Resilient Web3 - Newsletter Edition 94

In this week’s edition:

1. Editorial: Liberation vibes, a resilient Web3 can be realized through the Polkadot Hub, and recognition to the storytellers who bring attention to the vision.

2. Top Story DOT Hub: Amid the Web3 development debate, we provide some insight into the upcoming Polkadot Hub.

3. Featured Report - MARCHing on DOT: Recapping the content that has impressed since the last report in February.

4. Wag Roundup: News from our Finders Program between April 3rd and April 9th.

5. Extras: Credits and anything else.

Editorial

What is up, my friends!

The ongoing talk of trade finally culminated in Liberation Day, when the promised tariffs were revealed. The reactions going into the weekend suggest that the markets may not have expected the talk to actually take effect. Initially, it seemed like Bitcoin was largely unaffected, but at the end of the day, crypto, like other financial markets, is not immune to uncertainty.

While crypto markets went into the Monday bloodbath, the debate about Web3 development rampages on. Polkadot’s Chief Architect has voiced his opinions on X about the importance of Web3 values, which are underpinned by resilient systems. Gav also echoed this message on the Empire Podcast, emphasizing that there is a difference between Web3 and crypto.

Our top story this week covers much of the recent debate, and expands on what Gav had also touched upon regarding the upcoming launch of Polkadot Hub, which is fast approaching. As building a resilient Web3 can be realized with the Polkadot Cloud and Hub, this vision will be made even more accessible with a low barrier to entry when JAM eventually comes.

With the ongoing debate on who is contributing meaningfully to Web3, our featured report will touch upon those who create the content to make it more understandable. Hopefully, you can recognize the efforts of WagMedia creators’ contributions to this vision. Do subscribe to our weekly newsletter for the latest stories and updates on what's happening, or feel free to join in.

Dodow, Chief Editor

Top Story of the Week - DOT Hub

Written by yay.oi

What’s transactin’, daily users? This week, as the leader of the free world facilitates lower capital gains for all, our founder and chief architect is a little preoccupied with the diameter of dots.

Gavin Wood is not happy about the direction the crypto industry has taken. While the original ideals of Bitcoin and Ethereum were in alignment with the Web3 vision to trustlessly return control of data and identity to users, crypto is instead now rife with hype and speculation.

As explained in his Polkadot Blockchain Academy lecture this week, there is a growing divide between long-term thinking and short-term results in the blockchain industry. While others were taking shortcuts and fuelling the hype machine, Polkadot spent its early days quietly shipping the hard stuff.

The result offered the resilience pioneered by Bitcoin and the generality of Ethereum, but also brought the scalability that both struggled to achieve. That said, the parachain concept brought with it the expense of a very high barrier to entry, especially pre-Coretime, when competitive slot auctions required significant capital or marketing to attract crowdloan participants.

Furthermore, as described in WAG’s the JAM?, the sharded parachain model struggles to maintain optimum coherency between parachains. Now, a lot of us have caught on by now that JAM will solve these shortcomings and more in the future. In the meantime, the Polkadot Hub will provide an Ethereum-compatible coherent low-barrier Polkadot playground within months.

This week, Alex Dimes, the new Ecosystem Development lead at the Web3 Foundation, gave a progress report for the business development of Polkadot Hub that provided some intriguing insights. In fact, Parity is taking care of the technical side of things and has given an updated roadmap.

Ethereum-compatible smart contracts are expected to launch on Kusama shortly. By summer, Kusama smart contracts should have access to native assets, staking, governance, and XCM. If all goes according to plan, we can expect a Minimum Viable Ecosystem (MVE) Polkadot Hub launch by September 2025, followed by progressive upgrades that bring the full PVM potential to life.

The Web3 Foundation is leading the Hub BD Team, which includes Velocity Labs, Magenta Labs, Distractive, and Papermoon. In Phase I, they are currently working on DevX, BD, and technical support, with a target of (retaining/attracting) four Tier I/II DeFi applications and supporting them through testnet deployment in June to mainnet launch in September.

By EOY 2025, the Hub should have the look and feel of a leading L2 such as Arbitrum or Base, and a significant boost to its DeFi impact metrics. Current targets are $150M TVL and 250K daily active users.

Phase II, which spans from launch until mid-2026, sets an even more ambitious target of 20 apps across key verticals, $500M TVL, and 700K daily-active-users. Perhaps concentrating a user base within the Hub will lead to fewer disagreements with misguided outsiders who try to argue using Relay Chain metrics.

Although, as debates with the Solana community this week revealed, a lot of metrics are easily gameable. For example, over 80% of active addresses on Solana have a lifetime trade volume of less than $10.

Blockchains have generally become fast enough, and the personhood of many active users has come under question. Perhaps a time comes where qualitative metrics provide a much more meaningful appraisal.

Erin Graswick suggests that the creation of valuable, revenue-generating businesses that sustainably improve lives is a viable measure of success. Of course, in the testosterone fuelled world of Crypto-Twitter, that kind of logic may not have the muscle to cut through the noise.

Comments from Gavin Wood this week seem to have struck a nerve with the Solana community, but he’s continued to weigh in on the matter. On observation of a co-founder’s questionable ideas about what constitutes sufficient decentralization, it comes as little surprise that concerns around Solana's centralization are well-founded.

While some in the Polkadot community can see where some of the true value in Solana may lie, Gav is much less convinced. On the Empire podcast this week, he did not hold back, suggesting the direction Solana is taking is wrong. He pointed out its primary value has been to make an elite group of insiders a lot of money via what’s essentially insider trading and unlicensed gambling.

With the example of Mythos Chain (which is absolutely not a gambling platform), Gav offers an alternative proposition for the value of a Web3 utility. Even if it didn’t have access to Polkadot or Web3 infrastructure, Mythical Games would still be offering its players ownership of in-game assets.

However, it would be doing so in a centralized Web2 manner, without the direct ownership and sovereignty that Web3 offers. The same cannot be said about memecoin trading, which seems to be more specific to Web3, but offers far inferior utility.

If Mythos were to choose a blockchain offering such as Solana, Gav might argue that it is too centralized to be considered Web3 at all. While Polkadot 1.0 had barriers to entry for builders, on Solana there are massive barriers to entry for validators.

Estimated running costs of $85K per year mean that validation is reserved for a more privileged few. Even more concerning, Solana’s stake weighted DPoS system means that out of Solana’s comparatively sparse validator pool, only a select few are actually doing the work. More than 3.7M SOL would currently be required to join the twenty-member superminority of validators.

Ethereum, on the other hand, is at least attempting to lower the barriers for solo-staking validators. Vitalik has suggested that it is not unfeasible to drop staking requirements from 32 ETH to as low as 16, and potentially even 1 ETH in the future.

While this looks promising, swiftly enacting change is not one of Ethereum’s strong suits, as can be seen with the unhurried rollout of its rollup-centric roadmap. While somewhat vindicated, Gav has still some suggestions about interoperability and the limitations of this approach.

Eventually, JAM will resolve the persistent partitioning of rollup-centric scaling once and for all, but in just a few months the Hub will bring a solution that rivals every L1 on the market today. It will offer record-breaking speed, low fees, EVM-compatible smart contracts, and trustless bridging to Ethereum… and beyond.

The barriers to entry, both financial and technical, will be low for smart contract developers. They’ll have access to all of the EVM tooling that they’re familiar with along with documentation and a dedicated DevX support team.

This welcoming environment will facilitate smooth developer onboarding, but it’s Polkadot’s inherent strengths that will ensure they stick around. They will find lasting value in Polkadot’s resilient infrastructure, scalability, true decentralization, on-chain governance, and commitment to fulfilling the true Web3 vision through a transparent and agile social operating system.

Featured Report - MARCHing on DOT

Written by Dodow

After FEBing content, last month WagMedia’s creators continued MARCHing on with ~61 pieces of content submitted. Following review, 52 submissions were eligible for rewards, and a total of ~778 DOT was distributed, with an average of around 15 DOT achieved. This time round, there were 8 creators who met the average with content that stood out.

Before highlighting the standouts, it’s important to recognise that those who received lower than the average would have likely received feedback from Goku. To a certain degree, it can be more valuable. Furthermore, it is openly shared, with one common remark being to avoid the use of generic AI, because it tends to turn off smart audiences, whereas authenticity is what appeals.

The top creator for March was a tight call between Emil and Pieky, with Lily not far behind. Additionally, the month marked the end of the streak of month-on-month Wag rewards records being set. In any case, the record can be considered somewhat vanity, given that the amount of DOT depends on its market value at the time of awarding.

In terms of the highest amount awarded for a single piece of content, Emil received 50 DOT for his post, which received very high impressions, providing an update on the JAM toaster. Also performing in terms of impressions were his megathread on Polkadot 2.0 becoming a Web3 cloud and a long post about DOOM on JAM, which earned a solid 42 and 37 DOT, respectively.

For anyone new, you may want to consider quality over quantity to ensure you’re not just spamming your audience. That said, Emil did have a lot of other activities on his plate, such as the Polkadot Editorial Board, yapping on X and in-person.

Producing a steady amount of content on top of Polkadot governance activism, PBA studies, and personal activities requires a degree of dedication. Pieky has managed to get the right mix of quality and quantity, earning the most DOT out of any WagMedia creator last month.

Seven out of eight of Pieky’s submissions exceeded the average. His thread on Polkadot building quietly to be the trust layer for AI, gaming, and enterprise, was awarded 32 DOT. Pieky is exploring thought provoking angles, with standouts like Web3 is a lie, Ever lost a bag in a bridge hack, and Don’t let your DOT collect dust, earning 29, 23, and 20 DOT, respectively.

Lily’s content haul was impressive and she might soon achieve the accolade of top Wag creator of the month. Her piece This is Polkadot now demonstrates the power of a picture that can speak a thousand words and made a strong impression as well as being awarded 41 DOT.

The approach of drawing attention to the Polkadot of today is especially educational for newbies. Lily recaptured this effect with her posts on Polkadot 2025 vibes, her infrastructure update about JAM, and the latest status on the Nakamoto coefficient, receiving 32.3, 20.3, and 25 DOT. In particular, the latter piece also received immense impressions.

During March, gbaci was also consistent with quality content. His thread about the catalysts that could make Polkadot go parabolic in 2025 used clever meme images to boost its appeal. This smart fusion transformed into a 37 DOT reward.

More smart images helped gbaci earn additional rewards of 23, 22, and 20 DOT. Running DOOM on-chain is a big deal, amplified by the gigachad jawline image. Debunking an uninformed Cardano fanboy about DOOM shows exactly how things actually run. Then there’s the iceberg meme, with what’s hidden beneath revealing how people are wrong about Polkadot.

Stepping away from lingo content, Erick (aka W3NERICK) has shown that those skilled in multiple languages can also excel in English. He received praise from Goku for his creativity, as well as 17.5 DOT for comparing playing games on Ethereum versus Polkadot. Additionally, he was awarded 15.5 DOT for his take on why Mythical Games chose Polkadot over Ethereum.

Rounding out the remaining creators who managed to achieve at least the average are Mikewill, Celestial, and CMosh. Mikewill was awarded an impressive 27 DOT for his thread on Moonbeam’s N3mus gaming platform. For his breakdown of Elastic scaling, Celestial earned a respectable 21.5 DOT. Meanwhile, CMosh visualizes a blockchain comparison of stablecoin transfers and received a decent 17 DOT.

So, that’s a wrap for last month’s WagMedia creator economy recap. Who do you think will come out on top next time? Perhaps it could be you! Just remember, authentic content can earn up to $300 USD worth of DOT, with an exceptional bonus pushing it to as much as $500.

Wag Roundup (April 3rd to April 9th)

News found by the community. Curated by the community. Backed by OpenGov.

DOT Ecosystem News

Written by yay.oi

• The second cohort of Web3 Foundation Decentralized Nodes is now live. This round saw a growing number of successful candidates in APAC, LATAM, and Africa. It also brings the first deployment of Kagome, an alternative host implementation written in C++.
• As a part of the implementation of the Polkadot Hub, Parity is rolling out EVM-compatible smart contracts on Kusama and Polkadot over the coming months. By offering familiar Solidity language and tooling, this initiative hopes to attract more businesses and developers to the Polkadot ecosystem.
• Check out the latest additions to the Polkadot Brand Hub. An array of new graphical assets for your next project have been released,courtesy of digital artist Kira Tiemirshyna, with creative direction from Distractive.
• Pop CLI v0.7 is now live, bringing Polkadot Development Portal integration, benchmarking, and support for PolkaVM smart contracts.
• You can now apply for ink!ubator 2.0, the Polkadot incubator for ink! smart contract projects. Successful candidates will be eligible for technical mentorship and up to $50K in grants.
• Xcavate’s fundraise on Polimec has concluded successfully, raising $134K. Investors and evaluators can now view their XCAV allocations on the Polimec dApp.
• Applications for Moonbeam Grants Season 6 are now open. Successful candidates will receive investments ranging from $100k-$250k, along with mentorship, tech support, and potential additional investment from Moonbeam’s VC network.
• Moonbeam users now have another easy onboarding option thanks to a new integration with Ramp, which offers simplified purchasing of GLMR, DOT, and USDC by bank transfer or card.
• Diode, a secure communications DePIN, will be unlocking its token on Moonbeam on April 24th, with trading available on Stellaswap shortly after.
• Real-time price data will now be available to DePINs building on Peaq, thanks to Acelon, an oracle-provider powered by Acurast.
• NodeShift, a no-code AI cloud platform,has enlisted Crust as its decentralized storage solution provider.
• The Kus has joined forces with WebZero as an official media partner for live events in 2025.
• Voters in month two of the Acala Meme and dApp contest have each received an airdrop of 480 ACA. The next round of voting commences at the end of the month.
• The Polkadot and Kusama Coretime chains are now supported on Nova Wallet, offering cross-chain transfers and secure signing with Ledger and Polkadot Vault.
• NFT sales on Mythical have experienced continued growth, reaching a monthly all-time high of $43M in March.
• Xcavate has provided details on how its NFT minting process for tokenizing property will work. NFTs will be minted with oracle-verified metadata about each property before being locked and fractionalized for listing on the marketplace.
• Carbify is running a monthly raffle to give away 30 x 1000kg carbon offsets. To participate, join the participant list on Discord, generate a CO2 offset certificate, and post proof on your socials.
• On April 7th, Meccano, Pablo Andrioli’s generative art collection inspired by the vintage toy set, dropped on KodaDot, and minted out within hours.
• Polkaworld is requesting 266K USDT in Polkadot Referendum 1522 for continued operations of its Chinese-language focused media outlet until March 2026.
• Kusama Referendum 514 proposes to register Snowbridge assets on the Kusama Asset Hub so that ERC-20 tokens can be bridged via a double-hop through Snowbridge and the Polkadot<>Kusama bridge.
• Inspired by Tommi Enenkel’s Polkadot Growth Strategy, Bifrost has doubled its annual vDOT liquidity loan request to 1M DOT. The proposal is currently open for discussion on OpenGov.
• A request of 5.75M DOT from MotoGP for a three-year partnership has been withdrawn after careful consideration and in light of adverse market conditions.
• In Polkadot Referendum 1518, Integritee is requesting a soft-loan of 201K USDT for the retroactive funding of Incognitee, its privacy-enhanced transaction dApp. To repay the debt, 30% of Incognitee fees would be directed to the treasury until the loan is repaid to 110%.

DOT Ecosystem Events

Written by yay.oi

• This week, Polkadot Blockchain Academy Campus in Lucerne held public panels on governance, regulation, gaming, and building JAM.
• The latest Apillon & Friends meetup was held on April 3rd in Ljubljana, featuring presentations from Scytale, Origin Trail, and Coin Reference.
• Silencio hosted Camino on April 4th to discuss their partnership that will enhance travel planning through real-time localized noise data.
• On April 6th, a collaborative event between Polkaport East, OneBlock+, PolkaWorld, and PaperMoon was held at Soho House in Hong Kong, featuring additional appearances from Bifrost and Acala.
• Mythical Mondays, a new weekly series hosted by Squiddy and Mike McFadden, kicked off on April 7th with all of the latest news from Mythical Games.
• AI Influencer Aria hosted XMAQUINA on April 8th to discuss humanoid robotics and advances with Decentralized Physical AI.
• Paul’s Penthouse hosted SkyX on April 9th to hear the latest updates about their incentivized weather data collection network.
• On April 14th Polkadot Italia will be representing the ecosystem at the Codemotion event in Rome.

Extras

• Awesome 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.