What is up my friends! Welcome to week 4 of the WagMedia Weekly Update. Glad you could stop by. Take some time to catch up on all the insane developments with the Polkadot and Kusama ecosystems. For some Wag updates - RMRK has joined in on the fun! There are numerous projects incentivizing content creation from WagMedia and we are excited to welcome RMRK to our open community-based media group. Last week I discussed a few different reasons why I believe in Polkadot's vision for Web3, and there is some huge news on one of those amazing features - XCM. Let's get it.

TOP NEWS OF THE WEEK

Dr. Gavin Wood announced that XCM is moving closer to a full launch into the Polkadot ecosystem with a separate Kusama – Polkadot bridge currently in the works as well. Briefly, XCM is the inter-parachain bridge system that shares the same level of security as Polkadot itself. This is a major development in Polkadot’s growth. As parachains connect to the relay chain they will be able to transfer assets (tokens, NFTs, etc.) between chains smoothly, securely and with little to no gas. This is quite timely considering the massive exploit of Wormhole, the bridge between Ethereum and Solana. I highlighted XCM in last week’s newsletter, but the importance of this technology cannot be overstated. The security of these bridges is guaranteed by the security of Polkadot’s Proof-of-Stake Consensus mechanism, meaning you’d have to hack Polkadot to access these bridges. Secure and trustless communication between parachains such as Moonbeam, Astar, Acala, Efinity, Composable and more is one of the most appealing features of Polkadot’s tech stack. It's a revolutionary steel bridge.

To learn more about XCM check this out and read Dr. Wood’s detailed description. Follow technical updates here and feel free to post some questions below. Learn more about Polkadot and Dr. Gavin Wood from his most recent interview with Coindesk.

No subsocial account? Check out this video and send me an email. I get you some Sub tokens

Speed Reading

Check out this Bloomberg article to see how Polkadot stacks up against other major altcoins in terms of energy consumption
Learn more about Polkadot at ETHDenver this February 11th-20th. There will be plenty of opportunity to get involved
Some interesting thoughts from gjaeger on decentralizing governance in Polkadot even more
Amazing article by Great Teacher Kez on Zeitgeist with great analogies to understand prediction markets and how Zeitgeist approaches this space. There's a French version available as well!
Catch up if you missed Taiga’s AMA. They focused on describing how Taiga provides “efficient liquidty”, announced airdrop distribution of the token, and described future plans
Here is Subsocial’s revolutionary approach to socializing NFT purchases and creating the best platform for social media in crypto
Nodle partners with OnFinality to make setting up an independent node with Nodle more efficient
Check out G’expect chaos’s thread on recent Astar updates and follow him to stay on top of everything Astar related. Want to learn about Astar from the beginning? Seppy lays out an outstanding overview of what Astar has to offer
DICO announces they will be vying for a spot on Kusama and was upfront about the risk involved with investing in their crowdloan. Find out more about the project here
Nomad and Moonbeam paired up on twitter spaces to talk about the future of bridges and Nomad's unique approach. Listen to the crowdcast
Interested in Robonomics recent developments and active roadmap on Github? Take a looksy
Protofire launches Gnosis Safe on Moonbeam allowing for multi-sig wallets on Moonbeam's platform
Basilisk has a proposal for opening HRMP channel to Statemine to allow bridging of assets, similar to Karura and Moonriver's recent request
Gear releases a recap of January updates and released a straightforward description of what problem their blockchain solves. In short, making building dApps with substrate easier
Curious about Pontem’s future now that Diem is closing its doors and selling assets? Check out their AMA answers here
InvArch, the cross-chain IP authenticator project, raises 1.75 million at a 25 million valuation!. Congrats to the team
Talisman will be posting “Alpha Wednesdays” aimed at discussing product updates leading up to full launch. There may or may not be a chance to win spirit keys…Also, check out jeeper’s article on crosschain transfers using Talisman’s alpha wallet
TraceLabs, the technology company behind Origin Trail, reveals their vision for Web3 and highlight integrations with Polkadot
GatorKorps killing it with a presentation of Polkadot's Proof-of-Stake mechnism written for our French community

DeFi

Composable Finance continues to grow

Still confused with Picasso and Composable’s DeFi developments? You’re not alone. Check out this easy to read guide to get you up to speed on Picasso and this guide to Composable
Mosaic Phase II is officially set to launch on Picasso. Here is an overview of what Mosaic is and its purpose within the Picasso and the greater DotSama ecosystem
Composable partners with another DeFi platform – Crocswap, a DEX 2.0 that will leverage Mosaic to provide liquidity to users bridging their assets
Composable has launched a monthly newsletter to help keep up with their lightning speed updates
Bribe also releases a monthly newsletter to help supporters keep up with their progress
Here is a nice description of Composable’s oracle pallet, Apollo
Composable joins forces with Mercenary DAO to further bolster their governance push

DeFi is strong all throughout Polkadot and Kusama

1Swap, a stablecoin DEX on Moonriver, announced the upcoming launch of 1Beam -a sister project on Moonbeam
Check out PNP’s smooth article on Arthswap, Astar's one stop DeFi shop
Subquery partners with Polkamarkets, a DeFi and prediction market based blockchain soon to be launched on Moonriver
Parallel Finance released $PARA if you contributed to their crowdloan. Details on how to check para rewards are outlined here. If you contributed to another project via Parallel, the bonus $PARA reward is not available at this time. For more Parallel updates, check out their roadmap
Kintsugi's dApp went live as they begin delivering on their 2022 roadmap
Bifrost releases January updates highlighted by base chain developmental upgrades, cross-chain communication, LP offerings
If interested, here is Equilibrium’s Flash Bonus guide. First flash was slated to start February 3rd. A list of those who got the 200% bonus is here
Check out this proposal for a lending protocol for Astar’s builder’s program
UniLend, a flash loan provider, announces launch on Moonriver

NFTs and the Metaverse: The Heartbeat of DotSama

More firsts from RMRK as they announce a free lifetime membership to Hide.Me VPN with purchase of 1 of 20 Legendary Guy Fawkes Masks. These are equippable onto Kanarias . This is likely the first of many real world uses for metaverse based items from RMRK
Exosama is a new project from the mind of Donnie BigBags which will showcase high-fidelity avatars built with RMRK 2.0 and 3.0 technology. This cypberpunk project is aiming to be one of the biggest NFT projects on Polkadot by launching on Moonbeam. Keep your eye out on SubSocial for a write up with more details and alpha - coming this week
The first NFTmusic record label, Chaos Collective, launches in DotSama! What an incredible time to watch these initiatives grow
NeosVR Metaverse Maker Competition (MMC) 2022 is live through March 1st! Follow this incredible interview from BassOnToast with Medra, in the metaverse, for highlights on MMC and to learn more. Check out Jam’s quick highlights for more information and peep this tutorial if you are wanting to get a piece of that $300,000 USD prize money!
Bit.Country and RMRK were recognized in this Nasdaq article. Also note, Bit.Country has coined the term “Metaverse-as-a-service” (MaaS), recognized by CoinMarketCap. An interesting sign of things to come from Bit.Country
Speaking of Bit.Country, they also released a nice video to celebrate the Lunar New Year and gave an update on their token generation event and January developments
DPS voyages truly are live now! Check this out for more information and watch CryptoHustler101’s video on Voyages
Want to learn more about Astar Degen’s, an up and coming grass-roots NFT based DAO? Check out jb_blah’s outstanding overview
Metadojo introduced a gleam in order to win a Tiger NFT
RMRK released another round of banners. Secondary market can be found here. Bruno hints there could be some use for these banners in the future. The next round of banner relase will launch with dutch auction to prevent botting. Expect another launch soon, they are monthly releases.
RMRK is also doing a twitter spaces on February 9th at 12pm UTC with Moonriver and BiFrost to discuss RMRK 2.0 and many more interesting topics
Lots of updates for Unique Network in January. Catch up here
Banned from PolkaFrance? Félicitations and claim your NFT! PolkaFrance showing their great sense of humor by offering 50 NFTs to the first people offering proof of banishment
Apes and art, the team behind BuffChimpz, announces an awareness raffle taking aim at the tag 3 friends trend for NFT marketing. An amazing showing from big name artists in the DotSama ecosystem
Dino x Dino, now known as Planet Neo, announces eggs hatching end of March 2022
Acala announces the release of their NFTs for participating in their crowdloan. Pretty slick. If you are eligible to pick them up click "collectibles" and then "all" to view yours

Take a few minutes out of your day to read this incredible article by Ninja, aka Pnin, on A4A (art for art's sake) within Kusama. This is a great read to get to know the artists behind the NFTs. Follow his subsocial channel for more updates on this front. Don't forget his article last week on the current state of NFTs.

For more news on NFTs follow RMRK’s weekly NFT update

Want to know sooner? Daily RMRK Updates courtesy of MARIO

Rumors and alpha

Bowser Staxx announced that Birb Tapes – Vol 2 – Space Rap Sounds holders were dropped extra tracks and clues to future collaborations. Unconfirmed, but could be feature collabs with Moonsama, Kanaria and DPS
RMRK will be involved with Building Better Worlds, a metaverse focused initiative. February 15th is a day to keep your eyes on as Bruno hints at some big updates
HydraDX may launch parachain bid soon after AMA discussion with co-founder, Jakub Gregus
Leaked in a recent AMA with Picasso; Aave will be partnering with the platform
Season 3 of Moonsama is shaping up as gladiator-based competition is imminent . RomeDAO is likely to be involved
Gear planning to be on both Polkadot and Kusama expanding the reach of this streamlined dApp tool
Mangata is finalizing details of crowdloan rewards and scheme will likely be released around the time of the publishing of this newsletter
InvArch Banners will reward you by being whitelisted for community based $VARCH token sale, a percentage bonus on $VARCH crowdloan and likely whitelist you for an NFT. Secondary market here
Astar burns 2 million USD worth of their treasury on February 4th and announced partnership with SuperColony, to further drive WASM development
Some strong speculation that the artist behind Exosama is Luigi Lucarelli
A list of whitelist information on Exosama, Donnie's new cyberpunk RPG

First 100 to list their wallet on the discord (already done)
First 100 to boost the server (already done)
Kanaria bird holders who interacted with their birds before February 2nd will likely get whitelisted
Opening spots to projects throughout the DotSama ecosystem such as Blase Bonobos. There will likely be more announcements in the future about partnerships
Join the telegram and keep an eye out during ETHDenver in mid February for opportunities to get whitelisted
More updates to follow, it's moving fast

Opinion

Community and Growth, the Backbone of DotSama

I remember my journey into Web3 began with a simple search: What is an NFT? NFTs made absolutely no sense to me (and hoenstly it's still tough to fully grasp), but the buzz around NFTs was so strong I had to learn more. This started my dive down the rabbit hole and eventually led me to Polkadot. I started like many, speculating here and there on trading. Hearing stories about people becoming millionares and quitting their jobs. It's a tantalizing narrative, and one that is easy to get lost in. As I continued to trade, I quickly found that I was in no place to make real money this way. Some are able to make it work, but for me, it didn't pan out how I imagined. Around this time, I began to get a little more involved in discord. Talking to others to learn about Polkadot and what it had to offer. I tried to not take things at face value and kept an open mind about what I didn't know. This is when the community started to shine through. I short order, I have found that one of the most rewarding aspects of the Polkadot and Kusama ecosystems is the people that make it go. Each and every project in this space fully supports the next. Call me cheesy, but the epitome of interoperability lies within the members of the community. This foundational ethos of Polkadot permeates through the members and leads to continued meteoric growth of projects in the space. Whether it's explaning this next-level technology, learning more together about NFTs, searching for solutions to problems in our world, the DotSama community is right there. Let me give you a little insight into what I mean.

If you haven't heard, Exosama is a brand new NFT-based RPG from the mind of Donnie BigBags. We will have a dedicated article coming soon, but I wanted to focus on the amazing growth of this community in only a matter of hours. From a single discord invite, a new world was opened up on the Exosama Server. It exploded in a matter of minutes. Thousands of people flooded in and quickly began shouting each other out, joining in on inside jokes, creating new relationships and supporting each other’s projects. It was amazing to see. Each and every person with their hands on the keyboard or glued to their phone screen waiting for the next update, the next comment. Some hoping for a whitelist spot. Others just joining in on the fun. The hype was real. But the community was even more so. It was a microcosm of the tight-nit relationships that flow through and bind together the ecosystem. Donnie showed as much by dropping into discords and telegrams throughout the community offering whitelists here and there. We all appreciate him, but the organic growth is something to admire.

This is not only evident in something as exciting as a new NFT project. The more I read about the growth of parachains and notable dApps in the ecosystem, I see how real the decentralized and open-sourced principles are. Although not perfect, people are building and are putting in hours of sweat equity to see growth take place. They spend hours reading, learning, watching videos and picking up new skills. Some have full-time jobs, some have left their jobs for Web3 and some are just straight Chads. If you just hold DOT and are simply hoping to sell one day for profit, I encourage you to find a community and dig in. Get to know some of these amazing people and watch your knowledge and gains go parabolic. Need to find somewhere to start? Drop a comment below, I’ll get you sorted.

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs

Highflying23 is a content creator and infographic designer eager to work in DotSama ecosystem
S3050 is a music/SFX engineer open to working with new projects. Check the discord for easy contact

Not many searches this week for positions, if you are interested in getting postings listed here. Please leave a comment below

Beginner's Guide

New to Polkadot? Or maybe you have some friends who keep coins on a CEX but haven't become a part of a community yet? Share this with them to get them started! It will be updated weekly with new content and is open for changes. Feel free to leave a comment and I'll add in content that's needed.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to Dotsama

This week the discord was on fire with content, news and rumors. Our WagMedia discord is the primary source for most of this news, content and alpha – thanks a ton fam! This is just the highlights, for more in depth news join the discord and get incentivized to learn more about the ecosystem and provide news, alpha and content to us all. As always, I’m open to feedback and I hope you find this helpful. Looking forward to yet another week of exponential growth in the DotSama ecosystem!

What is WagMedia?
WagMedia Discord
Jay Chrawnna provides us all with extremely entertaining updates on everything DotSama

Tips appreciated

KSM

GL85fwNiFfUqkCcmtrq7eD5DphB1QWJrxkgMme5qdSuFfap

Metamask

0x66b9f30B38Cb6d61374D15D8A9D220561E715995

Ultimate Trust (January 30th - February 5th)