WAG’s the Plan? - Newsletter Edition 106
In this week’s edition:
Editorial: Celebrating plans? While fireworks fly, the Polkadot ecosystem is quietly planning through the summer recess.
Top Story - Shape & Plan DOT!: A closer look at what’s shaping up across the Polkadot ecosystem this week.
Wag Roundup: News from our Finders Program between July 3rd to July 9th.
Extras: Credits and anything else worth a mention.
Editorial
What is up, my friends!
With US Independence Day celebrations in full swing, it was seemingly a good moment to send out letters or have a party. Perhaps it doesn’t make a ton of sense to be granted a golden visa by staking substantial amounts of tokens. Nor does getting a staking ETF do much for the SOL. Might be a good moment to catch a flight or prepare for fun? So, WAG’s the plan?
Well, they do say that summer recess is the time for planning and quiet coordination behind the scenes. That brings us neatly to this week’s Top Story, where we take a look at how things are being shaped and planned across the Polkadot ecosystem.
If you’ve been in the Wag Discord, you might have seen the announcement about experimenting with the News Finding Program as we enter the final stretch of our funding period. We're looking to entice more folks to contribute to the weekly newsletter through the roundup and by featuring creator pieces, including those from top yappers. Happy finding!
Dodow, Chief Editor
Top Story of the Week - Shape & Plan DOT!
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 hassurged 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.……………
Continue with this week’s top story: Shape & Plan DOT!
Wag Roundup
News found by the community. Curated by the community. Backed by OpenGov.
DOT Ecosystem News & Events
Written by Dodow
The Web3 Foundation has revised the JAM Implementers Prize with three tracks. These cover full validating nodes, lightweight nodes, and non-PVM nodes using third-party implementation. Rewards range from 250K to 500K DOT and 2.5K to 5K KSM.
Humans and machines assemble as Peaq now passes 5M registered addresses.
Excluding rollups, the Polkadot Network now has over 1M monthly active accounts.
Mythical Marketplace netflow hits a new ATH of 4M MYTH!
Giga demand for Bifrost’s vDOT continues as it passes the 18M milestone. Update: now passing 19M.
Check out the stats that come with 30% of Stellaswap’s token locked into veSTELLA.
Hydration reaches an all-time high of HDX staked, with more than 3K holders pouring in.
Bifrost opens up the Hyperbridge between Polkadot and Ethereum on its main dApp. Several assets, including vTokens, can now trustlessly transfer cross-chain.
Elections are now live. Use your LDOT to vote on Acala validators and earn a share of ACA rewards.
On July 9, ET discussed whether your phone could be the future of cloud computing with Acurast.
Full Wag Roundup July 3rd to July 9th.
Extras
Plantastic 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.