Making Moves! - Newsletter Edition 97

wagwritersguild

May 09, 2025

In this week’s edition:

Editorial: Movement vibes, pushing ahead with roadmaps, and which creators and their content are moving audiences in April.
Top Story - DOT Roadmaps: Catch up on the latest ecosystem developments with roadmaps.
Featured Report - April’s WAG: Who wagged well last month.
Wag Roundup: News from our Finders Program between May 1st and May 7th.
Extras: Credits and anything else.

The full newsletter can be enjoyed via this link.

Editorial

What is up, my friends!

Movement in the Web3 industry continues to make headlines this past week, in and around the plush surroundings at TOKEN2049 Dubai. While the investigations into some moves have raised alarms, one piece of rippling news involves a move that has yet to round out. Then there are those who are tethering on decentralized AI.

It’s sometimes difficult to follow all the news on X these days, however, it can be rewarding to keep up with DOT yaps. Luckily, we have you covered in our top story this week, as we navigate the latest updates, especially with some of those in the Polkadot ecosystem recently announcing 2025 roadmaps.

As we progress into May we will be rounding up how the WagMedia creator economy has been moving audiences last month in our featured report. You might even notice some of our best waggers from the Kaito leaderboard.

Or better yet, join in. In addition to the potential DOT on offer, WagMedia provides valuable feedback as well as the opportunity to strengthen your research and writing foundations.

Dodow, Chief Editor

Top Story of the Week - DOT Roadmap

Written by yay.oi

What’s mappin’, roadies? While some may argue that protocols are still being shaped by ideas championed years ago, the Web3 space as a whole is generally adaptive and fast-paced. Roadmaps are subject to change as narratives shift, and new opportunities or challenges surface along the way.

Polkadot 2.0, however, is on track for an early delivery. Defined by the Polkadot DAO as the deployment of Agile Coretime, Async Backing, and Elastic Scaling, it may even be achieved by the end of the month.

Still, no rollout is without friction, such as the recent Coretime drama covered in Catchin’ Up. In the dynamic world of Polkadot, that’s nothing a bit of governance can’t fix. Web3 Foundation’s Jonas Gehrlein outlined some potential improvements in AAG #228. For now though, it couldn't hurt to follow Bifrost's lead.

Other Polkadot parachains, in the meantime, have been busy mapping out their plans for 2025. Peaq’s recently renewed roadmap reveals several long-awaited feature rollouts.

Dropping this Q2 will be the DePIN DEX, finally offering decentralized access to Peaq ecosystem tokens. Also slated for Q2, the DePIN launchpad will accelerate the onboarding of new projects, building on a foundation of more than 50 DePINs to date. A glance at last week’s news roundup shows that Peaqosystem growth is far from slowing down.

There’s more to come in Q3, starting with the launch of a Peaq-native stablecoin. This will lay the groundwork for new DeFi use cases through money markets linked to machine RWAs.

With new human and machine users surging, and a continued rise in daily transactions, Peaq is also aiming to improve network performance in Q3. Making full use of the capabilities of Async Backing and Elastic Scaling, it is targeting 65,000 TPS and 0.4s block time on its mainnet.

Building on 2024’s strategic direction, the Moonbeam Wayin itslatest roadmap also plans to make use of Elastic Scaling after protocol adjustments scheduled for Q4. Along with otherprotocol enhancements, andmaintaining Ethereum compatibility, 2025 will see the launch of two major features........................…….

Check out our full newsletter for the full story.

Featured Report - April’s WAG

Written by Dodow

The WagMedia creator economy marched on from the previous month with a staggering 110 content submissions in April. Although the month starts off with the celebration of fools, it appears we shouldn’t be too quick to rejoice in the volume and get fooled by the high number.

While the number of 97 submissions receiving awards still seemed impressive, the honest reality is it wasn’t. With a little over 578 DOT distributed, there appears to be a drop in quality as the average came to around 5.3, which is in stark contrast to the previous months’ averages of 15 DOT. Thus, only 7 creators managed to achieve that level this time.

Towards the end of the month, Goku put out an announcement for creators to focus on what they genuinely understand, including what they use and do within the ecosystem. Share your journey, try to be authentic, and perhaps put down the GPT. Even one of the beastliest of Kaito yappers, who isn’t just top of the Polkadot leaderboard, echoes a similar message.

Enough of the rant, let’s move on to April’s highlights, and once again the top Wag creator was Emil. With only three submissions during the month, you’d think he was prioritizing yapping. Though he is certainly entitled to, most of us shouldn’t be April fooled, as top creators tend to avoid spamming. In fact, the focus is on quality, which earns reputation and a smart following.

It’s no surprise all of Emil’s submissions exceeded previous months’ averages. A critique of Solana validators earned 15 DOT, and more valuable was engagement from Gav. Highlighting Polkadot Hub’s appeal to Ethereum devs brought in 36 DOT. And another 35 DOT was received through shifting attention to the fourth largest population, with Mandala Chain launching soon.

More surprising was that the highest amount for a single submission went to two other creators. Many might have expected Pieky to be one of the recipients of the 45 DOT high. He succeeded with experimental angles, as his take on Cardano’s Midnight was well received. While the approach didn’t work as well with other submissions, it's the feedback that benefits him more.................……...

Go check out the full report.

Wag Roundup