JAMmed! - Newsletter Edition 85
In this week’s edition:
Editorial: Tax mode, JAMazing news & insights, and the recent standout content by WM creators.
Top Story - WAG’s the JAM?: exploring the latest development and insights about JAM that concluded January.
Featured Update - JAMuary Content: catch up on the standout content created since our last update.
Wag Roundup: News from our Finders Program between January 30th and February 5th.
Extras: Credits and anything else.
The full newsletter can be enjoyed via this link.
Editorial
What is up, my friends!
The threat of imposing tariffs has impacted the markets, and although there was some pause, further trade wars still loom large. While those in the crypto world are accustomed to volatility, the expectation is of a positive path toward adoption, with the possibility of a Bitcoin reserve in the mix.
Shifting from trade wars involving tax on imports or exports of goods, it seems Gav’s previous workplace has entered “war mode”, with brighter tax advice emerging. Meanwhile, our Chief Architect appears to be in “JAM mode” as the month concludes with hot news and insights on building the world computer.
As such, in this week’s top story, we’ll cover these JAMazing news and insights. Additionally, we’ll enter “review mode” to feature updates on the recent standout content being created as JAMuary wraps up.
Speaking of amazing insights, did you get a chance to read Vampsy’s latest analytics report? Instead of focusing on WagMedia data, he redirected his data analysis to Polkadot. Perhaps it could inspire you with creative angles to join us in creating content.
Dodow, Chief Editor
Top Story of the Week - WAG’s the JAM?
Written by yay.oi
What’s TOASTin’, JAMily? January’s a wrap, and the seasonal festivities are behind us, but we still have plenty to look forward to. While the DOT event vibes were strong across Europe this week, it was the inaugural Ambassador Fellowship Meetup in Vancouver that really turned heads, thanks to a very special guest.
The man of the moment was none other than Polkadot founder and chief architect Gavin Wood, who has just dropped the JAM Gray Paper version 0.6. What makes this version particularly special is that it signals a feature freeze on the JAM protocol. From this point onward, further development will be limited to tweaks, optimizations, and audits.
There was also some big JAM news for Jamixir, a team that is implementing JAM in Elixir. They became the first to deploy a JAM node and start producing blocks. With node implementation diversity a high priority for the JAM protocol, you can expect to see more news soon from the 35+ implementation teams.
Back at the Vancouver mixir, Jay Chrawwna kicked the night off by inviting ambassador Lucy Coulden to the stage to deliver an ambitious declaration. The Ambassador Fellowship is targeting 10K Polkadot meetups globally each month, with Gav potentially making a few more surprise appearances.
While achieving that milestone may take some time, Jay shared the impressive current figures regarding Polkadot’s rollups. According to Token Terminal data, this week Polkadot hosted 10 out of the top 20 rollups by transaction count.
Frequency, the blockchain that would power Project Liberty’s Tiktok bid if successful, topped the list. Meanwhile, Jay made a point to highlight the achievements of Mythical and the potential of Mandala Chain.
Gavin, however, was more interested in name-dropping Peaq, sending its community into a bit of a frenzy. Although, some of them did seem to have gotten their wires crossed and never got the memo that Peaq is a Polkadot parachain (i.e. rollup).............…….
Check out our full newsletter for the full story
Featured Update - JAMuary Content
Written by Dodow
The growth of the WagMedia creator economy continues to take shape as we complete the first month of 2025. While some creators have taken time to rest, the steady flow of submissions remains. In particular, newer creators have been ramping up their output as they try to figure out smart engagement and improve quality.
To kick things off with our coverage of standout content, we begin amid the backdrop of record-breaking TPS from the Spammening and a new WagMedia rewards record. Our creators seemed determined to make one final push for new heights to close out 2024.
The Spammening likely influenced some of our creators to take fresh approaches on the transaction angle. Emil took a closer look at block time bottlenecks, provided a comprehensive analysis comparing the leading blockchains, and was rewarded with 23 DOT. JesseBlessed covered the perspective of being ready to handle the mass adoption surge, earning 11 DOT.
Lily reached new heights with a personal rewards record of 21 DOT for her Polkadot Pay review and comparison with Web2 payment applications. Meanwhile, Pieky continued to experiment with new topics and received 20 DOT for touching on the hot AI narrative with OriginTrail.
With the Polkadot 2.0 roadmap unfolding throughout the year, 2024 ended with top-notch pieces centered on it. The White Rabbit once again engages us with his dazzling video skills, embedded in his long post offering a glimpse of the key milestones that shape the ecosystem, and was awarded 28 DOT.
Then, in similar fashion to the Spammening, Emil once again broke the rewards record with an outstanding 66 DOT for his wrap-up thread explaining Polkadot 2.0. We recommend new creators study his approach. Not only that, be sure to check out some of his feedback and advice on the Wag Discord.......……...
Wag Roundup
Written by yay.oi
Gavin Wood has dropped version 0.6 of the JAM Gray Paper. This milestone implements a freeze on additional features as the project moves towards the testing and optimization phase.
We all knew this was coming. 21Shares has filed an application with the SEC to list the 21Shares Polkadot Trust ETF on the CBOE BZX US Equities Exchange.
Nectar Protocol, a platform for anonymously and securely sharing sensitive health data between research teams, has launched on Moonbeam.
Parity Director of Product Engineering Karim Jedda’s generative art collection Attractors is minting for free now on KodaDot. Only the luckiest mints will result in a stable and colourful design. In fact, some are coming out completely black, so you may want to try minting more than one.
Are you ready for even more liquid staking token liquidity? Bifrost is now connected to the Hyperbridge mainnet.
Stellaswap’s V4 DEX launches on February 7th, offering lower gas fees, enhanced efficiency, and an array of new modular features. To continue benefiting from incentives, liquidity providers will need to migrate to the new pools.
RegionX is requesting 90K USDT from the Polkadot treasury for Phase 1 of its common-good Coretime Marketplace parachains, which would cover deployment and development on Kusama.
Lead sponsor Polkadot made a strong impression at the CryptoXR conference in Auxerre, France, which ran from January 30th to February 1st. It featured a presentation by DonDiegoSanchez and community engagement led by Le Nexus at the Polkadot stand.
ET, Moon-Bearer, and Grizzly got together on February 3rd to discuss the relaunch of the Polkadot Discord server, which is incentivizing community engagement with new earnable statuses and special gifts from TOD.
Extras
Awesome cover art created by SKULLZ.
For all you budding creators out there, don't hesitate any longer – join us now! There are plenty of rewards awaiting your creativity.