Wagtober - Newsletter Edition 74

In this week’s edition:

Weekly Editorial October vibes, WagMedia’s renewed funding, what next, and how to get involved.
Top Story - Back on the DOT! Rundown on the key things that have happened since our last newsletter.
Featured Update - Recap DOT Content! A catch up on the standout content generated through our last batch of bounties.
Wag Roundup News from our Finders Program between October 13th to October 17th.
Extras Anything else.

Editorial

What is up, my friends!

October brings a renewed sense of positivity to the crypto markets, with the hope that the long period of chop is behind us. With the breaking news of the SEC approval of options trading for Bitcoin ETFs, things are looking up. That said, please do take care, whether it is YOLOing into the notion of a memecoin supercycle, farming around, or getting into new things–DYOR.

This renewed sense of positivity also applies to the Polkadot ecosystem, as community content via the WagMedia mission is once again backed by OpenGov. On behalf of Team Wag and WagMedia Content Creators, we would like to thank you for your continued support.

There is so much to catch up on since we last published our weekly newsletter. Therefore, this week’s stories focus on catching up with the news and content highlights during our pause.

We return rejuvenated with some positive changes as we go along. You may have already noticed that we continued providing news roundups whilst the newsletter was on hold.

As we move forward, we will continue with our news roundups ahead of our newsletter publication, during which we aim to provide fresh insights and great takes. To avoid spoiling any potential surprises, let’s just say we hope to entertain you as our new approaches take shape.

If you would like to get involved with the newsletter and enhance your journey into Web3 journalism, then join our Finders Program. Any Discord member of WagMedia can participate by simply posting the latest ecosystem news in the relevant channels with the correct formatting. What you post will be evaluated and potentially rewarded.

I encourage you to dig deeper into the information sources before posting. Do take a look at how others are posting, including any feedback provided. Work on improving your research and writing foundation. Stay consistent, and eventually, you may get the opportunity to contribute to the newsletter for even greater rewards.

In the meantime, it’s Wagtober, so buckle up and enjoy the stories we have lined up this week.

Dodow, Chief Editor

Top Story of the Week - Back on the DOT!

Written by yay.oi

Long time no see! What’s been flappening? Can you believe it’s been two months? As WagMedia’s funding from Referendum 365 came to a close, many at WagMedia took an opportunity to enjoy the last days of summer. Meanwhile, some of our finest content creators - Goku, Emil, and Esther- joined the second cohort of the Polkadot Social Media Editorial Board.

As for your buddy yay.oi, I was still here finding the latest Polkadot ecosystem news to share with you. In case you missed it, you can check it out on our GrillApp channel, but today I’ll give you a rundown of what’s happened since our last newsletter.

While the summer season was winding down, the US Major League Soccer season remained in full swing. On August 24th, Inter Miami CF announced Polkadot as its official Global Training Partner. The Polkadot logo now appears front and center on all training tops, and on signage throughout Chase Stadium in Miami.

Following the controversy over the 2024 H1 Polkadot Treasury Report spending, it may be a while before we see such extravagant spending on a sports sponsorship. While the ROI is hard to quantify, Inter Miami’s socials do provide a fair indication of the exposure. Their posts featuring the Polkadot training kit are regularly receiving views and likes of over 100k.

Meanwhile, Mythos Chain was out there forming their own sports partnership with none other than the 2023 Super Bowl Champions. Their game NFL Rivals was named the Official Mobile Game of the Kansas City Chiefs for the 2024 season. Branding now appears throughout Arrowhead stadium, while fans can enjoy pre-game promotions and prizes.

Polkadot fans were also treated to a surprise courtesy of the Mythos Foundation. A tweak to the eligibility requirements meant that active users in the Polkadot ecosystem were allocated larger shares of the 10M MYTH airdrop which began distribution on September 30th.

Gavun Wud fans, however, prefer to treat each other. After the WUD distribution pool for the Flappy Wud dynamic airdrop campaign dried up, some savvy and charitable Wuddies worked out that they could keep the party going by sending WUD to the airdrop wallet. At last count, donations had surpassed 2.5B WUD.

Not all charitable acts go unrewarded. In collaboration with Hydration, the WUD/Hydration LP Burn NFT Campaign rewarded LP burners with exclusive tiered Gavun Wud NFTs that grant very special powers in Flappy Wud. As WUD fans battled it out to climb the leaderboard, a massive 3362 DOT and 15B WUD of liquidity were burned. The largest LP burner totalled $8,298.73 and was the sole recipient of the prestigious Diamond Tier NFT.

Big Ballz of Bajun (BBB) players, meanwhile, were feeling the effects of FOMO as they frantically minted more than 2 million balls in the final campaigns of BBB on Bajun. With the sunset of the Bajun Network on Kusama, migration to Ajuna on Polkadot will commence soon. All BAJU tokens will be converted to AJUN, with further airdrops based on the SP of player’s avatars.

That’s not the only thing that has come to an end. The passing of Referendum 1161 brought the end to Polkadot parachain auctions. Kylix Finance’s self-funded bid of 10k DOT won the final parachain slot. Agile Coretime sales commenced at block 22602000, just after 09:00 UTC on September 19th 2024.

The Price Discovery period for the first round of Coretime Sales started at 1000 DOT, but got off to somewhat of a slow start. In a move that exemplifies the maturity and sophistication of the Polkadot community, the first core sold for 69 DOT. The remaining cores were snapped up by a single user shortly after for approximately 52 DOT each.

With the number of cores on sale for round two of Coretime Sales doubled to ten and the starting price halved to 526 DOT, there’s a chance that we’ll see some even more affordable prices. However, even at 1000 DOT, the affordability of Polkadot’s secure blockspace blows all of its competitors out of the water.

Other costs are also getting cheaper on Polkadot, as Snowbridge and Asset Hub fees have also dropped. Referendum 1127 lowered the price of Snowbridge Ethereum to Polkadot transfers to 0.000317 ETH, which is less than a dollar at today’s prices. Meanwhile, an update in Polkadot Runtime 1.3.0 reduced Asset Hub transfers to less than half a cent.

Another update in the recently enacted Polkadot Runtime 1.3.3 will bring some potentially big changes to Polkadot tokenomics and treasury inflow. Polkadot inflation parameters are now adjustable.

You may remember our coverage of Jonas Gehrlein’s simplified model for Polkadot inflation in the July issue Dot Way Forward. He argued that the complex ideal staking rate curves had become mostly redundant and proposed a simpler approach that could reduce inflation and provide a fixed rate of inflow to the treasury.

After running three concurrent Wish for Change referenda about the new model for Polkadot inflation, the community has come to a consensus. Inspired by Alice und Bob’s alternative model, a linear model of inflation was chosen that will start at 8% and decrease over time. Treasury inflow will be fixed at 15% of inflation. Expect to see a Root Referendum to enact these changes soon.

While the community has achieved consensus on how to manage inflation, the fate of the new Ambassador program is up in the air. On September 27th, Head Ambassador Don Diego Sanchez initiated a referendum to overhaul the Ambassador program after very little progress had been made in its initial months.

It proposed to reduce the number of Head Ambassadors from twenty-one down to ten members. The proposed remaining members had agreed on a one-hundred-day plan to develop the Ambassador Program and make a start on community growth and business development.

Unfortunately, the plan backfired after meeting some savage resistance in a flurry of reactionary referenda. First, Referendum 1189 saw Don Diego Sanchez demoted from his position as Head Ambassador. Next, the remaining Head Ambassadors were removed by Referendum 1197.

Work is now underway behind the scenes to formulate a new approach to the Ambassador Program and funding model. However, based on the previous reactions, more drama and chaos when the new proposals drop on OpenGov would not be unexpected.

On to expected ecosystem incentives, Stellaswap has spent the last five weeks increasing its TVL by dropping some very generous rewards in its liquidity pools. This is thanks to the treasury funded DOT Incentives campaign. Furthermore, these rewards stack with the Moonbeam Season 3 GLMR incentives already in force.

And there’s more, as OKX DeFi Wallet users can benefit from triple incentives. Selected Stellaswap pools on OKX are benefitting from an additional reward pool of 47k DOT, only until December.

Even more focus on Web3 took place at Token 2049, now the world's largest crypto event with 20000 attendees. As a platinum sponsor in Singapore, Polkadot benefitted from a prime booth position. Also in attendance, with a booth of their own was Polkadot’s DePIN heavyweight Peaq. They showcased 20 of their DePINs, and held a panel on why projects are choosing to migrate to Peaq.

The buzz around Polkadot’s DePIN all-star was electric. So much, in fact, that Peaq has delayed its mainnet launch and token genesis to accommodate the major exchanges that expressed an interest in listing the Peaq token from day one.

Meanwhile, day one of Polkadot Decoded Asia, also in Singapore, offered a diverse lineup of keynotes and panels. The main drawcard was our founder and chief architect Gavin Wood, who continued his public discussion on individuality in the Web3 domain, this time with a focus on governance.

Finally, on to this week, as part of the ongoing focus on governance the 2024 Q3 Polkadot Treasury Report was published. The report revealed a dramatic reduction in treasury spending, particularly in the areas of Talent & Education and Outreach.

Obviously, we are biased, but this sentiment underscores that the top story of the week is the restart of our newsletter. Given the tightening of the treasury purse strings, WagMedia’s request of USDC $451.40k for twelve months of collective content creation, was bound to be a hard sell. We were met with some initial resistance, and are especially grateful to those who took the time to reassess their votes after listening to our responses.

WagMedia is back for another 12 months, and we continue to evolve and adapt. For example, in the Finders Program, you may have already noticed that we’ve decoupled the weekly news roundup from the weekly newsletter and are publishing it earlier, to ensure you receive key news updates summarized in a timely manner.

No doubt more changes are to follow. That said, the mission remains the same as WagMedia is a content creation and media hub that nurtures and incentivizes storytellers to enhance the awareness of the Polkadot ecosystem.

Whether as a reader or contributor, our newsletter and Finders Program welcomes you. News found by the community. Curated by the community. Backed by OpenGov.

Featured Update - Recap DOT Content!

Written by Sanchez

And, we’re back! Thanks to renewed funding from the Polkadot treasury, we’ve resumed producing and promoting original and valuable content, translations, and weekly newsletters that focus on showcasing new developments and the capabilities of the Polkadot Network.

Towards the end of our last funding phase, a flurry of bounties was set up to spotlight developments within the ecosystem. This week's featured update will look back at and analyze some of the best content produced for those bounties, as well as other content that earned rewards on WagMedia that you may have missed.

Starting with content nominated for retroactive rewards, PABLO was the only recipient of these rewards for August. His story-like explanation of Agile coretime and its implication for projects looking to launch on Polkadot earned him 22 DOT. He was also awarded 23 DOT for creating an awesome animation.

Over on the Bounty Hub, there were 15 different bounties with over 100 submissions from various creators. Given the staggering volume, the recap of the Bounty Hub will be divided into three stages as follows:

Bounties 35 to 37 = Initial Wind-Down
Bounty 38 to 42 = Rapid-Fire
Bounties 43 to 50 = Final Push

During the initial wind-down, the bounty topics include the adventures of decentralized governance and treasury. Additionally, there was a summary of the JitoSOL and Acala discussion on X. Also covered was the Polkadot Key Account Unit (POKe), which aims to onboard enterprises, governments, and large businesses onto Polkadot.

The standout creations during this stage were Gbaci’s perspective on problems of governance on other chains and how Polkadot is significantly different and better, for which he was rewarded 36 DOT. Meanwhile, 24 DOT went to Emil who offered a compelling take on the importance of enterprise and business integrations for Polkadot and how POKe can expand on what is already available.

Other notable entries during the initial wind-down include Gbaci’s breakdown of Polkadot’s business development strategies and Daureen’s summary of the Acala x JitoSOL space which marked the integration of JitoSOL on Acala. Gbaci received 14.5 DOT for his entry with Daureen awarded 4.5 DOT for her creation.

As our funding period drew to a close, the next stage of bounties came out rapid-fire. These focused on Hydration’s Memepad, the Web3 Summit, the Kusamarian debate on marketing and treasury management, a spotlight on decentralized applications (dApps), and Why Tanssi.

For the Web3 Summit topic, CMosh and Gbaci showcased the Digital Individuality Mechanisms (DIM) proposed by Gavin Wood to address the issue of sybiling and multiple identities in Web3. For their contributions, CMosh was awarded an impressive 46.5 DOT, while Gbaci received 44.5 DOT.

The Kusamarian debate topic featured Giotto, Alice und Bob, and Shawn Tabrizi. Pitcoin and Celestialbeing provided valuable insights and their opinions and were awarded 27 and 18.5 DOT respectively.

Spotlight on dApps proved popular. Pitcoin showcased the power and potential of OriginTrail, who are revolutionizing the healthcare, construction, and supply chain sectors with DKG. PABLO focused on Hydration and their unique approach to solving liquid fragmentation with the Omnipool. These two entries were the top performers, rewarded with 37 and 34 DOT, respectively.

Other spotlight on dApps submissions include Daureen’s take on Peaq Network, Mikewill’s exposé on Stellaswap and amedkarimm’s discourse on Nova Wallet. These entries earned 22.5, 28.5, and 12.5 DOT, respectively.

The Why Tanssi topic was less popular as it required a time-sensitive 24hr period for submission. Mikewill did well to earn 5 DOT for showing why Tanssi is the roll-up ecosystem to be most excited for in the next year.

After the pause in our newsletters, the next stage represented a final push, introducing seven new bounties and raising the total on the Bounty Hub to 50. The topics included the Inter Miami X Polkadot partnership, the launch of the technical Fellowship dashboard, Stellaswap’s 1 million DOT incentives, the Mythos airdrop, Polkadot vs. Atom, Why Mandala, Behind the Code with Seun Lanlege, and Curio (connecting Polkadot with Ton).

The top contributions on the Inter Miami x Polkadot partnership came from The White Rabbit and Esther, earning them 38 and 35.8 DOT, respectively.

Gbaci and PABLO’s content on the Fellowship dashboard got them 32.5 and 25 DOT. Not to be outdone, Emil and PABLO’s work on Why Mandala was awarded 59.5 and 42 DOT.

More rewards went to Gbaci for comparing Polkadot vs Cosmos (19 DOT) and shedding light on the Mythos airdrop (30 DOT). The hodlfather also explored the Mythos airdrop and was awarded 26.3 DOT for his submission.

Jimmy Tudeski made a welcome return to WagMedia and received 36 DOT for the Behind the Code with Seun bounty. Yamne, stepping away from non-Anglo content, returned successfully with 25 DOT for the Curio bounty.

Maxim V and Bannks earned 39 and 28 DOT, respectively, for their creations on the Stellaswap 1M DOT incentives topic. Due to funds and the transition to new funding, they were only recently awarded.

Moving on from the Bounty Hub, the Ajuna treasury partnership filled the void while we awaited new Polkadot Treasury funding. Managed by Emil, three bounties were launched in quick succession, with the last one still active. The maximum rewards have now increased to 4.5K AJUN.

The first Ajuna bounty focused on ‘Building games with Ajuna’ and received top submissions from Smdawudeen and Celestialbeing, both awarded 800 AJUN tokens. The second Ajuna bounty centered on the Big Ballz of Bajun received strong submissions from Bannks and Celestialbeing, earning them 1200 and 1100 AJUN tokens.

Away from content created in English, the Lingo channels have also produced some impressive content. Creditoo, a French creator, submitted entries on Governance in Polkadot, as well as Bifrost and LSTs on Polkadot. These submissions earned 20 and 10 DOT, respectively.

It is inspiring to see the Polkadot community support WagMedia in fostering an environment that nurtures high-quality and impactful content. Beyond curating content, WagMedia has become a breeding ground for creators and dedicated ecosystem agents, empowering individuals to grow and fully serve the community in meaningful ways.

With renewed funding from the Polkadot treasury, creators can continue delivering insightful pieces that highlight the network’s capabilities and potential as the ecosystem evolves. The community's support enables this process, helping both new and seasoned contributors thrive in the ecosystem. Content created by the community. Backed by OpenGov.

Wag Roundup

Written by yay.oi & Sanchez

The 2024 Q3 Polkadot Treasury Report has been published. At USD $23.3M, Treasury spending was almost half of the USD $57.6M Q2 spend that captured the attention of Crypto Twitter earlier this year. The sharp drop in spending is attributable to a significant reduction in Talent & Education and Outreach spends.
With Stellaswap's second round of token burning complete, you can keep up with the burn progress on CoinGecko, which now reflects the 100M tokens already burned. There’s still another 150M STELLA left to be burned in the coming weeks.
OG Tracker has released a new self-reporting feature where funding recipients can connect their wallet and report the progress of their approved proposals. The team is already in talks to sync with the recently released Polkassembly Progress Reports.
The Gavun Wud OG WUD BURN NFT Collection has dropped in collaboration with Kodadot. Issued to the top LP burners from the WUD/Hydration LP Burn NFT Campaign, they come in four tiers - Diamond, Gold, Silver, and Bronze - each with a unique in-game utility for the Flappy Wud game. Each NFT is numbered according to the burner's rank on the leaderboard, and contains embedded information about the number of LP shares burned.
Silencio held an AMA on Discord with CryptoRand on the 17th of October. The topics discussed include data privacy, the forthcoming airdrop, and the new app.
Hyperbridge hosted a X space with Hashi Alliance on the 17th of October, to discuss their partnership and plans to improve interoperability across diverse ecosystems.
OpenGuild hosted a workshop with Unique Network on the OpenGuild discord, focused on building NFT projects on Unique. Guest speakers from Unique Network include senior developer Max Andreev and DevRel manager Filip Filipovich.
Full Wag Roundup here.

Extras

Lovely cover art created by Dodow.
Recently Shared News (missed news from previous weeks) can also be found in the Wag Roundup.
For all you budding creators out there, don't hesitate any longer – join us now! There are plenty of rewards awaiting your creativity.
That is all for this week. If you enjoyed the newsletter, please share it. You can subscribe on Substack to receive an email when next week's edition is ready. And if you're participating in creator staking on Subsocial, you can interact to increase your rewards — perhaps a good two-for-one deal by providing feedback or comments.