future of the campaign.
Some would like to see the program sunsetted, due to the influx of low-quality, outdated copy-pasta, AI-generated content, and reply bots. The broader sentiment, however, leans more toward reform. Perhaps a tour of duty in the Wagmedia trenches could be mandatory for every new arrival.
If you’re serious about leveling up your Polkadot content game, the WagMedia Finders program is a solid starting point. It’s immersive, offering real-time exposure to all the latest ecosystem developments, and provides a little DOT for extra motivation. Prove your worth, and you might just earn a spot on the team behind this very newsletter.
Once you’re ready to venture deeper into the thicket of CT, the Creators Program under the mentorship of Goku will help you hone your craft. The crypto space is only getting louder as competition for attention heats up. You’re going to need all the help you can get to cut through the noise.
Now that you’ve made it through this DOT 101, why not take a moment to unwind over A Glass with Gav? Enjoy the silencio while you can, because Polkadot June is kicking off, and things might get a whole lot noisier.