Written by yay.oi
What’s vibin’, interns? This week, Crypto Twitter has been gripped by a full-on Pudgy PFP takeover. And yes, even Polkadot got the nod, receiving a personal invitation to join the huddle.
These spontaneous waves of virality don’t happen every day, but they do show how connecting with the right crowds can unlock serious mindshare without burning a hole in the treasury. Polkadot’s Pengu connection, via Mythical, landed it right in the middle of the action, with Pudgy Party now open for pre-registrations ahead of its imminent release.
As that hype builds, the FIFA Rivals CWC season wrapped up this week, but there was also plenty of action on the real pitch. Though Inter Miami exited the tournament a bit earlier than hoped, redemption was found after proper preparation in their Polkadot practice kit.
The hometown heroes clinched a 2-1 victory against Nashville. After the match, Sir David Beckham popped over to the Polkadot pit to check up on the progress of the Polkadot-powered fan-engagement platform, now open for voting.
All of that shaping and planning has certainly paid off for Hydration, this week exceeding the monumental milestone of $300M TVL with no end in sight. Tweaks and fixes continued, as moves were made to improve wstETH price-tracking for GETH by finding a better-performing solution to the recently integrated DIA oracles.
Meanwhile, at the Polkadot protocol level, the party planning committee is just getting started. Last month, Tommi Enenkel pitched a global, decentralized launch party to celebrate Polkadot 2.0. Running for over a month, it would energize the ecosystem, and invite the world to see why Polkadot is the best place to build Web3.
Web3 Foundation’s Radha Dasari chimed in this week with a progress update. Headlining the celebration is a four to six week-long online hackathon. Unlike the usual fast-paced sprints, this one gives developers more breathing room. It offers ample time to explore the new features and functions of the Polkadot SDK, perhaps enough to build a serious proof-of-concept.
The hackathon brings together existing Polkadot builders, Web3 developers from other ecosystems, and enthusiastic newcomers with little or no blockchain experience. To reach these different groups, the events could run across multiple online platforms like Devpost, Devfolio, Encode Club, and DoraHacks.
Polkadot Cloud and Hub workshops, run by the likes of Parity, Web3 Foundation, Papermoon, OpenGuild, and R0gue, could complement the hackathon and offer much-needed guidance to existing projects. Astar has also raised a hand to offer support, and additionally suggested that workshops should play a more central role.
But what’s a party without some fireworks? A follow-up to the original Spammening may soon be on the agenda. Full details are still under wraps, but according to Radha, the focus could be on what an individual parachain can achieve. Sounds like an elastic-scaled, 12-core, 500ms blocktime setup might be on the cards.
While sparks are still being struck for that blaze, tents are pitched and the campfires are already smoldering in Berlin, with the Web3 Summit kicking off on Wednesday. Webzero is back to host the Synergy hackathon with a growing prize pool approaching $100K.
In the spirit of the summit, it’s a chain-agnostic hackathon where participants are encouraged to build across ecosystems, stack partner bounties, and prototype interoperable tools for the decentralized web. Several thematic tracks invite builders to explore different corners of Web3, with partners including Polkadot, Kusama, Hyperbridge, ink!, and Solana Superteam Germany.
Summit speakers span the spectrum of Web3’s most pressing frontiers, from decentralized social networking to privacy-enhanced transactions. In Gavin Wood’s keynote on Wednesday, some were hopeful for a follow-up on the proof-of-personhood project he unveiled at last year’s event.
While that topic is just one piece of the puzzle, the broader conversation continues in Polkadot: Road Ahead, a dedicated session exploring the future of the network. It covers everything from JAM delivery and governance, to zero-knowledge viability and long-range protocol challenges. We’ll unpack the key insights in next week’s newsletter.
Separately, but just as important for the Polkadot ecosystem, Gavin Wood also reaffirmed his support for a capped DOT supply in an Element chat this week. He suggested a cap of π×10⁹, roughly 3.14B DOT, as an elegant number, which also has some evidence of community support. However, some are already pushing for a more dramatic reduction.
Could we be about to witness a tokenomic showdown between founder and community? Gav said that he’s preparing to propose a model in the not too distant future. As noticed by Polkaworld, this may have been built into the JAM protocol design for a lot longer than we’ve realized.
Meanwhile, Jay Chrawwna’s tokenomic initiative, beginning with RFP 1, is reaching the end of its research phase. Jay has indicated that the findings will culminate in a formal governance proposal by the end of the month, potentially offering a counterpoint or complement to Gavin’s forthcoming model, likely to be coded into JAM.
With the release of Gray Paper at 0.7.0, Gavin Wood is accepting submissions of Milestone 1 of the JAM implementation, and teams will soon be syncing up on the testnet. Yet as Tommi Enenkel has suggested, the full rollout of JAM could extend well into 2027. For some, that’s too far off for such a crucial tokenomic change.
In the meantime, the Polkadot 2.0 launch party may offer a timely chance to seize broader market momentum. With the ecosystem firing on more cylinders than it has for years, the stage is set to signal a rebirth. Time, and governance, will tell, but a bold tokenomic overhaul could be the crowning touch that turns our celebration into a statement.