A dot 2 Back! (May 5th to May 11th)

What is up, my friends!

When was the last time you saw Gavin Wood on an X space? It finally happened with a special session addressing the community on the topic that’s making our brains dance – this, of course, is JAM.

If you haven’t had the chance to listen to the recording or are still trying to comprehend it, don’t despair as our awesome WagMedia content creators have got your back. Check out the summarized thread here, which was a result of a timely bounty from our discord.

Although any session with Gav is well worth our attention, this week’s top story covers Asynchronous Backing, which went live on Polkadot. We mentioned Async Backing is next up, when we recently covered Core Time, and we’ve certainly got quite a dot to unpack given its significance to Polkadot 2.0.

Whether it is focused bounties, no-Anglo content, or covering news and stories in this very newsletter, WagMedia backs creators. It’s a Polkadot treasury-backed asset, that offers easy tipping and promotes inclusivity within the community.

Therefore, this week, we shall also take the opportunity to dig into what content and media is getting backed in our special exposé. Perhaps we potentially get to witness which creators begin to fulfill their destiny of becoming ecosystem agents.

Before moving on to this week’s stories and news updates, WagMedia is now even more accessible with our new website, which we now proudly open to the public. You can see all the latest news and content that was posted on our discord, along with transparency of rewards.

Speaking of accessibility, we are now posting our stories from our newsletter as an X article, it appears we’re one of the first in the ecosystem to do this.

Without further delay, let’s get back on track with our usual flurry of stories and news updates.

Dodow, Chief Editor

Top Story of the Week - Backing Fast Blockspace

Written by Sanchez

The Blockchain Trilemma is a term that holds significance when many of us start our journey into Web3. So has any network adequately met this challenge, and successfully balanced the trade-off between Security, Scalability, and Decentralization?

With the rapid evolution of Web3 have we seen the goal posts change, especially as the demand for performance and quality blockspace becomes essential? Scalability, and with it, performance speed, is what is often seen as impacting the biggest player in the space.

When it comes to performance speed, Asynchronous Backing is considered one of the major milestones on Polkadot, and it’s now live after the referendum's passing to enable it. Naturally, it comes months after tests on Rococo and Westend, and barely a month after it went live on Kusama.

This upgrade accompanies significant changes in the speed of processing blocks on Polkadot, reduced from 12 seconds to 6 seconds. It also follows with an increase in throughput by up to 8X. Many commentators have indicated that Asynchronous Backing is the next important development for Polkadot.

Furthermore, Alice und Bob proposes defining Polkadot 2.0 in the scope of Agile Coretime, Asynchronous Backing, and Elastic Scaling. While this is being decided via OpenGov, let's see what Async Backing is and how it offers more for Polkadot.

Essentially it’s all about backing, where Parablocks are sent by collators from the parachains to the relay chain for verification. These parablocks are first backed in a relay chain block (6 seconds) and then included in the next block (6 seconds).

Parablocks are also processed one after the other in synchronous backing, as the elementary units for building a new block in the relay chain must be taken from the preceding block. As such, parablocks are synchronously backed before they can be included on the relay chain.

The time from generating and backing a new parablock to being included on the relay chain is 12 seconds(2 relay chain blocks of 6 seconds each). The execution time is also tagged at 0.5 seconds, limiting the amount of data and complexities that can be fit into a block.

Asynchronous Backing replaces this system by allowing backing on any of the preceding blocks. This means parablocks can be added to the relay chain immediately, reducing the time required to verify them to 6 seconds by utilizing an older block as the elementary unit for a new block.

It also changes the execution time to 2 seconds, causing up to 8X more data and complexities to be processed on a block than in the synchronous backing system.This significantly increases the speed of processing transactions and the scalability of the Polkadot Network.

Parachains can decide to continue processing blocks at the former rate or upgrade, and it’s likely just a matter of time before they take the leap. Whether it be gaming, bridges, NFT services, DeFi functionality, etc, the growing demands of decentralized businesses with higher expectations from its users, means that performant infrastructure helps ensure they stick around.

It can be considered that gaming and gaming parachains are the primary benefactors of Async Backing. That said, any parachains with dApps that require complex computations and fast transactions benefit as well, one such popular use case in the broader crypto space is on-chain trading applications.

Back to the gaming use case, games often require fast transaction processing to keep the user logged in, offering quick responses for every user interaction. Async Backing provides this speed and the foundation for developers to build very complex games that require extensive amounts of blockspace.

Mythical, a gaming platform and studio integrating blockchain-based play-to-earn economies into their games, is primed to benefit with its migration to Polkadot.

The millions of players tapped into Mythical’s released games will enjoy faster transaction speeds, and there’d be greater scalability to onboard even more users. There certainly will be many eager eyes on them as they are set to be launching soon.

Ajuna Network, another decentralized gaming platform still on Kusama as Bajun, will also greatly benefit. With over 1.8 million transactions processed, Ajuna has announced that AAA missions will begin after the implementation of Async Backing on Bajun.

As it stands Hyperbridge is the first to enable asynchronous backing at the parachain level. Built as an interoperability co-processor secured by cryptographic proof of consensus, Async Backing crucially enables Hyperbridge to scale up the number of transactions and complexities it can process.

When it comes to bridging, the security of being trust-minimized tied with speed would be considered most desirable. It’s a pretty bad feeling when you’re waiting a while for your assets to be received on the other end.

Often, projects sacrifice decentralization and security to ensure faster transaction processing times. This is particularly pertinent around L2s of which their essence is around scalability as they mostly depend on multisigs and centralized sequencers.

While L2s offer some modicum of ease for the parent chain, the recent craze around inscriptions showed these chains, when under pressure, suffer the same problem they were intended to resolve. That said, not that many other popular L1s fared much better.

Some L1s have recently suffered frequent downtimes and pauses due to incapability to cope with high usage. This begs the question if these chains can handle the onboarding of more users as they can barely keep up with the present user base.

A quick look at the Nakamoto coefficient scale for decentralization shows that Polkadot stands out with a high score of 92, indicating its decentralization prowess, a feat unattained by other protocols on the list. This effectively shows that Polkadot solves the blockchain trilemma of decentralization, security and scalability.

Asynchronous backing is just one of the plethora of important upgrades on the Polkadot Network. Coretime and Elastic scaling are up next, providing effective and efficient utilization of blockspace.

While coretime and elastic scaling will lower the barriers to attaining blockspace and change how it is utilized on Polkadot, Async Backing makes this utilization faster and more efficient, allowing developers to do more with less. This all leads to the eventual launch of JAM which takes these enhancements even further.

Special Exposé - Backing Content

Written by yay.oi

What’s buzzing Wag fam? Who would’ve thought that asynchronously backing would lead to such speed and efficiency in Polkadot? It’s nothing like the totally iN-sync boy band of curators that keep the WagMedia content-creation empire on track.

With the backing of the Polkadot treasury, WagMedia backs creators, and in turn, WagMedia creators have Polkadot’s back. It’s the infinite loop of content-creation that nourishes the Polkadot ecosystem. Therefore, today we’re taking a look at how WagMedia’s backing nurtures new creators and pushes existing creators to even greater heights.

You may remember Turing Machine and Dodow’s previous report the Bounty-Hive (Hub) where they likened the WagMedia creators to worker bees collecting pollen to produce honey. Building on this analogy, Worker bees have no direct incentive to produce honey, they do it instinctively to ensure the survival of the entire colony including themselves.

Furthermore, this extends to future generations given the colony includes the queen bee who will lay the eggs. When a queen bee dies, the worker bees select the most promising larvae and house them in special wax cells where they are fed nutrient rich royal jelly which ensures their transformation into powerful egg-laying giants.

You could argue that creators are not mere worker bees. They are all royal candidate larvae being fed the WagMedia royal jelly trinity of mentorship, peer support, and DOT incentives. Now let’s take a look at what our lovely larvae have been up to.

In the Bounty Hub, Gbaci took a break from writing books and was rewarded with 21.5 DOT for his second ever Bounty Hub thread about Gavin Wood’s most recent X Space on JAM. He provided an easy-to-read breakdown highlighting 13 key points about JAM.

Pablo’s simplified take on JAM was full of bullish optimism. He was praised for his engagement and killer images and was awarded 25 DOT.

Daureen got praise for a thread on Origin Trail’s Decentralized Knowledge Graph (DKG). She demystified the phenomenon of AI hallucination, where AI presents inaccuracy as fact, and how Origin Trail’s DKG remedies this to take home 22 DOT.

Mikewill kept it real by discussing real world use cases of DKG such as verifiable data in supply chains. He earned 24.5 DOT and the respect of OriginTrail co-founder Žiga Drev.

The Bounty Hub continues to be a place for nurturing talent where upcoming and established creators come together to share their unique take on a given topic. It is a positive space to get inspiration from one another, while receiving feedback and mentorship from director Goku.

The general content retroactive rewarding zone of the WagMedia Discord offers an even greater opportunity for peer enrichment. It gives the chance for higher tier creators to show their support by nominating content from other creators.

The standout retroactive piece for April came from EmilKietzman. His hilarious April Fool’s prank thread on why he’s “leaving the Polkadot ecosystem” received the most nominations and the highest reward of 34 DOT.

Over in non-Anglo Originals, we’re seeing a lot of great Spanish content. W3NERICK’s Spanish video where he quizzed attendees of the Talent Land conference on their Polkadot knowledge got the biggest props earning him 13 DOT.

Bounties, of course, aren’t the only creator backing that come from WagMedia. For those who are new to the ecosystem and content creation, the Finders program helps build knowledge and skills from the ground up, as does working on team projects, such as this very newsletter you’re reading.

Even when a WagMedia queen bee spreads their wings and moves away from the hive, the Polkadot treasury still has their back. CSaint02’s 900 DOT request for a retroactive tip for content creation was granted with little resistance.

The same goes for the Kusamarian, the content production collective led by our OG queen bee Jay Chrawnna, who has just been awarded 74,533 DOT to produce another year of inspirational content.

With even more opportunities on the horizon such as reporting teams, and ecosystem partner bounties, there’s never been a better time to consider joining or returning to WagMedia. See you there?

General News

Written by Dodow

• Mandala Chain’s partnership with the government is set to bring 10 million new web3 wallets, and here is a breakdown explanation that outlines the details.
• Dr Gavin Wood will be collaborating with GBM auctions to raise money for charity by auctioning signed copies of his momentous papers. The auction is held on-chain on Moonbeam using GLMR.
• At long last InvArch have a blockexplorer, which will allow you to check your transactions as well as keep track of things better.
• Aizel Network, an AI inference network, has chosen to build on Peaq Network. They look to utilise the Peaq SDK to develop a DEPIN for private, secure, verifiable machine learning models.
• As part of the Talisman Quest campaign, you can now earn XP by holding certain assets on Moonbeam. Assets include: DOT, GLMR, DED, PINK, STELLA, and RMRK. Wen airdrop?
• Async Backing arrival signifies Polkadot 2.0 shaping up with faster blocks.
• Decentralised Voices program, devised by the Web3 Foundation empowers delegates with significant voting power for OpenGov on both Polkadot and Kusama. The program is now accepting applications, with the number of delegates set to increase.
• Xcavate focuses on providing global real estate solutions, and are certainly embracing the web3 way as they look to fund via Polimec. They are one of the 70 plus projects looking to build on Tanssi.
• Eloop Network, a RWA Depin on Peaq Network, have rebranded and are now known as Teneo Protocol.
• Synternet joins the Peaq ecosystem, and shall be integrating Peaq on its platform. This significance is it enables DEPINs to be developed around event-driven live data, which can be used for dapps that depend on real-time events and AI models.
• Airlyft, a web3 engagement platform, is the latest recipient of a Web3 Foundation's Decentralized Futures grant.
• Polkadot’s partnership with The Founder Institute in Hong Kong, provides entrepreneurs access to the ecosystem.
• Join Oak Network's airlyft campaign for a chance to win some USDT.
• Those that are into galaxe campaigns may have noticed Moonriver being featured in their partners Axelar's quest.
• The Moonbeam community is getting ready for Moonrise.
• Get ready for the Moonbeam Odyssey program, which rejuvenates the ambassador program, on May 16th.
• Apillion, who will be fundraising on Polimec soon, have announced a strategic partnership with Polimec. They will be offering a start-up initiative package to projects who have successfully raised on Polimec.

NFT & DEFI & Event News

Written by Dodow

• Snake Soldiers are rested and ready to march into Battle. Plan ahead your strategy and compete to earn points, which will result in meme tokens.
• DED lists on MEXC.
• Talisman integrates Mythos! You would soon be able to claim your Mythos airdrop using Talisman, and will be able to check up on progress with Subcan.
• Instructions on how to migrate SkylabNFTs from Kusama to Astar are now available.
• YoudleDAO announces that the migration of Youdles from Kusama to Astar is expected soon. Furthermore, there will be operational changes and collection expansion.
• Youdle holders are set to get a tasty airdrop of memecoins, including: PINK, WUD, KNRY, and STINK.
• ACA incentives are coming to Moonbeam, courtesy of the Acala community's approval of a proposal tabled by StellaSwap. The incentives involve pairing ACA from Acala with DOT from the Polkadot treasury in ACA/DOT and LDOT/DOT pools over a three-month period on StellaSwap.
• Highlights from Pendulum’s April report include: the launch of Spacewalk Bridge, new LPs on Zenlink, Stellar Network stablecoin offramping feature, and referendums that cover asset fees and channel opening.
• Solarbeam, an OG dex on Moonriver, is looking to rejuvenate the DeFI scene on the chain. They have made a proposal for an ecosystem grant to develop a CLAMM, perps feature, and more.
• On May 9th, Gavin Wood addresses JAM to the community on an X space. Here’s a link to the recording.
• Peaq hosts an AMA on May 8th with XMACHINA, who are building tokenizing autonomous robots.
• Mark your calendar and wait for the link, as Litentry is hosting a community call on 22nd May, 13:00 UTC. There might also be something for attendees.

Governance News

Written by Dodow

• Due to market volatility, Giotto tables OpenGov proposal 692 to top up marketing bounty #33.
• The team behind the Kampela hardware signer, have made a proposal for treasury funding to continue development, which includes improving UX, Talisman integration, and more.
• Check out OpenGov proposal 718, which involves known community members like Crane, aimed at tackling Polkadot treasury funding volatility by establishing an Insurance Bounty.
• Harbour Industrial Capital, a Polkadot centric fund, is seeking treasury funding of $1M USD to sponsor investor events to help raise $100M USD for their Polkadot Ecosystem Fund.
• OpenGov proposal 730 is to establish a Polkadot Community Foundation in the Cayman Islands. Benefits are said to be in the interest of the community, which includes a physical presence for providing legal assistance, fiat transactions, project management, etc.
• Evox are seeking funding for a 6 month campaign with Coinmarketcap to boost awareness of Polkadot. You may have seen the recent DOT logo flame animation.
• Alice und Bob proposes an OpenGov Wish for Change referendum to define Polkadot 2.0, as Agile Coretime, Async Backing, and Elastic Scaling.
• Bifrost has raised an ongoing Polkadex governance proposal to bring its BNC token to their orderbook DEX. The intention is to extend the adoption of LSTs.
• Pendulum are seeking a loan of 50K DOT from the Polkadot treasury. The funds will be minted as Bifrost’s vDOT, and used as collateral for enabling the bridging of Stellar stablecoins via their Spackwalk bridge.
• Beamswap have submitted two Polkadot treasury proposals, one for 500K DOT for liquidity and the other for 500K DOT as LP incentives.
• The Kus Validator has applied for a VBL spot on Bifrost Kusama. If successful, the commission received for the underlying validation of KSM, which backs vKSM, will go towards funding the content that many of us love.
• OpenGov proposal 760 is to increase the visibility of Polkadot with billboard marketing located in the bustling business district within London.

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.

Awesome cover art created by Dodow.