DOT is Summit! (August 18th to August 24th)
In this week’s top story, we will cover the key details from Gavin’s keynote in Berlin, as well as his recent thoughts from a captivating Coindesk interview. As always, we will also tie in key developments from the Polkadot ecosystem over the past week.
With the future possibilities of digital citizenship coming to OpenGov, our featured story will focus on Polkadot Treasury spend requests. This week, there have been several notable spending proposals, making it a good opportunity to raise some awareness.
On the topic of spend requests, this newsletter you are reading is the 26th since the WagMedia reboot. This means we have reached our 6 month funding milestone. While we wait for continued funding to go through OpenGov, we will limit our operations.
Our weekly newsletter will be on hold, but we will continue with a limited Finders Program, and the Original Content Program will have another week to go. Vampsy is currently in the process of wrapping up our remaining data reports. In the meantime, feel free to review and contribute to our continued funding discussion.
Enjoy the updates and stories we have lined up this week. Thank you for your support, and we look forward to returning with fresh insights and great takes.
The full newsletter can be enjoyed via this link.
Dodow, Chief Editor
Top Story of the Week - DOT is Web3?
Written by yay.oi
This week’s festivities centered around the German capital, with the third Web3 Summit returning after a five-year hiatus. Taking place in the historic Funkhaus, a former East German broadcasting center, the Web3 Summit is a little different from other blockchain conferences.
For starters, the summit operates with the policy of no sponsorships, no logos, and no maximalism. It is a participant driven event designed to foster collaboration across numerous blockchain protocols, with a focus on the decentralized technologies powering Web3.
So, what exactly is meant by Web3? Looking back to the inaugural Web3 Summit in 2018, Juan Benet offered his definition of Web3 as a movement that aims to make the internet more decentralized, verifiable, and secure. The goals include establishing trustless infrastructure, removing intermediaries, and giving users back ownership of their data, identity, security, and transactions.
That same year, Gavin Wood iconically demonstrated launching a Substrate based blockchain in minutes. This year, however, Gav had other things on his mind. Following up on his talk at Decoded, Individuality in a Purely Digital World, his talk was titled Web3 Citizenship.
By Gav’s definition, citizenship involves belonging to a collective on the basis of being a person. So, in order to prove one’s citizenship, one must first prove their individuality..............….
Check out our full newsletter for the full story
Featured Update - DOT Treasury Requests
Written by Sanchez
Dr. Gavin Wood said in an interview on the Kusamarian aired in November 2023, “The treasury is there for spending.” The conversation at that point in the interview was to address conservatism when it came to using treasury funds. In particular, Kusama was supposed to be the network where anything could be funded and built, no matter how ridiculous the idea seemed.
Now on to the present day, OpenGov has evolved even more with numerous tracks and refinements. Things on Polkadot have taken off, with a glut of treasury spend requests, and the chaos synonymous with Kusama has seemed to have made its way over.
The H1 treasury report, which was put together by the treasury funded OpenGov.watch, provides an extensive overview of the situation. Kolkadot was on everyone’s lips as the situation led to Polkadot becoming a top trending topic on CT. So, is the treasury being spent wisely?
Well, quite a number of teams have gone back to the treasury for a top-up due to market conditions, given that their funding was received and held in DOT. This makes it increasingly important for the option of receiving funds in stablecoins. Referendum 1104 should help, as it seeks to convert 5,261,001 DOT to USDT and USDC stablecoins over the course of a year..............….
News from the Finders Program Part 1
Written by yay.oi
In an integration facilitated by Velocity Labs, Alchemy Pay now supports DOT for its on/off ramp, and USDC and USDC for its on-ramp service.
Decentralized social app chain Frequency has reached a new milestone, with over a million users.
Check out the Polkadot Playbook, written by Shawn Tabrizi, for simple and accurate answers to 25 of the most frequently asked questions.
Tanssi’s Let’s Forking Dance incentivized testnet campaign comes to an end on August 28th, with over 150K participants and 2.7M transactions. Final rankings will be published on August 29th, with rewards claimable via an NFT keypass and redeemable in early 2025.
Tommi Enenkel (OpenGov.Watch) took a deep dive into the increased sophistication of DAO governance systems, and whether we will soon see network constitutions on Day 1 of the Web3 Summit, August 19th.
At Coinfest Asia on August 23rd, Jay Chrawwna (The Kusamarian) hosted a panel featuring Ingo Ruebe (KILT), Ursula O'Kuinghttons (Scytale Digital), Jerry (Tsang Hing Hoi) (Bifrost), and Gede Putu Rahman Desyanta (Mandala Chain) where they discussed how strategic interoperable alliances can foster innovation and growth.
News from the Finders Program Part 2
Written by Sanchez
Gavun Wud has released Flappywud v1.3, and it features a dynamic airdrop of 1 billion WUD for players. Flap, earn points, and collect WUD. Players earning between 10-100 points will receive 250 WUD per point, while those earning more will receive 1,000 WUD per point. Additionally, large WUD holders can benefit from available multipliers.
Following discussions, the AstarDegens proposals one and two, aimed at improving the DAO's efficiency and financial health, are now up for voting. The voting period ends on September 3rd.
After adding vASTR to the Hydration Omnipool, Bifrost have now provided BNC incentives in a new farm for users providing vASTR liquidity on Hydration.
Stellaswap has introduced a position tracker that alerts users when their liquidity positions fall out or back in range. The tracker sends notifications via Telegram.
Referendum 35, which has passed, introduces the Teerdays pallet—a governance and revenue distribution mechanism on Integritee. Stakers of TEER tokens will earn Teerdays proportional to the amount of TEER staked and the duration of staking. Revenue from Incognitee, once launched, will be distributed to holders based on the Teerdays held.
Talisman has proposed joining the Bifrost Reward Share program with a 50% commission. Currently, they have integrated liquid staking for GLMR and MANTA recommendations on their dashboard, with plans to add ETH and DOT in the future.
Extras
Awesome cover art created by Dodow.
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