Secure DOT Value! (June 16th to June 22nd)
In a period where sentiment appears negative, with the value of wallets decreasing and breaking news of security vulnerabilities, it certainly makes you reflect on the robustness of the systems in place within the industry.
When it comes to Polkadot, the ethos is centered around high-quality, secure, and decentralized blockspace, and with it, a powerful system that offers shared security for those building within it. “Secured by Polkadot” can be considered a mark of adhering to valuing quality, and this week we finally got to see it stamped on Snowbridge.
The launch of Snowbridge has been highly anticipated, furthermore, it aligns with the Polkadot ethos by providing a secure, trustless bridge between Polkadot and Ethereum. Our top story this week covers Snowbridge and its value, as well as the value of other hot news items within the ecosystem.
This week has also gathered quite a bit of attention about the Head Ambassador program, given the queue of proposals from candidates explaining the value they bring to secure votes. We will take a closer look at the candidates in this week’s edition, providing details that may help voters make an informed decision.
The full newsletter can be enjoyed via this link.
Dodow, Chief Editor
Top Story of the Week - Snowcasing Value
Written by yay.oi
Just as Polkadot DeFi summer starts heating up, along comes an icy reminder of crypto winters past. If you don’t like the look of all of those red candles, there’s still plenty of incentivized stablepools in the Polkadot ecosystem like Hydration (~44% APR), Stellaswap (~42% APR ), or Beamex BLP staking (~118% APR).
Even better, it’s now a whole lot easier to bring your funds over from Ethereum. That’s right fam, this week Snowbridge, the trustless bridge to Ethereum launched on Polkadot. It’s the wintery treat that’s been coming soon™ since 2020.
The idea of trust-free bridging to Ethereum dates all the way back to Polkadot’s White Paper (2016). In 2019, Gavin Wood listed some projects for interoperability between Polkadot and Ethereum. However, it wasn’t until August 2020, shortly after the Polkadot mainnet launch, that Snowfork’s Web3 Foundation funded Snowbridge, a general-purpose trustless bridge to Ethereum, was announced.
Snowfork completed the work for its initial grant, delivering a bridge based on an Ethereum Proof of Work light client and Parity’s original BEEFY proof system, in September 2021. Due to Ethereum’s move to Proof of Stake and subsequent updates to the BEEFY protocol, this version of Snowbridge was never deployed.
Continued work on Snowbridge was initially self-funded, but in 2022, Snowfork was awarded both retroactive and future funding. Final deployment would not be possible until the genesis of Polkadot Bridge Hub (April 2023), BEEFY (April 2024), and final audits (May 2024).....….
Check out our full newsletter for the full story
Special Report - Who’s DOT Ambassador?
Written by Sanchez
Ambassador programs in Web3 are often considered promotional strategies that projects employ to boost their PR. Whether incentivized or not, ambassadors are expected to represent and promote the project's brand and interests.
They achieve this by hosting and attending events synonymous with the project, onboarding new users, creating relatable and easy-to-understand content, and helping users navigate the ecosystem.
With the approval of referenda 487, the Polkadot community can now decide to recruit up to 21 head ambassadors, each receiving a monthly salary of $10,000. This move is poised to attract the best in the industry to work with Polkadot. Ambassadors are expected to be knowledgeable about the workings of Polkadot and able to speak fluently about the ecosystem's ideologies and principles.
Compared to the old Polkadot ambassador system, which consisted of17 regional head ambassadors with off-chain decision making, the new system embraces a more decentralized approach. This includes selecting ambassadors and managing their salary payments and treasuries all on-chain.....….
General News
Written by Dodow
As reported by parachains.info "Tillery has crabs" wins the latest Polkadot auction slot with a self-funded bid.
Rob proposes the Plaza, a Polkadot System Chain that evolves the Asset Hub to consolidate a number of features including smart contracts, bridges, and more.
You can now onramp USDT conveniently to Polkadot Asset Hub through Banxa.
Web3 Foundation's Jonas Gehrlein and Alistair Stewart have submitted an RFC to the Fellowship that could see unbonding of staked DOT reduced to as little as two days.
Subwallet has integrated the Polkadot Kusama bridge.
Snowbridge, the trustless bridge between Polkadot and Ethereum, is now live. It’s an initial release, with more upgrades, bug fixes, wallet support, and asset support to come.
In less than 2hours, Mandala's evaluation on Polimec reached its target.
NFT & DEFI News
Written by Dodow
LAOS Network has partnered with Tokensoft to do a public token sale. Register before July 10th, as the sale period starts on July 11th and ends on July 15th.
Ajuna Network has enabled Asynchronous Backing for both Ajuna and Bajun, game on!
Ajuna's The Last Battle of Bajun kicks off. This epic campaign, ending on September 21st, allows users to participate to gain more assets on Bajun, which will eventually convert to Ajun.
Polkadex announced their existing CEO and co-founder Gautham J will be stepping down. Executive director and co-founder Vivek Prasannan will be supporting the transition to a DAO.
As part of Moonbeam's Season 3 ecosystem grants, Beamex will be incentivizing 5K GLMR per day.
Bifrost provides updates on the crowdloan distributions for Energy Web X and LAOS, contributed through SALP.
Governance & Events News
Written by Dodow
Polkassembly has introduced filters, which can impose restrictions on who can comment on OpenGov proposals. Hopefully we get less trolls, and more productive comments.
Leemo has been confirmed as the first Polkadot Head Ambassador, with 99% approval on OpenGov.
Binancians hosted an AMA, which featured Christine Lee, Ecosystem Development Lead at Tanssi, on June 20th.
Moonbeam discusses their recent Innovation Fund for Gaming and RWAs on June 19th.
On June 21st, Marvin Tong hosted the first Phala AI AMA featuring AI clones of famous crypto figures.
Extras
Awesome cover art created by Dodow.
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