Written by yay.oi
What’s slicin’ pizzaiolos? This week marks the 15th anniversary of Bitcoin Pizza Day, a crypto milestone that served up one of the first known attempts to use BTC to buy something tangible in the real world. With a price tag of 10K BTC, this is also the first year that those two Papa John’s pizzas crossed the $1 billion mark.
Showing its comparative youth, Polkadot celebrated its 5th birthday on Monday May 26th. To be precise, the first block was finalized at 2020-05-26 15:36:18 (UTC). From pizza to parachains, the entire Web3 space has come a long way, and for Polkadot part of that journey has been shaped by one of the most mature foundations of decentralized governance.
As reported in DOT Cohorts!, one of the most recent major developments in Polkadot ecosystem governance was the introduction of the Web3 Foundation (W3F) Decentralized Voices delegations. As promised with the introduction of its new Governance Coordinator, the W3F has begun exploring ways to further iterate the program.
Karam Alhamad has invited the community on the Polkadot Forum for feedback on what the future of the initiative should look like. At face value, the program could be seen as a form of centralization, counter to Web3 ideals.
So the question remains: has the DV program succeeded in facilitating broader discussion and participation in governance, or has it just created a new elite class of voters? To get the debate rolling three scenarios have been put forward.
One scenario is to sunset the program. This could happen as soon as the end of the current delegation. It would see a return of a voting system backed purely by its token-holders, while accepting the pitfalls such as voter apathy and outcomes being swayed by single large token-holders, as reported in Wag is OpenGov.
Another option is to expand the program and adjust the distribution of delegated DOT. For example, increase the number of delegates from six to ten, and reduce the delegated DOT from 6M to 2M. This approach could be paired with more diverse representation from regional and special interest groups to distribute influence more widely.
A third path would involve working together with the community to reform the DV program and create DV 2.0 collaboratively. The community could help select delegates and create guidelines for participation. Some ideas include setting term limits, requiring the bonding of DOT as skin in the game, and formalizing conflict of interest rules.
Gbaci surveyed his followers, who strongly favoured the option to expand the program. In The Future of Polkadot DVs X Space, Leemo voiced concern that the total voting power DVs hold is far too high. He suggested matching DV voting power to the average of organic voters. Since this conversation will shape upcoming proposals, now’s a great time to share your opinion too.
While foundations are being laid for a leaner, sharper DV delegations, the deeper groundwork of Polkadot DeFi may soon be tested by the outcome of Referendum 1542, expected to conclude by Monday. At a whopping 5M DOT, the GIGAHydration proposal was bound to stir some friction within the Polkadot DAO.
Some of the biggest critics were the DVs, with five out of six initially voting NAY. After a switch to abstention from Hungarian DAO and a change of heart from Polkaworld, the ref made it into the seven-day confirmation period. However, if it slips below 50% now, it’s game-over. Not willing to take any chances, Hydration dropped a bombshell on Wednesday.
After extensive discussions with the community, Hydration launched a proposal that would see 3M refunded to the treasury. The remaining 2M would be distributed on Hydration for a six-months while the team works with the W3F, Parity, and Velocity Labs to formulate a cohesive ecosystem incentivization plan that incorporates other protocols and the Hub.
This foundational work is critical because DeFi is the backbone of any Web3 ecosystem. It draws in capital, builds a loyal user base, and maintains a steady flow of liquidity, ensuring the financial resilience of its underlying tokens. This foundation supports more than just trading and investment, it provides the stability needed for new projects to emerge and thrive.
Beyond DeFi, Polkadot has found its niche in attracting projects with high demand for compute and data. A prime example of this is the recently announced Mubert Protocol. Mubert has a long history in Web2 as a platform for the AI-enhanced generation of royalty-free music which is used by a wide range of professionals including filmmakers, marketers, and content-creators.
Ready to take it up a notch with the help of Web3, Mubert Protocol is now building on Polkadot with the support of the Web3 Foundation and Magenta Labs. Just like Peaq is building the Machine Economy, Mubert is building the foundations of the Creator Economy, encompassing verifiable ownership, IP licensing, and monetization of both AI and human-generated assets.
Taking asset generation a step further, a new shipper has dropped an ankr and is asphering to forkin’ dance. Asphere is the latest to approach rollup-as-a-service (RaaS) on Polkadot. Also partnering with the Web3 Foundation, it will soon be adding the Polkadot stack to its enterprise-grade no-code rollup deployer.
Users will be able to seamlessly deploy generic and EVM-compatible rollups from a range of ready-to-launch templates powered by the Polkadot SDK. Rollups will support custom tokens or DOT utility, governance, and tailored use-cases such as DeFi, DAOs, or gaming, providing a robust foundation for new entrants to the ecosystem.
Meanwhile, the Polkadot OGs are setting the stage for a massive expansion to on-chain possibilities. This week, Gavin Wood, thankfully without a second precarious situation, returned to ETH Prague. Skipping a fireside chat with Vitalik this time, he was there to really quake things up.
After a new and improved JAM explainer, rather than demoing DOOM on-chain to showcase the technology, Gav upped the ante and managed to get Quake up and running. As for the response from the Ethereum devs, apparently, they think JAM’s looking kinda sick.
No doubt, many in the Polkadot ecosystem would agree. Now a conversation has begun about whether this technical upgrade will also result in a rebrand, and potentially even a new token. Whether or not JAM brings a new brand or token, what remains clear is that Polkadot is and always will be the bedrock of this next chapter.
It is the foundation on which JAM and the broader vision of Web3 is being built. Even before JAM’s arrival, Polkadot itself is undergoing a transformation. As we advance through Polkadot 2.0 and the Hub, it’s up to us as the community to shape the Polkadot narrative through storytelling and governance. JAM should feel like a natural evolution, not departure from what came before.