Written by yay.oi
What’s plottin’, squares? As the next leg of the journey takes shape, many are prepping their starter packs. While OGs may find themselves weighed down by nostalgia, newcomers can take comfort knowing the list of essentials to get going are more manageable.
Whether you’re packing light or carrying ancient relics from times gone by, you’ll need a guiding light to cut through the haze. Thankfully, Tommi Enenkel dropped an updated roadmap this week to illuminate the path ahead.
First up, Polkadot 2.0 is on track to launch this summer. As you might recall, Elastic Scaling’s debut on Kusama wasn’t without its perils. The upcoming runtime upgrade v1.6.1 addresses those issues and, pending governance approval, clears the road for a full rollout in the second half of August.
Also likely arriving a little later is the Polkadot Hub. Migration of staking and governance on the Paseo testnet began on Monday, and Kusama should follow not long after. Polkadot is likely to face some delays as major CEXes and enterprise partners are not quite ready to make the switch. Tommi is realistically predicting an October launch.
Then there’s speculation we may see some kind of development from Gavin Wood’s proof of personhood project in time for the Web3 Summit next week. It may be a paper, or something related to the citizenship app, which is currently being developed by NovaSama. Chief Nice Officer Leemo is certainly teasing a big drop.
Meanwhile, over at Hydration, a small drop in GIGAHydration APRs from their 69% starting point may actually be a cause for celebration. After all, they correlate directly with TVL, which has surged past $290M. That’s not to say the team isn't shaping things up. For instance, every three weeks, the team will need to implement APR boosts for three assets as determined by governance.
In further governance developments, plans to remove iBTC and WETH from the Omnipool are making progress. While over in the money market, the plan to raise GIGAETH’s supply cap was swiftly enacted after it exceeded expectations at launch. And on the horizon, a new proposal aims to reward a behind-the-scenes hero who helped prevent a major setback.
The story behind that proposal begins in mid-June, when a white-hat hacker disclosed an aToken minting exploit through the Immunefi bug bounty program. The vulnerability could have cost the GIGADOT pool up to $22M. Within two hours of the report, a pause on liquidity addition secured the funds, while a stealth patch was blind-approved by governance by the seven-hour mark.
Thanks to the bug bounty program and the swift action of the Hydration team, a crisis was averted before the launch of the GIGAHydration campaign. Referendum 119 proposes to reward the finder of this critical issue with the maximum payout of $500K. In the meantime, Jakub Panik’s post-mortem outlines the team’s plan to ensure this cannot happen again.
And while that chapter closes on Hydration, another has re-opened elsewhere in the ecosystem. Despite resolution by community consensus only eight months ago, the debate over how to best plan DOT inflation has returned to the table. While some ecosystem agents are pushing for a reduction to 6%, Jay Chrawwna has taken an interest in a capped supply with 2-year halvings.
The idea first gained prominence in last year’s Gray Paper interview, where Gavin Wood explained how Bitcoin’s step-curve inflation model shapes human behavior. Each step acts as a psychological waypoint, often sparking renewed market activity.
Unlike a smooth curve that quietly drifts downward, a stepped model creates clear milestones that catch people’s attention, prompt decisions, and help coordinate collective action. Fittingly, in a coordinated effort, Jay Chrawwna successfully initiated RFP 1 on OpenGov to crowd-source research, refine the models, and test the viability of the approaches he first sketched out.
One key argument for the reduction of inflation is to curb overpaying nominators. While they are supposed to contribute to the security by selecting reliable active validators, many tend to play a passive role instead. Crucially, payouts to nominators are the largest expense of Polkadot’s $1.5 billion spend over the past two years, far surpassing all other costs combined.
Tommi Enenkel points out that the easy, low-risk returns from staking can discourage participation in DeFi. Measures that stimulate ecosystem activity, however, could fuel deflationary token burning, with the most active projects incentivized by treasury airdrops, building momentum through a flywheel effect.
Momentum certainly isn’t slowing down in the Polkadot gaming vertical. This week Mythical recorded another all-time-high for net flow in its marketplace and monthly active users along with a massive surge in new wallets. Much of this is on the back of the FIFA Rivals launch, but a lucky few regional players have already been granted access to the Pudgy Party beta.
The rest of us may be waiting until August 29th, but some, such as Wagmedia’s own TuringM4chine, have managed to get in early. For a sneak peek, including gameplay clips and first impressions, check out his thread.
If you’d rather skip the spoilers and dive into something more productive, OpenGuild will have your coding skills ship-shape in no time. It launched two new platforms, Polkadot Education Hub and Polkadot Builders Resources, in June.
These platforms offer a wealth of interactive educational content designed to support both blockchain newcomers and seasoned builders. The education hub is an all-in-one learning resource featuring tutorials that start at the beginner level and progressively advance.
Once you’ve built confidence, you can test your skills in the Open Bootcamp. It’s a hands-on program designed to prepare developers for real-world building. The Solidity on PolkaVM Track helps Ethereum developers deploy smart contracts on the Polkadot Hub, while the Polkadot SDK Track covers the basics including Substrate and advanced parachain development.
Polkadot Builders Resources is a collaborative space for developer growth. It offers tools for exploring ideas, preparing for hackathons, and applying for grants. With mentorship and community support, it helps turn concepts into real projects. If you’re inspired to check it out, don’t forget to share your experience and potentially claim the OpenGuild x Wagmedia bounty.
As the community fuels innovation on the ground, bigger conversations are about to take center stage. Speakers and hackers are beginning to converge on Berlin for next week’s Web3 Summit. We’ve already speculated on whether identity developments will be on the table, but as Polkadot’s roadmap unfolds through summer and beyond, a new identity is also emerging.
Polkadot Hub is becoming a gateway for new developers and users, as the Cloud evolves into a rich landscape of resilient Web3 services. While the ecosystem takes shape, the original Web3 vision to rebuild the digital world with self-sovereignty at its core is starting to become reality. The roadmap is clear and the plan is in motion to deliver a future where truth outweighs blind trust.