Polkadot Digest 2 Feb 2023

Polkadot News

A new parachain lease auction has begun, with the Ending Period beginning tomorrow. https://polkadot.js.org/apps/?rpc=wss%3A%2F%2Fpolkadot.api.onfinality.io%2Fpublic-ws#/parachains/auctions

With 3 days left to vote, Referendum 98, proposing to update the parathread ID in the genesis state Wasm of @bittensor_ parachain, is passing with 99% in favor. https://polkadot.polkassembly.io/referendum/98

Referendum 101, proposing to approve the Wasm smart contracts bounty (Bounty #19) is currently passing unanimously with 25 days left to vote. https://polkadot.polkassembly.io/referendum/101

The Polkadot staking rate continues to slowly increase, and is now at 45.97%. https://staking.polkadot.network/#/overview

Kusama News

With almost four days left in the current parachain lease auction, parathread ID 2256 has been in the lead the entire Ending Period. https://polkadot.js.org/apps/?rpc=wss%3A%2F%2Frpc.dotters.network%2Fkusama#/parachains/auctions

Several OpenGov Referenda have closed in the last few days, with nine still active. You can see and vote on the active referenda here: https://polkadot.js.org/apps/?rpc=wss%3A%2F%2Frpc.dotters.network%2Fkusama#/referenda

There are still some old proposals on the Democracy track. On Kusama, OpenGov referenda are now preferable unless there is a specific reason not to propose via OpenGov. https://wiki.polkadot.network/docs/learn-opengov