Featured Roundup - May 15th to May 21st
Written by Dodow
DOT Parachain Governance
Polkadot’s on-chain governance is widely recognised as one of the best in all of Web3. The mechanisms behind it can be adopted by parachains, enabling them to secure community approval for exposure to major features and more.
While much of the community’s focus seems to be on OpenGov and Polkadot DAO treasury funding, following is a rollup of key governance activity related to ecosystem parachains.
As covered in our Scaling Blocks story, Astar is now preparing for Tokenomics 3.0. The previous Tokenomics 2.0 aimed to address inflation by allocating more to dApps and revamping tiering to encourage stronger community support. Given the added complexity and expansion plans, this new proposal appears focused on Astar’s sustainability in a changing landscape.
Meanwhile, Moonbeam has been welcoming applications for Moonbeam Governance Guild (MGG) Term 2. It’s similar to Decentralized Voices in voting power, though each guild member is also mandated to engage in educational outreach. An example of outreach was a post about Proposal 109, a prerequisite for ERC-20 alignment and part of efforts to bring Ethereum closer.
Off-chain voting to determine the contest winners of new dApps or memecoins is the approach that Acala has taken since the start of 2025. While they are currently taking a break from contests, their latest ecosystem report covers winners, including Boomerang, who are launching an ACA LSD. In fact, there’s currently an on-chain proposal requesting a grant for BoomACA.
With the OpenGov referendum for Polkadot GigaHydration Campaign funding being tight, Hydration has stayed focused on rolling out features via its protocol’s on-chain governance. For instance, one feature could be a lifesaver for those facing liquidation while using money markets.
By the time you read this, Bifrost’s 1M DOT liquidity loan could be confirmed, given their meticulous track record in repaying the treasury with interest. They also seem conscious that the primary tokens of many DeFi protocols are mainly for governance, as they soon flip on the fee switch to bring in bbBNC and Bifrost Tokenomics 2.0.
Governance focus with newer parachains like Mythos and Xcavate could be renewed, especially given they were helped out with Coretime through a Whitelisted Referendum. If you’ve missed it, check out our recent story where we’ve been Catchin’Up on the drama with the Baron.
In any case, Polkadot and Kusama OpenGov have historically been where parachain teams turn to for funding or request retroactive funds for delivering ecosystem common goods. Recent requests include Ajuna’s SAGE (pending), Integritee’s privacy sidechain for AH (approved), and Robonomics’s Humanoid SDK (rejected) and RISK-V Smart Home devices (pending).
If you’ve been following our news roundups, you might already be aware of the governance activities above. News found by the community. Curated by the community. Backed by OpenGov.
DOT Ecosystem News & Events
Remember to claim your Astar dApp staking rewards. If you staked via Astar Degens for Season 3, be sure to claim by June 21st. Any unclaimed rewards will go to the DAO treasury.
Chainflip has integrated Polkadot Asset Hub, paving the way for multichain swaps of stables and DOT.
The latest Polkadot Treasury Report for Q1 2025 reveals a net positive quarter, with 3.9M DOT spent and $135M worth of DOT remaining. Additionally, $5.9M in stablecoins was acquired, $7.7M was provided for liquidity, and reserves are projected to last 10 years.
Hyperbridge may soon unlock stablecoins, NFTs, and token transfers for the Enjin ecosystem, as its integration goes live on testnet.
There were two incidents in early May that resulted in the degradation of blocktime for Polkadot parachains. In both cases, the root cause relates to a single validator suffering from disk failures. A patch has since been applied to resolve the issues. Check out the Polkadot forum for a post-mortem.
Acurast has released details on its tokenomics for staked compute. Annual inflation is fixed at 5%, with 70% allocated to the staking pool.
ParaID 3415 secured a core deal with the Baron. Although the 2K DOT purchase for a Polkadot core seems high, it comes out cheaper than next month’s open market cores when factoring in subsequent renewal fees.
DePINing ties as Silencio partners with Acurast to offer an exclusive onboarding reward. Rewards can be claimed through the Silencio shop after completing a few of Acurast’s Cloud Rebellion quests.
Polkadot onboarding in LATAM has been boosted as regional exchange Ripio supports DOT and stablecoins issued on Asset Hub.
In its quest to become the liquidity layer of Web3, Acala has integrated Snowbridge and Hyperlane to enhance interoperability across multiple ecosystems.
Silencio is ensuring some street-level coverage. Noise data is now available to insurance companies to help assess wellness factors that could influence premiums
33% of DEUS tokens can now be claimed by participants in XMAQUINA's Genesis Auctions for governance starting May 21st. Please note that the tokens remain non-transferable until the official TGE.
Silencio has recorded impressive growth, adding over 100K device IDs in less than a month, bringing their total to over 900K devices and 9.8M transactions.
After adding an additional 5K devices this past week, Acurast has surpassed the milestone of 70K everyday phones powering its global compute network.
Over 400K businesses globally now have access to 27 Silencio data products, thanks to a new integration with the SAP Datasphere Marketplace.
Evrloot closed Season 2 of its Marks Campaign earlier than expected due to critical maintenance. Participants had until May 18th to complete expeditions.
You can pre-register on Google Play and Apple App Store to get FIFA Rivals as soon as it goes live.
With the growth of gaming on Moonbeam taking shape, Gaming Hub goes live to bring it all together in one place. Whether you play, compete, campaign, or build, it’s now easier to find.
Tokens from the Xode parachain will soon be listed on Hydration, including MPC (lending) and Azkal (memecoin). Xode is touted as the first blockchain platform in the Philippines,
StellaSwap launches incentivized BTC and ETH pools as part of their 1M DOT campaign on May 22nd.
Kylix Finance has entered into a partnership with CreataChain. While there are multiple joint co-development and go-to-market opportunities, the move will facilitate the integration of Kylix’s liquidity model and on-chain liquidation mechanisms.
6-second blocktimes and Unified Addresses are now enabled on Hydration.
Hydration is rolling out features in Referendum 86. It’s speeding up with Async Backing, simplifying with unified address formatting, and improving liquidation on its money market.
Moonbeam extends its Governance Guild initiative and welcomes applications for the second term. 5M GLMR and 50K MOVR will be assigned to five delegates to be used in on-chain governance.
1.03M USDT has been requested in Polkadot OpenGov Referendum 1573 for 6 months of ongoing development for the eagerly anticipated Polkadot App. Funds will cover software development, marketing, resources, tooling, and legal costs. This is in addition to funding through the Web3 Foundation and the Marketing Bounty.
XMAQUINA, a humanoid AI DePIN built on Peaq, has opened up for snapshot voting. First up was the successful approval for the DAO to make a $450K strategic investment in Apptronik, a US-based humanoid robotics startup.
Discussing progress with JAM implementation was Acala’s Bryan Chen, in a stream hosted by Polkaworld on May 16th.
Neal Peters (N3mus) was a guest at the YOM town hall on May 15th for a discussion on Web3 gaming.
On May 15th, representatives from PaperMoon were on Polkaworld’s live stream to cover some of the Dottest topics, including PolkaVM, Polkadot Hub, and JAM.
Listeners enjoyed some midweek tea on May 20th, as Polkadot Nigeria hosted a session with Koda and ChessOnChain to discuss NFTs and gaming.
On May 16th, Dr. Robert Metcalfe was a special guest on OriginTrail’s On Trac(k) episode 13 to share insight on the Metcalfe Convergence Phase.
Check out this week’s episode of The Ambassador Fellowship Meets, as Lucy hosts Parity’s Joe Petrowski, Jan-Jan van der Vyver, Torsten Stuber, and Pierre Aubert.