Macro Steps - Newsletter Edition 110
In this week’s edition:
Editorial: August Missteps, and stepping up across the Polkadot ecosystem.
Top Story - Stepping DOT: With momentum building on Polkadot inflation and Hub prioritisation, we take a closer look at what's capping our minds this week.
Wag Roundup: News from our Finders Program between July 29th to August 4th.
Extras: Credits and anything else worth a mention.
Editorial
What is up, my friends!
August starts off with a Liberation Day-esque repeat as tariff fears are this time flanked by poor US jobs data and a notable firing. This was followed up with another China ban on crypto. After checking the Xtraodatory, Relentless, Positioning in the mainstream media, some may want to take another look at their 401K.
Amid the noise, DOT Singularity continues to unfold in Web3’s most resilient and secure decentralized supercomputing environment. This week, however, the momentum is about taking steps up. Our Top Story takes a closer look at the signal vote plus details behind Capped and Stepped Inflation, as well as prioritisation on the Polkadot Hub.
Speaking of closer looks, check out WagMedia’s case study on the GigaHydration Referendum through OpenGov. Or, for the weekly news and updates, see this week’s Wag Roundup. Want to get involved with news and content? Join us.
Dodow, Chief Editor
Top Story of the Week - Stepping DOT
Written by yay.oi
What’s deflatin’, armchair economists? As another week passes us by, change still hangs in the air, with voices inside the DAO calling for precipitous change. Moments like this prompt deeper questions about how Web3 is built. Gavin Wood, in a recent documentary, compared designing crypto-economic systems to designing enjoyable board games.
Rules, he explained, aren’t made for their own sake, but for the emergent effects they create. Politicians, on the other hand, tend to craft rules as quick fixes to perceived problems, often without regard for those emergent effects. This can result in some wildly inconsistent outcomes.
Meanwhile, Polkadot continues its journey to build a user-sovereign internet, embracing a multichain vision. Interestingly, Ethereum’s 10-year birthday marks its embrace of a similar path, though at a different pace. This evolving landscape sets the stage for the Polkadot DAO’s current focus with crypto-economic reform.
The real test will be whether it becomes a carefully crafted game or gradually tests the resilience of the network’s economic foundation. Jay Chrawwna’s RFP-1 on a DOT cap and stepped inflation wrapped up this week, producing three proposed models now open for a nonbinding off-chain vote.
Each model features an emission reduction every two years, similar but more frequent than Bitcoin’s halving. The Soft Pressure model applies a gentle 13.14% cut with a cap of 3.14B, while Medium Pressure increases the downward force to 33.33% with a 2.5B cap.
The Hard Pressure model is much more drastic, with 50% emission reductions every two years and a hard cap of 2.1B DOT. In the Gray Paper interview, Gavin Wood spoke about the psychological effects of a step-curve inflation model, where each step becomes a milestone prompting collective action and market activity.………………
Continue with this week’s top story: Stepping DOT.
Wag Roundup
Written by yay.oi
News found by the community. Curated by the community. Backed by OpenGov.
In order to provide optimum compatibility for the leading third-party Ethereum dApps, a strategic decision has been made to prioritize deploying a 100% EVM compatible alternative to PVM on the Polkadot Hub. It’s about growing the ecosystem through easier portability and unlocking the top opportunities in the pipeline. For this, REVM has been chosen, with delivery targeted for mid-December.
Through its HIC Fund II, Harbour Industrial Capital has made a $1.2M strategic investment in Mandala Chain, Kylix Finance, Xcavate, and Hyperbridge.
Energy Web is preparing an upgrade that will see the standalone proof-of-authority Energy Web Chain migrated to the proof-of-stake parachain Energy Web X. In addition, the EWT token will be transitioned to an ERC-20 token on Ethereum, with token flow to Polkadot managed by a bidirectional bridge.
In partnership with ChainFlip, thanks to the hard work of Velocity Labs,one-click cross-chain swaps between Asset Hub, Relay Chain, Bitcoin, Ethereum, and more are now live on Subwallet.
Over $13M in TVL was minted via Bifrost Reward Share Program partners in July. Taking the lead was Hydration, with $7.2M in vDOT minted. Subscan also contributed a substantial $4.2M to the TVL.
Lido Finance’s LDO token is now live in the Hydration Omnipool, with GIGAHydration incentives starting at 69%.
Nova Wallet’s Nova Shots prediction dApp has returned for the Blast Bounty Series 2 CS2 tournament in Malta. Participants can now claim 1000 BLAST and start trading team tokens. Holders of the winning team’s tokens will share in a prize pool of $25K USDT.
Let’s congratulate the winners of the Entropretty algorithmic tattoo design competition held at Assembly Summer ’25. Mr Haila took first prize in the Black and White category with Just Flow, while Tommi Ylitalo’s Batcraft won the Wild Tattoo prize.
Web3 gaming investment firm GG Capital has announced its investment in Mythical Games through a strategic purchase of MYTH tokens.
With the conclusion of the Polkadot RFP #1 study on capped DOT supply and stepped inflation, three models have been presented to the DAO and are up for a non-binding vote on OpenSquare. The Hard Pressure model, which has so far received overwhelming support, proposes to halve DOT issuance every two years with a total supply cap of 2.1B DOT.
At GM Vietnam on August 1st, Radha Dasari (Web3 Foundation) delivered a keynote exploring how Polkadot Hub and Cloud can serve as core infrastructure to power the next generation of Web3 use cases.
Full Wag Roundup July 29th to August 4th.
Extras
Dazzling 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.