#1573 · Polkadot Community Foundation - Polkadot App - Treasury Funding #01
Context of the proposal
As many of you may know, at Polkadot Decoded last year (2024) Björn Wagner teased the new Polkadot App. This is a very exciting product which has been a long time in the making and plans to deliver an easy, beginner-friendly mobile wallet (and more) for newcomers to crypto and Polkadot. This product is published by the Polkadot Community Foundation (PCF).
This proposal seeks to obtain funding for the next 6 months of software development, marketing personnel, tooling and legal costs. This proposal is separate to Ref #1082 which sought for the PCF to own the IP of the Polkadot App, publish the app and to enter into third party relationships with providers where required. This is already in progress.
The funding under this proposal will allow the PCF to release the product, and progress with building future scope to improve the product over the duration of the funding. Whilst the project is behind schedule from when it was originally announced, the app is almost ready and there will be more information coming soon as to the launch date.
Previously all research, design, development and legal costs have been paid directly or indirectly by the Web3 Foundation. Many of these roles and activities will still be covered by the W3F directly or indirectly. This proposal seeks alignment with the community around the ongoing development of the product.
This proposal covers from May 2025 to October 2025
Why and who is this important for?
The Polkadot App will be a key onboarding vehicle for Polkadot, the best place for a beginner to start with Polkadot and crypto in general.
The Polkadot App will be useful for the existing Polkadot audience and crypto sphere as well due to the ease of use and some of the unique features that the product will bring.
The Polkadot App will be a core value proposition for the Polkadot Community to onboard their friends and family and increase the number of DOT holders worldwide.
Proposal & cost breakdown
The proposal is mostly to cover software development for the project for the next 6 months.
| Allocation | Amount | % of total | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Software Development | $748,800 | 72.7% | Allocated for Novasama and external PCF Contractors |
| Operations | $167,000 | 16.2% | Allocated for PCF operations and covers a new security audit, Raise SaaS and customer service costs. |
| Marketing | $54,000 | 5.2% | Allocated for PCF contractor, a Senior Product Marketing Manager leading Polkadot App related marketing |
| Legal | $50,000 | 4.9% | Allocated for PCF legal fees and is a bucket to draw from where required |
| Tooling | $9,714 | 1.0% | Allocated for PCF tooling and covers Github and other products the PCF uses for app development |
A full budget breakdown is available here: PCF Polkadot App Funding #01 (public)
Some activities are included in the budget but set at $0 as we envisage that some funds are better allocated from existing bounties. E.g. the marketing bounty should fund specific ad spends or engagements that support the product.
Link to the full proposal https://docs.google.com/document/d/1S3XPF2EMpFhPoirT9arsFdPn5Rou_dY0n7wNlvTVkDg/edit?pli=1&tab=t.0
Many thanks for your proposal, Autonomous Projects!
We have carefully reviewed your application. Below are the results of our analysis:
Impact on the Ecosystem: 5.50 / 10
Governance Compatibility: 8.67 / 10
Cost-Benefit Ratio: 3.75 / 10
Transparency and Traceability: 3.50 / 10
Record and Credibility: 4.50 / 10
Conclusion
The overall score is 5.18 / 10
🔹🔷🔹 vonFlandern 🔹🔷🔹 has therefore voted with: ABSTAIN
Our methodology aims to analyze and evaluate OpenGov proposals objectively, effectively, and transparently, establishing clear decision-making foundations for our votes while making our process visible to the community.
For a deeper dive into our evaluation, please see the detailed report here: https://vonflandern.org/polkadot-referendum/1573
hi all, as you may know I am contributing to this project and am looking forward to finally seeing it going live. I'm working closely with the PCF, Novasama and many others to deliver this app - I have started posting monthly updates of our progress and what we've been working on, which I'll also do after we go live. Something to remember with this ref is the funding is for future scope to build into the app, all development costs today have been paid for.
the app will most likely fail. there isnt anything new or exciting in there. the giftcard part is extremly outdated. I just dont see anybody ever using this over a proper wallet solution. Ask the web3f or Parity for money and leave the treasury alone, still better then having to fund you guys for eternity. Certainly not worth a million usd for 6 months. I am not surprised to see hints that this is their first ever published mobile app. Simply the wrong team with the right target (adoption) and the wrong features. (btw I saw single Developers develope and publish mobile wallet solutions and I can tell you rightnow they are already ahead of you even thoe it is in other eco systems and probably varies by a lot regarding complexity, my assumption is simply that you guys are not worth the money) ---> NAY
the app will most likely fail. there isnt anything new or exciting in there. the giftcard part is extremly outdated. I just dont see anybody ever using this over a proper wallet solution. Ask the web3f or Parity for money and leave the treasury alone, still better then having to fund you guys for eternity. Certainly not worth a million usd for 6 months. I am not surprised to see hints that this is their first ever published mobile app. Simply the wrong team with the right target (adoption) and the wrong features. (btw I saw single Developers develope and publish mobile wallet solutions and I can tell you rightnow they are already ahead of you even thoe it is in other eco systems and probably varies by a lot regarding complexity, my assumption is simply that you guys are not worth the money) ---> NAY
why is the marketing budget so low? is there a separate marketing budget? do we really want to market an app that cost almost $1M with just $54,000?
what is the logic of this?
Hi,
How much has the Web3 Foundation already invested in this project?
What justifies the $748,000 USDT requested for development when most of the features have already been developed? The application looks very much like a simplified version of Nova Wallet.
Hello!
The beneficiary address should set on-chain ID. Here is a guide on how to do it:
Youtube video by Leemo: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/y2PMmaI47ts
Thanks!
@Vikk - Gov 🏛 Gm, for now you can confirm the address on the Polkadot Wiki -> https://wiki.polkadot.network/general/pcf/
Hello!
The beneficiary address should set on-chain ID. Here is a guide on how to do it:
Youtube video by Leemo: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/y2PMmaI47ts
Thanks!
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