This proposal requests funding for a set of targeted feature developments for Polkadot-API and its surrounding ecosystem components.

Polkadot-API is a modular, light-client-first suite of libraries designed to provide a high-performance and developer-friendly interface to the Polkadot ecosystem. Since its first stable release in 2024, the project has become an important piece of infrastructure for building decentralized applications, with adoption across multiple teams and products.

This proposal focuses on delivering additional features and improvements identified through ongoing collaboration with ecosystem stakeholders, complementing the basic maintenance proposal approved in https://polkadot.subsquare.io/referenda/1856

Scope of Work

The proposal covers four main areas:

1. Polkadot-API Core Enhancements
Implementation of full support for Extrinsic v5 and the new createTransaction API, including:

• First-class support for transaction creation workflows
• Libraries for wallet and extension integration
• Support for custom transaction extensions and typings

2. SDK Improvements (Statement Store)
Continuous adaptation of the Statement Store SDK to evolving RPC specifications, ensuring compatibility and reliability for data propagation mechanisms across the network.

3. PAPI Console Expansion
Further development of the PAPI Console as a developer tool and ecosystem interface, including:

• UX improvements
• Extrinsic analysis tools
• Enhanced account management (locks, vesting, etc.)
• Chain metrics and block data visualization
• Teleport integration

As the ecosystem evolves and legacy tooling is gradually phased out, improving onboarding and providing modern, well-supported interfaces becomes increasingly important. The PAPI Console contributes to this transition by offering new capabilities while aligning with the current architecture of Polkadot.

4. JSON-RPC Specification Improvements
Contributions to protocol-level improvements required by modern dApps, including:

• Pagination and storage proof support (chainHead v2)
• Improved transaction tracking

Full Proposal

For a detailed breakdown of the scope, milestones, and technical context, please refer to the full proposal: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DU8LXaDtGf6N3nDz7t6yj0CoYOAbu1cS99X9FAw0W6g/edit?usp=sharing

Budget & Execution

• Total requested: 76,380 €
• Total workload: 804 hours
• Rate: 95 €/hour

Funds will be managed through the Polkadot Community Foundation (PCF).

A total of 4,000 € is included as a buffer to cover PCF operational and administrative expenses (legal and operational costs). Any unused portion of this buffer will be returned to the Polkadot Treasury.

The EUR - USDC rate has been set at the time of submission by xe.com's rate 1.15359324 USDC / EUR

Upon approval:

• The PCF will establish the necessary contractual agreement with our legal entity
• The team will issue a single invoice to the PCF for the full amount
• Payment will be executed in USDC to 13dXmfrN4Prb3FmdxKDNRyUeNDuNwUTZibYAMFNKmZJut2Lq a multisig wallet controlled by the team.
• The PCF will retain the portion required for operational costs and return any excess to the Treasury

The team will maintain transparency through ongoing updates on GitHub and the Polkadot Forum.

This referendum formally closes the Polkadot Fast Grants and Open Source Developer Grants bounty programs following the completion of their defined scope and boundary conditions.

All outstanding obligations, pending evaluations, and eligible payouts have been resolved or terminated in accordance with the bounty rules and governance framework. Any remaining unallocated or unused funds are to be returned to the Polkadot Treasury.

This proposal aims to upgrade the Snowbridge Gateway Proxy contract on Ethereum, which is remotely governed by OpenGov utilizing Snowbridge itself as a cross-chain governance bridge.

New Features

The upgraded gateway supports new features:

• Adopted the Fiat-Shamir approach in BeefyClient, reducing message delivery latency from 30 minutes to just 1–2 minutes.
• Revamped the InboundMessage submission flow, allowing the UI to dry-run the entire message process.

Technical Details

This proposal will update the Gateway proxy with:

• a new implementation contract at 0x36e74FCAAcb07773b144Ca19Ef2e32Fc972aC50b
• a new BeefyClient at 0x7cfc5C8b341991993080Af67D940B6aD19a010E1

This contract was built and deployed using:

• Repository: https://github.com/Snowfork/snowbridge
• Commit: 1201293e482ef052b9c3989dcf680046704fef3d
• Command: cd contracts; scripts/deploy-gateway.sh

The preimage that will be executed on Bridge Hub for this ref was created using the Snowbridge Control tool.

➜  control git:(main) ✗ cargo run --release --features polkadot --bin snowbridge-preimage -- --format hex upgrade-202603

Preimage Hash: 0xd96bca57bceb4bcb60aed68b6e844a1b86800b8705f172afc3812305b98a883d
Preimage Size: 90
0x1f0005010100a90f050c2f000006020102a7d7d589700101530036e74fcaacb07773b144ca19ef2e32fc972ac50be3cfcc0042ad4c819c627fb2a84ba0822d67747a8618a4e1c4eb0c5112b179030100a0860100000000002000

Testing

The upgrade proposal was thoroughly tested using simulations on forked instances of both Polkadot and Ethereum mainnet, leveraging Chopsticks and Foundry for Polkadot and Ethereum respectively.

• Generate referenda and whitelist calls using opengov-cli

./target/release/opengov-cli submit-referendum --proposal 0x1f0005010100a90f050c2f000006020102a7d7d589700101530036e74fcaacb07773b144ca19ef2e32fc972ac50be3cfcc0042ad4c819c627fb2a84ba0822d67747a8618a4e1c4eb0c5112b179030100a0860100000000002000 --network polkadot --track whitelisted-caller --after 100 --output calldata

• Ran polkadot-referenda-tester and verified that EthereumSystem.Upgrade event emitted as expected.

npx github:karolk91/polkadot-referenda-tester test \
  --governance-chain-url wss://asset-hub-polkadot-rpc.n.dwellir.com \
  --fellowship-chain-url wss://polkadot-collectives-rpc.polkadot.io \
  --call-to-create-governance-referendum 0x2804080500710140031f0005010100a90f050c2f000006020102a7d7d589700101530036e74fcaacb07773b144ca19ef2e32fc972ac50be3cfcc0042ad4c819c627fb2a84ba0822d67747a8618a4e1c4eb0c5112b179030100a08601000000000020003e003f0d02cd80f1c35b9403c6c87535dca34692a818067389e59500279a830457910e56295c0000000164000000 \
  --call-to-create-fellowship-referendum 0x2804043d003e0201cc1f0005010100a10f05082f0000060300884000d96bca57bceb4bcb60aed68b6e844a1b86800b8705f172afc3812305b98a883d010a000000 \
  --additional-chains wss://bridge-hub-polkadot-rpc.n.dwellir.com \
  --verbose
...
ℹ   • EthereumOutboundQueue.MessageQueued
▸     Data: {
  "id": "0x2d7325254a91cb620f30d18e814410bdc5c82640fa54fd61064a8832dfc181c3"
}
ℹ   • EthereumSystem.Upgrade
▸     Data: {
  "impl_address": "0x36e74fcaacb07773b144ca19ef2e32fc972ac50b",
  "impl_code_hash": "0xe3cfcc0042ad4c819c627fb2a84ba0822d67747a8618a4e1c4eb0c5112b17903",
  "initializer_params_hash": "0x0e5751c026e543b2e8ab2eb06099daa1d1e5df47778f7787faab45cdf12fe3a8"
}

• Forked Ethereum Upgrade contract verification

Since the Ethereum side of snowbridge has no fallback governance or centralized escape mechanisms, it is critical to ensure that the upgrade does not compromise the ongoing viability of the gateway. In this context, the fork tests in ForkUpgrade202603.t.sol verify that cross-chain signalling is preserved.

Audits

The Ethereum contracts were audited by Oak Security, with the full Audit Report available for reference.

Following this, we also received several HackenProof reports and implemented the recommended changes and fixes accordingly.

Due to potential display issues with some charts in format across various devices and platforms, please refer to the detailed information in this Google Document:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DKX62a9LtAWd7CF7oBTUQe0rZ23xcwnnrs1fj_14JlQ/edit?usp=sharing

Past discussion

https://polkadot.polkassembly.io/post/3390

Based on this discussion version, this proposal corrects some typos. For the development costs, Subscan will self-fund 30% and request 70%. Additionally, responses to community feedback will be added in the comments section.

Past proposals

• #151 Subscan | Infrastructure Costs of Subscan for Polkadot & Westend & Rococo Networks
• #20 Subscan | Infrastructure Costs of Subscan for Polkadot & Westend & Rococo & Statemint & Rockmine Networks (from July to December 2022)
• #1056 Subscan | Infrastructure Costs of Subscan for Polkadot & Westend & Rococo & Statemint & Rockmine Networks (from October 2023 to June 2024)
• #1366 Subscan Q3/Q4 2024 Funding Proposal: Basic service fee & Development cost for the Polkadot, Westend, and Rococo Ecosystems）
• #1727 Subscan Q4 2024 – Q2 2025 Funding Proposal: Basic Service Fee & Development Cost for the Polkadot and Westend Ecosystems

Overview

Subscan requests funding from the Polkadot Treasury to ensure the continued operation and enhancement of one of Polkadot’s most critical public data infrastructures. As the default block explorer and primary indexing backend for the Polkadot ecosystem, Subscan provides high-availability, low-latency, and fully historical on-chain data for the Polkadot Relay Chain and all Polkadot system parachains. These services are relied upon daily by developers, validators, wallets, governance platforms, infrastructure providers, auditors, and millions of unique users per year.

This proposal covers Subscan’s work across two key areas:

A. Basic Service Fees (2025 Q3–Q4)

Ensuring uninterrupted operational maintenance for the six Polkadot system networks:

• Polkadot Relay Chain
• AssetHub-Polkadot
• BridgeHub-Polkadot
• Coretime-Polkadot
• Collectives-Polkadot
• People-Polkadot

These services include full database indexing, runtime compatibility, node operations, 24/7 monitoring, bandwidth provisioning, storage scaling, DevOps automation, and end-user/API support—ensuring continuous data availability across the entire Polkadot ecosystem.

Requested: USD 151,200

B. Development Fees (2025 Q2–Q4)

Compensation for major ecosystem-critical work already completed, including:

• Full compatibility support and historical corrections for the AssetHub migration
• XCM execution and observability upgrades
• Governance transparency improvements (Treasury–Referenda linking, Preimage timelines, child bounty tracking)
• Data correctness repairs and ParaID history recovery
• Performance enhancements across API, dashboard, and frontend layers
• Monitoring architecture redesign and infrastructure optimization

Total: USD 73,167

Subscan Team Contribution: To support the sustainable growth of the ecosystem, the Subscan Team is self-funding 30% of these development costs.

Requested: USD 51,216

Total requested amount: USD 202,416

Recent Contributions and Ongoing Maintenance Work

From Q2 2025 to Q4 2025, Subscan completed extensive development and infrastructure work that directly supports Polkadot’s transition into the next-generation ecosystem architecture—particularly the AssetHub migration, which has been one of the most significant structural changes to the Polkadot network in recent years.

Subscan’s work during this period can be summarized in the following core areas:

1. Full Compatibility & Data Migration for AssetHub

AssetHub underwent multiple breaking updates, including changes to assets, extrinsics, metadata layouts, governance modules, and transfer logic. Subscan delivered complete compatibility support, including:

• Support for the new transfer_assets extrinsic (breaking change)
• Completion of missing governance metadata such as CreatedAtBlock, UpdatedAtBlock
• Migration fixes for precision, balances, metadata, and cross-chain asset visibility
• Repaired XCM token search, asset flow dashboards, and multi-network balance consistency
• Updated runtime compatibility across multiple versions released during the migration window

These contributions ensured that wallets, explorers, governance dashboards, and integration tools remained fully functional throughout the AssetHub migration, preventing ecosystem disruption.

2. Relay Chain & Parachain Data Reliability Improvements

Major foundational improvements included:

• Persistent Elasticsearch sync checkpoints
• Block/event sync memory optimization
• Historical ParaID mapping repair
• Account holder data recovery for Polkadot & Kusama
• Large-block (>100k events) processing pipeline

These enhancements strengthened chain-wide data accuracy and reduced the risk of indexer stalls during runtime upgrades or heavy XCM traffic.

3. XCM Observability, Monitoring, and Dashboards

Given Polkadot’s XCM-heavy activity, Subscan delivered system-wide improvements:

• XCM Process navigation and linking repair
• Standardized XCM execute events
• New XCM Asset Flow chart
• Optimized XCM reward sync
• ProcessXcmError decoding support

Combined, these improvements make Subscan the most complete and accurate public XCM observability layer in the ecosystem.

4. Governance Transparency Enhancements

Subscan improved auditability and cross-module visibility by:

• Fixing Treasury ↔ Referenda missing links
• Adding Preimage change tracking
• Supporting external proposals
• Enhancing referenda timelines for multi-module events
• Adding child bounty statistics and distributions

This has become critical infrastructure for OpenGov data, treasury analysts, and governance dashboards.

5. User Experience, Performance & Frontend Improvements

Key UX improvements include:

• High-load page optimizations
• Mobile optimization for dashboards
• Portfolio value accuracy fixes
• Identity and privacy mode repairs
• Pagination, sorting, and navigation upgrades

These ensure Subscan remains responsive even under multi-network heavy traffic conditions.

6. Infrastructure, Monitoring & Operational Maintenance

Continuous operations included:

• 24/7 monitoring for 12+ networks
• Hotfixes for runtime upgrades
• Sync health alerts
• Cost-control measures
• IPFS provider migration
• CI/CD & DevOps automation

These ongoing services are fundamental to maintaining reliable explorer and API availability for the entire Polkadot ecosystem.

Why Subscan Matters

As the default block explorer and indexing layer for Polkadot, Subscan provides the foundational data required by nearly all ecosystem participants.

Developers & Applications

• Reliable APIs: blocks, extrinsics, events, XCM, assets, NFTs
• Faster debugging and monitoring
• Data infrastructure for indexers, dashboards, bots, dApps

Parachain Teams & Validators

• Real-time block production, sync status, and finality
• XCM tracking across chains
• Early detection of node anomalies

Governance Platforms & Participants

• Referendum status, account history, delegation data
• Governance dashboards dependent on Subscan APIs
• Long-term auditability of past governance decisions

End Users, Wallets, and Ecosystem Tools

• Transfers, staking, NFT queries, asset visibility
• Multi-chain UI consistency and reliability

Without Subscan, many essential tools would face significant data degradation, and the accessibility of historical and governance data would be severely impacted.

Scope of This Proposal

This proposal covers two major funding components:

1. Service Fees (2025 Q3–Q4)

Operational maintenance for 6 Polkadot networks:

• Polkadot Relay Chain
• AssetHub
• BridgeHub
• Coretime
• Collectives
• People

These fees cover database storage, indexing, monitoring, bandwidth, DevOps, node maintenance, and end-user support.

2. Development Fees (2025 Q2–2025 Q4)

Compensation for:

• Core data reliability improvements
• Governance & OpenGov enhancements
• XCM dashboards, linking, and data corrections
• Runtime upgrade compatibility across the Polkadot family
• AssetHub migration support and breaking-change compatibility
• UI/UX and performance optimization
• Monitoring & DevOps automation
• Bulk data & research tooling
• Infrastructure migration (IPFS, monitoring, cold storage)

Together, these represent essential public infrastructure development that ensures Subscan remains aligned with Polkadot’s technical evolution.

Service Fee Model & Pricing Methodology

Throughout 2025, Subscan has focused on deep infrastructure optimization. By refining our technical stack, we have successfully reduced internal overhead and operational costs without compromising the high service standards the ecosystem expects. Our goal is to pass these efficiencies directly to the networks we support through a more competitive pricing structure.

Phased Implementation Strategy

To ensure a stable transition, we are rolling out these optimizations and subsequent price reductions in stages:

• Pilot Phase (Westend): The new infrastructure and discounted pricing are already being piloted on the Westend testnet.
• Expansion Phase: Following the Westend pilot, these optimizations will be progressively integrated into canary networks (Kusama) and eventually the Polkadot mainnet.
• Current Proposal Scope (2025 Q3–Q4): This proposal maintains the existing fee structure to ensure continuity and stability during the final stages of the optimization rollout.
• 2026 Outlook: Starting in Q1 2026, a fully optimized pricing model and additional discounts will be applied across all supported networks.

Note: For a detailed breakdown of how these infrastructure improvements will impact future budgets, please refer to the "2026 Cost Outlook (Infrastructure Optimization Based)" section.

Pricing Methodology

For the period of 2025 Q3–Q4, Subscan’s fee structure remains consistent with the model successfully utilized over the past two years.

Our maintenance packages are designed to support a wide range of data and operational needs, ensuring stable and efficient system performance. Because our overall cost structure is composed of multiple infrastructure and operational expenses—such as cloud services, network acceleration, monitoring systems, node providers, and the Subscan team’s ongoing operations—we use storage consumption as the primary metric for determining service fees.

Pricing Tiers:
a. Basic Plan

• Up to 200 GB: $799/month
• Beyond 200 GB: $5.3/GB
• Automatically upgrades to the next tier after 350 GB

b. Advanced Plan

• Up to 500 GB: $1,699/month
• Beyond 500 GB: $5.2/GB
• Automatically upgrades to the next tier after 750 GB

c. Professional Plan

• Up to 1 TB: $2,999/month
• Beyond 1 TB: $5/GB

Monthly Service Fee Breakdown

1. Database Storage & Indexing

• What It Covers: Continuous indexing of on-chain data—from blocks and transactions to event logs, governance info, and NFTs—so users can reliably access both real-time and historical records.
  • Why It Matters: As chain activity increases, so does data volume. By tying fees to storage needs, we accurately account for the costs of scaling infrastructure (e.g., additional database capacity).

1. Network Egress Bandwidth

• What It Covers: The outgoing traffic required to serve user requests quickly and consistently, including API calls, UI data retrieval, and integrations with third-party tools.
  • Why It Matters: A stable, high-bandwidth connection ensures that explorers, wallets, and dApps receive timely data responses, even during peak activity.

1. Monitoring & DevOps

• What It Covers: Round-the-clock health checks, internal alert pipelines, CI/CD automation, and system auditing. This includes running multiple nodes, maintaining synchronization, and ensuring high availability.
  • Why It Matters: These processes help detect issues early (e.g., node crashes, indexer slowdowns) and streamline updates or deployments, minimizing service disruption for the community.

1. Node Status Monitoring & Notifications

• What It Covers: Dedicated tools and alert mechanisms to track the real-time status of network nodes—particularly those relating to the Polkadot Relay Chain and the associated parachains (Assethub, Coretime, Bridgehub, People).
  • Why It Matters: Quick notifications enable parachain teams, validators, and the wider ecosystem to react rapidly to performance changes, forks, or potential security incidents.

1. Technical Support & Troubleshooting

• What It Covers: Responsive assistance for users, developers, and validators, including issue resolution, feature guidance, and integration help.
  • Why It Matters: Timely support keeps the ecosystem running smoothly and fosters a positive development environment—especially crucial for teams building dApps, explorers, and automation tools.

Why We Use Storage as a Pricing Metric

Correlation to Real Costs:
Storage growth scales directly with block production and transaction activity, making it a more stable and predictable metric than raw API traffic. As chain activity evolves, storage becomes the clearest and most consistent indicator of the underlying infrastructure load required to maintain long-term historical data.

Subscan Baseline:
Subscan determines the appropriate fee tier based on the median storage consumption measured during the billing period. For example, for the Q3–Q4 2025 billing cycle, the baseline storage usage is derived from data recorded on September 30th.

Predictable Billing:
Basing fees on storage reduces the volatility caused by sudden traffic spikes and ensures a more transparent, usage-based cost model for both the community and the treasury.

Beyond Storage: The Full Cost Landscape

Our pricing also incorporates the broader operational overhead required to run a production-grade, high-availability data service—such as cloud infrastructure, network acceleration, monitoring systems, node providers, and Subscan’s ongoing engineering and support efforts.

Because these components fluctuate dynamically based on cloud regions, traffic patterns, redundancy requirements, and security considerations, they cannot be broken down into a stable or meaningful line-item list. In addition, some of these details involve sensitive architectural and security-related information that should not be fully disclosed publicly in order to preserve system robustness and reduce attack surface.

For these reasons, Subscan adopts a service-fee-based pricing model, which is consistent with industry practices used by major explorer and indexing providers. Pegging the service fee to storage usage strikes the right balance between:

• transparent and verifiable metrics (storage is measurable on-chain and externally),
• predictable treasury budgeting, and
• preserving the flexibility and sustainability necessary to maintain and upgrade a mission-critical public data infrastructure.

This model also enables Subscan to invest continuously in optimization and long-term cost reduction—ensuring that infrastructure improvements directly translate into better performance and lower overall fees for the ecosystem over time.

Fee Details

2025 Q3 & Q4 Maintenance Fee

• Total Maintenance Fees for 2025 Q3 & Q4 (6 networks): USD 151,200

2025 Q2 New Features Development Costs

During Q2 2025, Subscan completed a comprehensive series of platform enhancements focused on network-wide reliability, data accuracy, performance optimization, and user experience improvements across the Polkadot ecosystem.
These efforts strengthened Subscan’s role as a core public infrastructure component used daily by developers, validators, nominators, governance participants, and parachain teams.

Key areas of contribution include:

• Core data reliability improvements, such as persistent Elasticsearch sync checkpoints and state-change consistency fixes.
• Significant UX and interface upgrades, including portfolio accuracy fixes, identity privacy repairs, dark-mode enhancements, and improved navigation patterns.
• High-impact backend and API performance work, addressing slow endpoints across multi-chain token, account, reward, staking, and XCM routes.
• Cross-network operational improvements, including redesigned monitoring systems and IPFS infrastructure migration.
• Support for analytical and research workflows, through bulk export scripts and scheduled data generation systems.

Below is the complete task list for Q2 2025：

Our Compensation Rates and Total Costs:

• DevOps Engineer: $75/hour
• Front-End Engineer: $75/hour
• Back-End Engineer: $75/hour
• Product Manager/Test: $70/hour
• Designer: $70/hour

With a total of 144 hours worked, the calculated cost based on the above rates amounts to $10,650.

2025 Q3 New Features Development Costs

During Q3 2025, Subscan continued its role as a core piece of Substrate ecosystem public infrastructure, focusing on strengthening data correctness, cross-chain observability, governance transparency, and runtime upgrade compatibility for Polkadot and its ecosystem parachains. The work in this period concentrated on hardening the production explorer that is used daily by validators, nominators, governance participants, infrastructure providers, and application teams.

Across all categories, this Q3 scope represents 46 concrete engineering tasks, covering:

• deep data accuracy & historical repair work (events, balances, ParaID timelines, child bounties),
• performance and scalability improvements around traces, large blocks, heavy dashboards and XCM visualizations,
• governance, referenda and treasury UX upgrades for more auditable decision-making,
• XCM and AssetHub integration and monitoring improvements,
• consolidated Polkadot-family runtime upgrade compatibility, and
• practical UX & notification flow refinements that reduce friction for everyday users.

Below is the complete task list for Q3 2025：

Our Compensation Rates and Total Costs:

• DevOps Engineer: $75/hour
• Front-End Engineer: $75/hour
• Back-End Engineer: $75/hour
• Product Manager/Test: $70/hour
• Designer: $70/hour

With a total of 359 hours worked, the calculated cost based on the above rates amounts to $26,530.

2025 Q4 New Features Development Costs

In the Q4, Subscan focused on comprehensive optimization and improvement of the Polkadot ecosystem, having already completed the basic development work for the AssetHub migration in the Q3. This phase transitioned from foundational infrastructure setup to deep compatibility adaptation, ensuring that critical modules—including Staking, Governance, and Vesting—remained fully auditable and accessible across the migration boundary.

Key technical achievements included the delivery of historical data backfilling to bridge migration gaps, the implementation of cross-chain validator linking to maintain traceability between AssetHub and the Relay Chain, and the hardening of runtime upgrade monitoring for the entire system parachain suite. In parallel, Subscan executed a major UX/UI overhaul, refactoring core explorers pages (Account, Block, and Dashboard) and aligning the visual identity with the latest Polkadot brand refresh. This dual focus on data integrity and user experience ensures a seamless transition for the community while providing the high-fidelity analytical tools required for the "Asynchronous Backing" era.

Q4 Summary of Work (Highlights)：

• Migration Depth & Data Integrity: Resolved complex indexing challenges by backfilling historical gaps and fixing event association for governance and staking modules.
• Infrastructure Resilience: Optimized Polkadot API performance and enhanced indexer recovery mechanisms for system parachains (BridgeHub, People, Coretime, etc.).
• User Experience (UX) Debt Clearance: Completely rebuilt the navigation architecture and upgraded the layout of high-traffic pages to improve readability and audit-friendliness.
• Ecosystem Compatibility: Delivered end-to-end validation for multiple runtime upgrades, ensuring zero downtime in data availability during Polkadot’s shift to a more modular architecture.

Our Compensation Rates and Total Costs:

• DevOps Engineer: $75/hour
• Front-End Engineer: $75/hour
• Back-End Engineer: $75/hour
• Product Manager/Test: $70/hour
• Designer: $70/hour

With a total of 487 hours worked, the calculated cost based on the above rates amounts to $35,987

Why Polkadot’s Fee Is Higher Than Other Chains

Polkadot Relay Chain currently exceeds 4 TB of indexed data. This is primarily the result of long-term historical accumulation and the high density of chain activity. The key technical factors driving the large storage footprint include:

1. Long network lifespan and full historical retention

Polkadot is one of the earliest and longest-running networks in the Polkadot ecosystem.
Its extended operational history results in a significantly larger volume of blocks, extrinsics, events, and state transitions.
Subscan preserves complete historical data without pruning, ensuring full auditability and long-term access for developers, explorers, governance tools, and research.

2. Increasing data complexity over time

As runtime modules, governance logic, asset operations, and state transition models have evolved, the structure and richness of on-chain events have grown substantially.
This results in more complex data schemas and heavier indexing requirements for historical blocks.

3. High density of XCM-related activity

Polkadot carries some of the most experimental and active XCM traffic in the entire ecosystem.
The large number of cross-chain messages and event records generates:

• substantially more event data,
• more complex event-linking requirements, and
• larger historical datasets that must be preserved to maintain auditability.

This XCM-heavy traffic is a major contributor to the relay chain’s significantly larger storage footprint compared to individual parachains.

Optimization & Cost Reduction Roadmap

(Already operational on testnet and gradually rolling out across the Polkadot and Polkadot ecosystems, with quantifiable cost-reduction results to be reflected in billing beginning Q1 2026.)

To mitigate long-term storage growth and reduce operational costs—particularly for the Polkadot relay chain—we are executing several structural optimization initiatives. These include efforts to reduce reliance on GCP and lower total cost of ownership.

1. Hot/Cold storage separation

We are segmenting frequently accessed data into high-performance storage tiers while moving older blocks and events into cost-efficient archival layers.
This significantly reduces the cost of maintaining multi-terabyte historical datasets.

2. XCM-focused indexing optimizations

Given that XCM events represent a major portion of Polkadot’s data weight, we are optimizing:

• event-linking logic,
• redundant index structures, and
• cross-chain reference mappings.

These adjustments reduce long-term index growth without affecting query accuracy.

3. Reduced reliance on GCP (major cost-efficiency initiative)

To optimize long-term infrastructure costs, we are:

• migrating certain storage layers to lower-cost object-storage providers,
• reducing GCP I/O operations via caching and pre-aggregation strategies,
• gradually shifting parts of the system toward self-hosted or hybrid infrastructure.

These changes directly address one of the largest cost drivers in the current operational model.

Long-Term Sustainability & VisionOur long-term goal is to reduce reliance on treasury funding through multiple channels:

• Continuous optimization to limit infrastructure costs as chain data grows.
• Exploring responsible revenue streams (e.g., optional premium features or partnerships).
• Actively incorporating community suggestions to ensure value delivery aligns with user needs, increasing platform utility and potential monetization avenues without compromising openness or neutrality.

🔥 2026 Cost Outlook (Infrastructure Optimization Based)

Subscan’s goal is to deliver high-quality infrastructure services with stable performance, predictable budgeting, and cost-efficient pricing, while also offering additional discounts for prepaid commitments.

As our ongoing optimization continues, Subscan expects to introduce more favorable and more predictable pricing in Q1 2026, including:

• A more standardized pricing structure across networks and services
• Improved cost efficiency at higher usage levels
• Additional incentives for annual/prepaid subscriptions

BASIC PLAN

• $799 / Month
• Includes 500 GB / Month
• Up to ~52% lower total cost vs previous pricing at high usage

ADVANCED PLAN

• $1,699 / Month
• Includes 1 TB / Month
• Up to ~43% lower total cost vs previous pricing at high usage

CUSTOM PLAN

• Tailored pricing based on usage
• ~33% lower total cost vs previous pricing at high usage

Annual Payment Network Discounts (Stackable)

• Mainnet: 10% off
• Canary: 25% off
• Testnet: 40% off

2026 Estimated Annual Cost (Updated Pricing + Testnet Annual Discount)

Based on the current scope and configuration, the estimated Total Annual Fee (USD) for 2026 is: 225,666.

Please note that this amount is provided for 2026 cost forecasting purposes only, and is intended to support an evaluation of the long-term sustainability of the service. We welcome further discussion on the most suitable payment structure and scope adjustments, including:

• Whether annual billing is preferred (with applicable discounts)
• After the AssetHub migration, whether the positioning and service scope of AssetHub should be updated
• Whether to enable additional AssetHub Trace functionality, if required
• Whether to disable Relay Chain Trace to optimize cost efficiency

Subscan will prepare the 2026 service proposal based on the community’s feedback and preferred direction.

Total Requested Amount

The total requested amount for all 6 networks, including all maintenance, operational overhead, and mandatory compatibility work, is USD 202,416.

Conclusion
Subscan remains a foundational pillar of the Polkadot ecosystem—providing the high-fidelity block indexing, XCM observability, and governance transparency required by developers, auditors, and millions of users worldwide.

The 2025 development cycle marked a period of intense technical transformation for Polkadot. By ensuring seamless compatibility through the AssetHub migration and multiple breaking runtime upgrades, Subscan has preserved the continuity of the historical record and the stability of downstream applications.

Our Commitment to the Ecosystem We recognize the current challenges facing the broader market and the Polkadot ecosystem. While Subscan’s operational costs are already highly competitive, we are committed to standing with the community during these demanding times through two key initiatives:

1. Direct Team Subsidy: To share the development burden, the Subscan Team is voluntarily self-funding 30% of the development costs included in this proposal.
2. Aggressive 2026 Cost Reduction: We are actively transitioning to a new infrastructure model (Hot/Cold storage separation and GCP optimization). This will allow us to deliver a significantly lower pricing structure in 2026, with projected savings of 33% to 52% for high-usage networks, ensuring that Subscan becomes more cost-efficient even as Polkadot’s data grows.

We remain dedicated to:

• Operational Transparency: Maintaining neutrality and openness as a mission-critical public good.
• Data Integrity: Safeguarding the historical accuracy and reliability of the Polkadot Relay Chain and all system parachains.
• Future-Ready Infrastructure: Continuously optimizing our stack to support the "Asynchronous Backing" era and beyond.

We appreciate the Treasury’s continued trust and support. We will continue to evolve alongside Polkadot, providing a high-performance, cost-efficient, and transparent data layer for the entire communi

Summary

This proposal requests the deployment of the Universal Deterministic Deployment Proxy (CREATE2 factory) at canonical address 0x4e59b44847b379578588920ca78fbf26c0b4956c on Polkadot Asset Hub mainnet.

Problem Statement

The CREATE2 deterministic deployment proxy is critical infrastructure for Ethereum-compatible chains, enabling protocols like Uniswap, Safe, and others to deploy contracts at the same addresses across all EVM chains. However, it cannot be deployed on Asset Hub through normal means due to a gas price incompatibility.

Technical Details:

The way to deploy this contract on a new chain is to submit a well-known presigned tx,
the tx includes a high gas price of 100 gwei but it's still not high enough to work on Asset Hub

• The proxy's deployment uses a pre-signed transaction with a hardcoded gas price of 100 gwei
• Polkadot Asset Hub enforces a minimum gas price of 1000 gwei (10x higher)
• The transaction signature cryptographically commits to all parameters including gas price
• Modifying the gas price of the presigned transaction would result in different contract/deployer addresses, defeating the purpose of universal deterministic deployment

Proposed Solution

Use OpenGov to execute a privileged utility_dispatchAs using the canonical create2 proxy deployer address 0x3fab184622dc19b6109349b94811493bf2a45362 as the origin of this call. The polkadot-sdk equivalent of this address is 12SUqsDfLk4k5LS7XWi6fC3jC5xeT8sFivVY776NGm26dXr4. The call executes instantiate_with_code on pallet-revive instantiating the CREATE2 proxy contract and ensuring we maintain the deterministic deployment address 0x4e59b44847b379578588920ca78fbf26c0b4956c.

• This call been successfully executed on paseo asset hub : https://assethub-paseo.subscan.io/extrinsic/4724501-2

Precedent

This approach has been successfully tested on Paseo Assethub using sudo privileges, confirming:

• The contract deploys to the correct canonical address 0x4e59b44847b379578588920ca78fbf26c0b4956c
• The CREATE2 mechanics work correctly in pallet-revive
• See: https://polkadot.testnet.routescan.io/address/0x4e59b44847b379578588920ca78fbf26c0b4956c

Benefits

• Protocol Compatibility: Enables Uniswap, Safe, and other major protocols to deploy at their canonical addresses on Asset Hub
• Cross-Chain Address Parity: Contracts can maintain the same addresses across Ethereum, L2s, and Polkadot
• Developer Experience: Standard tooling (Foundry, Hardhat plugins) will work as expected
• Ecosystem Growth: Removes a critical blocker for EVM developers building on Polkadot

Impact

• No Risk: This is a well-tested, standard contract deployed on hundreds of EVM chains
• One-Time Action: Once deployed, no further governance intervention needed
• High Value: Unblocks an entire class of protocol deployments and developer tooling

References

• Issue: https://github.com/paritytech/contract-issues/issues/263
• Deterministic Deployment Proxy: https://github.com/Arachnid/deterministic-deployment-proxy
• EIP-1014 (CREATE2): https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-1014

OpenSquare has been actively developing products to improve the usability of polkadot. Our products includes subsquare, statescan, dotreasury and off-chain voting. We are writting this proposal to seek support to our work in 2026. The funding will cover infrastructure cost, daily maintenance work and new features development.

Infrastructures

• We are using some services to support the business.

• Domains: we are using 4 domains for the products.

Daily maintenance

We are maintaining 4 products(subsquare, statescan, dotreasury and off chain voting) and deploy them for over 20 chains with over 100 runing scripts. The maintenance work includes:

• Server deployment maintenance: daily server monitor, upgrading products versions, emergency handling, etc.
• Codebase maintenance: code refactor, bug fixes, performance enhancement, UI tweaks, dependency upgrading, etc.
• Answer user questions, collect user feedbacks and then design new features.
• Collaboration with other teams to provide api support and some governance explanation.

Features development

Subsquare OpenGov referenda related features

• User vote actioins
  Index all tally affected user actions and show them on the referendum detail page. These actions include vote, remove vote, change vote, delegate, change delete, undelegate. With this feature users can easily know how and when proposal tally is affected.
• Referendum curve chart enhancement
  • Add preparing stage data view into the curve chart, so users can see the whole lifecycle data.
  • Show voter actions on the curve chart popup and show their avatars on the curve chart, so users can see when and who affected the tally in a very visualized way.
  • Add a new curves tab under the post content to show curve and votes data.
• Add a new referenda template to support batch treasury spend, so users can create milestone based proposals on subsquare.
• Show referenda confirming and treasury request warnings on the overview page and referenda list page.
• Support post content translations.
  We now support Chinese, German and Russian translations. It will help non-native English spearkers better read a referendum.
• Support replying comments from polkassembly.
• Bind bounty info if a referendum is related with a bounty. We decode the call info and show bounty link on the referendum navigation bar.
• Remark style info enhancement if a referendum calls contain a system#remark call.

Treasury statistics on subsquare

• Write scripts to read and set price field to various proposals in DB.
• Calc funded value by addresses and show beneficiary rank on the new developed treasury status page.
• Show treasury assets panel and to be awarded panel on the new developed treasury status page.
• Mark treasury funded project info, category and bind proposals to projects. Then we developed a treasury projects page to show all category based project funded info.
• Mark and show tags to beneficiary address.
• Add treasury burn page to show treasury burn records and some statistics data like how much is burnt in total.
• Redesign and develop summary components on treasury spends, proposals, bounties and child bounties list page. So we can see statistics data about various treasury proposals, like total amounts, active amounts, etc.

Decentralized voices support on subsquare

Decentralized voices program plays an important role in the polkadot governance process.

• All cohorts and related info are listed on a page.
• We develop a panel to show DV delegates vote amount statistics and participation, win rates data.
• We develop a heat map to show DV delegates vote details.
• We list all referenda and show whether they are affected by DV votes.

Pages can be checked here.

Intime data for subsquare

We index finalized blocks for on chain data mainly to extract various business, but this may cause some delay with the latest on chain data. We developed a intime scan package to index the latest data which includes votes, preimages and proxies.

These indexed in time data will be served through a graphql API and fronted pages will show them.

Multisig enhancement on subsquare

• Support users to add or import a multisig address.
• Support users to create a multisig call on behalf of the created multisig address. There are multisig call templates for users to quick composing a multisig call.

Foreign assets support

• As an user, I can see all my foreign assets and transfer my foreign assets to others.
• As an user, I can see all my foreign asset transfer records.
• As an user, I can see all on-chain foreign assets.

New info on subsquare profile page

• We will show treasury beneficiary info on the profile page, so users can see how much fund an address got from the treasury.
• Show assets info. These assets includes native assets and foreign assets in assethub, total balance value on hydration.
• Vesting info of an address including total/locked/unlockable vesting balance and schedule details.

Vesting features enhancement on subsquare

• Aggregate vesting info by addresses and show all schedules of an address with locked vesting balance.
• Support users to unlock vesting balances.
• Support users to create a vested_transfer.

Others development on subsquare

• Support users to connect their address with polkadot vault and sign extrinsics.
• Develope a page to show all scheduler tasks here.
• Develope a page to show all whitelist calls here.
• Support teleporting assets support between system para chains.
• Show gas and nonce as advanced info on signing popup.
• As an user, I want to know how much is paid to curators in a bounty.
• As an user, I want to know treasury yearly spend.

Dotreasury development

• Show multi assets for polkadot treasury.
• Remove dotreasury server and the fronted will fully rely on the subsquare API for fronted data.
• Develop a new price query on dotreasury graphql API and subsquare will use it for related price calculation.

Statescan development

Staking features including reward data indexing, show staking rewards and nominations on account detail page and an all validators page. Related PR: #1084, #1133, #1136, #1137, #1152, #1155, #1156.

off-chain voting development

• Support collective voting. Users can create a space with dedicated members(addresses) and only members can vote a proposal.
• Anonymous support. We can set a voting space as anonymous, so users can see the vote result, but can't see who has voted the proposal.

Proposer: 12mP4sjCfKbDyMRAEyLpkeHeoYtS5USY4x34n9NMwQrcEyoh

Requested Amount: 278,256 USDT

Funding Period: 12 months (April 2026 – March 2027)

If you prefer to view it in a document, click here.

1. Proposal Summary

PolkaWorld is requesting 278,256 USDT to support Polkadot Chinese-language content and community operations over the next 12 months.

During the previous funding cycle, PolkaWorld consistently delivered articles, livestreams, interviews, educational short videos, WeChat video channel content, and bilingual (Chinese–English) social media distribution.

From April 2025 to February 2026, we completed:

• 270 articles, generating 307,587 total reads within the Chinese community (compared to 232,164 reported in the previous proposal)

• 64 livestreams

• 11 interviews

• 43 educational short videos, reaching 71,268 views (compared to 65,000 in the previous cycle)

• 155 videos published on the WeChat video channel, with 287,847 total views

• The English X account reached 3.8 million impressions over the past year (compared to 1.9M previously)

• The Chinese X account reached 1.3 million impressions over the past year (compared to 819.5K previously)

Please note that these delivery metrics do not yet include March 2026.

In the upcoming funding cycle, we plan to continue operating at the following monthly cadence:

• 24 articles per month

• 6 livestreams per month (4 in Chinese, 2 in English)

• 4 educational short videos per month

• 1 in-depth interview per month

• Ongoing management of PolkaWorld’s two X accounts

• Daily distribution of key Polkadot updates across Chinese community channels

As one of the most important markets in Web3, the Chinese-speaking community has long been a key strategic region where many ecosystems compete to build presence and engagement. Polkadot established strong roots in this market early on.

Although the current market is often driven by short-lived narratives, we firmly believe that in the long run, the market rewards products and protocols that remain committed to the core values of Web3.

Our role is to remain consistently present, continuously delivering Polkadot-related content and information to the Chinese-speaking community.

This proposal is not a new experimental initiative, but rather a continuation and refinement of an already established and proven workflow.

2. Why Is This Work Important?

Polkadot has long maintained a certain level of presence in the Chinese-speaking market. Sustaining this foundation requires not only timely updates about Polkadot’s ongoing developments, but also continuous communication that is accessible, contextualized, and easy to understand.

PolkaWorld’s work mainly focuses on three areas:

2.1 Providing a Consistent Information Gateway for the Chinese Community

A large portion of important Polkadot information first appears in English-speaking environments, including X, forums, GitHub, livestreams, and various ecosystem channels.

One of PolkaWorld’s core roles is to continuously track these developments and translate them into information that Chinese users can access and understand.

2.2 Providing Explanatory Content Around Key Developments

As the Polkadot ecosystem becomes increasingly complex, simple information translation is becoming less valuable. More and more important topics require explanation and interpretation, including developments such as JAM, DOT issuance reduction, Polkadot Hub, Dual-VM architecture, developer experience, interoperability, product direction, and the broader strategic shift toward Polkadot’s “Second Age.”

PolkaWorld’s role is not only to report what is happening, but also to help explain what these changes mean.

2.3 Serving as a Communication Bridge Between Chinese Users and the Broader Ecosystem

Through livestreams, interviews, social media, and community operations, PolkaWorld helps Chinese users better understand projects, builders, and key discussions within the ecosystem.

At the same time, it also helps bring the perspectives and concerns of the Chinese community back into the broader Polkadot conversation.

Long-term thinking has always been a core value of PolkaWorld. Our work is not a short-term marketing effort, but rather an ongoing effort to support communication and understanding across the ecosystem.

3. Significance and Impact

For the community, what matters is not only how much content PolkaWorld produces, but also what role this work actually plays within the ecosystem.

Based on our experience over the past several years, the value of PolkaWorld’s work is mainly reflected in the following areas.

3.1 Maintaining Polkadot’s Ongoing Visibility in the Chinese Information Environment

PolkaWorld’s content does not remain confined to its own channels. It often flows further into the broader Chinese information ecosystem.

In previous work, PolkaWorld articles have been reposted or cited by Chinese crypto media outlets such as WuShuo Blockchain, PANews, and Foresight News. One specific example occurred when Polkadot APAC planned to publish Polkadot-related content through Foresight News. Before doing so, the editorial team at Foresight News contacted PolkaWorld to better understand the current state of the ecosystem before deciding how to structure their coverage.

Similarly, community members have observed that some PolkaWorld content has been translated or referenced by the official information channels of exchanges such as Binance and Bitget, while Polkadot-related updates have also appeared on project update pages of exchanges like OKX and Binance. Even if part of this distribution may occur through platform aggregation or automated systems, it still indicates that the content produced by PolkaWorld has, to some extent, become one of the information sources about Polkadot within the Chinese market.

(Screenshot from OKX exchange)

(Screenshot from Binance exchange)

3.2 Establishing Stable Information Distribution and Community Reach Channels

Long-term and consistent content production does more than generate individual article or livestream metrics. Over time, it also forms stable communication channels, including:

• WeChat official accounts

• Private WeChat community networks

• Telegram groups

• Chinese and English X accounts

For Chinese users, these channels form a continuously updated Polkadot information network that can be accessed repeatedly. A single piece of content may not immediately lead to long-term engagement, but the existence of stable channels lowers the barrier for users to follow ecosystem developments over time.

3.3 Providing Contextual Understanding and Collaboration Capacity Built Over Time

PolkaWorld has been deeply involved in the Polkadot ecosystem for six years. The value created through long-term accumulation goes beyond higher content production efficiency. It also includes a deeper understanding of the ecosystem’s background, governance history, project relationships, and evolving narratives.

This accumulated experience allows PolkaWorld to explain ecosystem developments in a more accurate, rational, and contextualized way, rather than simply repeating surface-level information. This is particularly important when discussing complex topics such as governance decisions, technical upgrades, and strategic shifts.

In addition, long-term operations have also created practical collaboration capacity within the ecosystem. Although PolkaWorld does not primarily focus on offline events, it can still assist when quick coordination, partnership connections, or regional collaboration is required. For example, during the process in which Pala Labs proposed the JAM China Tour, PolkaWorld was able to help connect relevant partners and resources in a relatively short time.

3.4 The Public Value of This Work

From a proposal perspective, PolkaWorld’s work is not only about growing its own channels. Rather, it continuously maintains an information distribution node, an explanatory channel, and a community connection point around Polkadot within the Chinese market.

The value of this type of work may not always be fully captured by a single metric. However, it plays a sustained foundational role in helping the Chinese community understand ecosystem developments, follow key changes, discover important projects, and maintain long-term participation in the Polkadot ecosystem.

4. Past Deliverables

PolkaWorld is one of the few teams that reports deliverables to the community on a monthly basis. Over the past year, in addition to publishing monthly reports in the comment section of the original proposal #1522, we have also shared our work updates in the Polkadot Direction group and on X. If you are interested, you can follow the links provided to review the reports.

PolkaWorld Progress Summary (April 2025 — February 2026)

During the 11-month period from April 2025 to February 2026, PolkaWorld continuously carried out content production, community communication, and bilingual (Chinese–English) outreach around the Polkadot ecosystem.

Our work covered multiple formats and platforms, including articles, livestreams, interviews, educational short videos, WeChat video channels, and X (Twitter).

During this period, PolkaWorld did not focus on short-term content around a single event. Instead, we maintained consistent output centered on major developments within the Polkadot ecosystem. Against the backdrop of technical upgrades, governance discussions, narrative shifts, and increasing focus on product development, PolkaWorld’s work mainly focused on three areas:

1. Continuously updating the Chinese community on ecosystem developments
2. Producing explanatory content around key topics
3. Building clearer information connections between different communities through livestreams, interviews, and bilingual communication

Overall, from April 2025 to February 2026, PolkaWorld delivered:

• 270 articles, generating 307,587 total reads in the Chinese community (approximately 1,139 reads per article on average)

• 64 online livestreams

• 43 educational short videos, reaching 71,268 total views

• 155 videos published on the WeChat Video Channel, with 287,847 total views

• 11 interviews

In terms of social media reach:

• The English X account achieved 3.8 million impressions over the past year (compared to 1.9M the previous year)

• The Chinese X account achieved 1.3 million impressions over the past year (compared to 819.5K the previous year)

Overall, PolkaWorld has developed a relatively comprehensive content workflow, with long-form articles, livestreams, interviews, short videos, video channel content, and bilingual social media operating simultaneously, while maintaining a relatively stable monthly output.

If you have more time, you can continue reading below for a more detailed breakdown of deliverables.

4.1 Articles: Maintaining a High Publishing Frequency While Gradually Developing an Explanatory Content Structure

Over the past 11 months, PolkaWorld’s article output has remained relatively stable. With the exception of a few months affected by holidays, most months maintained a publishing range of 24–27 articles, supported by a relatively consistent workflow for topic selection, editing, and publication.

Article readership during this period fluctuated noticeably, but the overall baseline remained stable. Changes were mainly influenced by market conditions, holiday schedules, and shifts in content structure. Broadly speaking, the period can be divided into three phases:

Phase 1: April – June 2025

Monthly readership remained relatively steady, ranging between 22,000 and 24,000 reads.

Phase 2: July – October 2025

Overall performance improved, with monthly readership remaining consistently high during this period. In particular, October reached 42,690 reads, marking the peak of this phase.

Phase 3: November 2025 – February 2026

Due to holidays, changes in content structure, and the Chinese New Year period, readership declined somewhat. However, content production remained consistent and continued to maintain basic coverage.

In addition, our content focus has gradually shifted from simple information updates toward more explanatory and contextualized content, including topics such as:

• Long-term perspectives and ecosystem direction from Gavin Wood

• Infrastructure developments such as JAM, Polkadot Hub, Dual-VM, and 2-second block times

• Governance-related topics including OpenGov, DOT issuance reduction, governance structures, and the Treasury

• The broader narrative of Polkadot’s Second Age and the transition toward a product-focused strategy

• Ecosystem projects such as Hyperbridge, Hydration, and Bifrost

• Longer-term topics such as Human Agency and Proof of Personhood

4.2 Livestreams and Interviews: A Continuous Communication Mechanism

Livestream frequency has also remained relatively stable. Over the past 11 months, PolkaWorld hosted 64 livestreams, with most months maintaining 5–6 sessions per month. These livestreams covered both Chinese and English-speaking communities.

The main topics included:

• Governance and OpenGov: ongoing discussions around active proposals, governance mechanisms, Treasury usage, and institutional adjustments.

• Polkadot Hub and ecosystem opportunities: focusing on development, applications, and ecosystem collaboration following the launch of Polkadot Hub.

• Technical progress and developer experience: discussions around infrastructure changes such as Dual-VM architecture and 2-second block times, and their impact on developers.

• Application layer and ecosystem projects: covering topics such as payments, bridges, RWAs, liquidity, and related ecosystem projects.

• Ecosystem direction and long-term narratives: discussions around Polkadot’s evolving stage, market conditions, and longer-term development themes.

It is worth noting that the value of these livestreams is not fully reflected in the view count of a single session. More importantly, their continuity helps PolkaWorld maintain long-term communication with the community, developers, and ecosystem projects.

In addition, interviews have gradually developed into a consistent content format. Over the past year, PolkaWorld has continued producing bilingual (Chinese–English) interviews, featuring a variety of ecosystem participants, including:

• EasyA Co-founder
• Hyperbridge Co-founder Seun
• Apillon Founder Matjaz
• Parity Product Lead Karim
• The WebZero team
• Magenta Labs Co-founder Marco Moshi
• PaperMoon Founder Alberto Viera
• OpenGov Watch member Alice und Bob
• Parity Finance Lead Dave

These interviews typically go beyond simple project introductions and instead focus on broader questions related to Polkadot’s current stage, such as:

• How the developer experience is evolving
• What Polkadot Hub means for the application layer
• The practical challenges of ecosystem collaboration and business development
• The relationship between product adoption and infrastructure development

In this sense, the interviews function more like a long-term information bridge, helping the Chinese community better understand the perspectives of core builders while also introducing external builders to Chinese users in a more accurate and contextualized way.

4.3 Short Videos and WeChat Video Channel: Gradually Becoming an Effective Complement

From April 2025 to February 2026, PolkaWorld published 43 educational short videos, generating 71,268 total views.

In absolute terms, this segment is still smaller than the total readership of long-form articles. However, its importance lies in providing a lighter and more easily shareable format for explaining complex topics.

In practice, the videos that performed best typically focused on:

• Governance structures and OpenGov-related topics
• Polkadot Hub and the launch of smart contracts
• Ecosystem projects with clear use cases, such as Hydration and Hyperbridge
• Key perspectives and more controversial topics related to Gavin Wood

For an ecosystem like Polkadot, which often involves high information density, short videos cannot replace written articles. However, they are effective in lowering the barrier to understanding and highlighting key issues.

In addition, the WeChat Video Channel has become an important distribution channel. Over the past year, PolkaWorld published 155 videos on the platform, reaching 287,847 total views.

On a monthly basis, performance has fluctuated, but overall the channel has maintained consistent updates and a steady level of audience reach.

4.4 X Platform: Bilingual Communication in Chinese and English

The performance of PolkaWorld’s English X account has shown some fluctuations over the past year, influenced by changes in platform algorithms, market conditions, and the nature of the topics themselves.

However, overall, through continuous efforts to surface meaningful information, the English X account increased its impressions by 100% year-over-year, while the Chinese X account increased impressions by approximately 58.6% year-over-year.

In several key months, the English account saw particularly high engagement, mainly around topics such as:

• Major international events such as Web3 Summit and sub0
• Discussions and viewpoints related to Gavin Wood
• Technical narratives including PolkaVM, JAM, and Polkadot Hub
• Widely discussed topics such as DOT issuance reduction, ETFs, governance, and ecosystem direction
• Major ecosystem shifts, including Polkadot’s “Second Age” and strategic adjustments by Web3 Foundation

The overall reach of the Chinese X account is smaller than that of the English account, but its interaction quality has remained relatively stable. Its strengths include:

• More continuous engagement with Chinese-speaking users
• Faster responses to discussions around governance, issuance changes, and ecosystem debates
• A greater tendency to generate discussion and dialogue, rather than simple passive viewing

4.5 Phase Changes: Content Focus Adjusted as Polkadot Entered a New Stage

Overall, across articles, videos, livestreams, and interviews, PolkaWorld’s content focus from April 2025 to February 2026 was not static. Instead, it gradually evolved alongside changes within the ecosystem itself.

For example, from early to mid-2025, the focus was primarily on technical progress and ecosystem projects. During this period, content largely centered on topics such as:

• JAM, Coretime, and Elastic Scaling
• Ecosystem projects such as Hyperbridge, Hydration, and Bifrost
• Events and updates including Web3 Summit, Sub0, technical conferences, and product releases
• Governance discussions and proposals related to DOT issuance reduction

Toward the end of 2025, the proportion of in-depth content increased. In particular, between October and December, content increasingly addressed broader and more structural topics, including:

• Long-term perspectives from Gavin Wood
• Structural issues within OpenGov
• The complexity of governance and practical challenges in implementation
• Long-term challenges related to Polkadot as both an engineering and organizational system
• The broader narrative of Polkadot’s Second Age and the shift toward a product-focused strategy

Entering January and February 2026, the content direction further evolved to focus on:

• The launch of smart contracts on Polkadot Hub
• The reality of the Dual-VM architecture (EVM + PVM)
• The transition from infrastructure toward real products
• Developer experience, business development, and ecosystem collaboration
• Forward-looking themes such as Proof of Personhood (PoP), privacy, AI, and Human Agency

It is worth noting that these shifts in content structure reflect an intentional effort. PolkaWorld has not simply repeated the same updates mechanically, but has consistently tried to align its content focus with the evolving priorities of the Polkadot ecosystem.

4.6 Key Characteristics of This Phase of Work

Consistency

Over the 11-month period, PolkaWorld maintained a continuous publishing rhythm without significant interruptions.

Multi-channel distribution

PolkaWorld’s work is no longer limited to long-form articles. It now spans written content, livestreams, interviews, short videos, WeChat video channels, and bilingual social media communication.

A stronger emphasis on explanatory content

As the Polkadot ecosystem has become more complex, the value of simple news updates has decreased. As a result, PolkaWorld has gradually increased its focus on explaining complex topics, which is particularly important for the Chinese community.

Alignment with the ecosystem’s development cycle

From governance discussions and technical upgrades to the launch of Polkadot Hub, and from immediate ecosystem developments to longer-term narratives such as Human Agency, PolkaWorld’s content direction has largely stayed aligned with the ecosystem’s evolving priorities.

Overall, while maintaining consistent long-term output, PolkaWorld has gradually established a comprehensive content workflow spanning articles, livestreams, interviews, short videos, WeChat video channels, and bilingual social media.

Through this system, PolkaWorld continues to explain, organize, and communicate key technological developments, governance changes, and evolving narratives within the Polkadot ecosystem to the Chinese-speaking community.

4.7 Additional Deliverable Reports

In addition to the past year’s reports, you can also review PolkaWorld’s deliverable reports from the past four years here.

5. Planned Work (April 2026 – March 2027)

Over the next 12 months, PolkaWorld plans to continue building on its existing structure and deliver the following monthly outputs.

5.1 Articles

24 articles per month

Publishing cadence:

• 1 article per weekday
• 1 weekly report every Saturday

Content types include:

• Ecosystem updates
• Original commentary and explanatory articles
• Progress updates from ecosystem projects
• Chinese versions of English interviews, livestreams, or other high-quality English content

Distribution channels include:

• WeChat Official Account
• Foresight News
• Binance Square
• Chinese X account
• Chinese community groups and private community channels

In addition, it is important to note that since PolkaWorld was founded, our guiding principle for topic selection and content has remained consistent:

• to publish content that users care about,
• content that users can easily understand,
• and content that is most relevant and important to the community.

5.2 Video Content

4 educational short videos per month, with additional commentary clips produced when appropriate.

Content may include:

• Educational short videos focused on important Polkadot-related topics
• Highlight clips extracted from English interviews, livestreams, and ecosystem discussions
• English content with Chinese subtitles added for broader distribution

Distribution channels include:

• WeChat Video Channel
• YouTube
• X

5.3 Livestreams

6 livestreams per month (4 in Chinese + 2 in English)

Planned recurring series include:

Polkadot Hub & Ecosystem Opportunities Series

Discussions focused on development opportunities, application directions, ecosystem collaboration, and the broader implications following the launch of Polkadot Hub.

Technical Progress & Developer Experience Series

Covering changes such as the Dual-VM architecture, developer tooling, and broader infrastructure evolution.

Application Layer & Ecosystem Projects Series

Discussions around payments, bridges, RWAs, liquidity, and updates from specific ecosystem projects.

Governance / OpenGov Series

Ongoing coverage of active proposals, governance changes, Treasury discussions, and broader participation in OpenGov.

English Ecosystem Livestream Series

Including builder conversations and monthly ecosystem recaps aimed at a broader international audience.

All livestreams will be broadcast on YouTube and X, with recordings available afterward. Selected highlights may also be repurposed into articles or short videos.

5.4 Interviews

1 in-depth interview per month.

Potential interview guests may include:

• Members related to Web3 Foundation
• Members of the Parity team
• Ecosystem builders
• Infrastructure teams
• Product-oriented project teams

Interview outputs may include:

• Full video interviews
• Chinese written summaries
• Highlight clips featuring key insights
• Distribution across YouTube, X, WeChat, and media platforms

5.5 X / Social Media Operations

PolkaWorld will continue operating two X accounts:

• PolkaWorld (English)
• 波卡世界 (Chinese)

Operational target:

• On each weekday, each account will publish at least three posts related to Polkadot.

This work includes:

• Monitoring X, forums, ecosystem discussions, and project updates
• Identifying important developments
• Filtering information that is genuinely valuable to users
• Reorganizing and presenting the information in ways that are clear for both Chinese and English audiences

Although this work may appear relatively simple, our experience shows that it is often the most time-consuming and labor-intensive part of the process.

While AI tools can help summarize daily developments, the information they provide is often too high-level. We still need to spend significant time tracking information flows across X, the Polkadot forum, Element discussions, and updates from key ecosystem projects, identifying meaningful signals, filtering noise, and restructuring the information into a format that ordinary users can easily understand.

The goal is to provide the community with the most up-to-date, insightful, and valuable information possible.

5.6 Chinese Community Distribution

Important Polkadot-related information will be shared daily across the following channels:

• Chinese WeChat groups
• Telegram groups
• PolkaWorld’s private WeChat accounts

This work helps maintain continuous engagement with the Chinese-speaking community and ensures that important information does not remain confined to public timelines alone.

5.7 Monthly Deliverable Reports

PolkaWorld will continue publishing monthly deliverable reports summarizing the work completed, data metrics, and overall progress.

This practice has been maintained across multiple funding cycles and remains an important part of ensuring transparency and accountability to the community.

6. OKRs for This Funding Cycle

Over the course of the 12-month period, PolkaWorld plans to deliver:

• 288 articles
• 48 educational short videos
• 72 livestreams
• 12 interviews
• Ongoing operation of two X accounts
• Ongoing information distribution within the Chinese community
• 12 monthly deliverable reports

These targets are based on the continuation of the current workflow and operating structure.

7. Team Structure

This proposal is expected to be supported by the following roles:

• 2 Editors-in-Chief
• 1 English Livestream & Interview Lead
• 1 Chinese Livestream Lead
• 1 Video Lead
• 1 Designer

Key Responsibilities

Editors-in-Chief

• Content research and weekly topic planning
• Article writing and editing
• Distribution of articles to media platforms
• Daily operation of the X accounts

English Livestream & Interview Lead

• Designing topics for English livestreams and interviews
• Coordinating with guests and scheduling sessions
• Managing monthly English interviews
• Organizing English-language livestreams

Chinese Livestream Lead

• Designing topics for Chinese livestreams
• Organizing Chinese livestream sessions
• Managing livestream channels and coordinating the overall process

Video Lead

• Planning and publishing educational videos
• Managing the WeChat Video Channel
• Editing highlight clips from livestreams and interviews
• Distributing video content across multiple platforms

Designer

• Article illustrations and visuals
• Livestream promotional posters
• Interview promotional posters
• Short video cover images
• Visual materials for holidays and special events
• Brand-related visual support

8. Budget

Total Amount Requested: 278,256 USDT

Funding Period: 12 months

Below is the current personnel budget structure.

Budget Notes

• The budget for this proposal mainly consists of personnel costs required to maintain the current multi-channel content workflow.
• This is not a proposal to build a new team from scratch, but rather to sustain the existing operational workflow and delivery structure that has already been established.
• The current USD to RMB exchange rate is calculated at 1:6.9.

9. Why This Work Deserves Continued Support

This proposal is not based on vague promises about the future. Instead, it is built upon a publicly documented track record of deliverables.

During the previous funding cycle, PolkaWorld has demonstrated its ability to:

• Maintain a consistent publishing cadence
• Operate multiple content formats simultaneously
• Sustain ongoing visibility in the Chinese-speaking market
• Adjust content direction in response to shifts within the Polkadot ecosystem
• Regularly publish public deliverable reports

Therefore, this request is not funding for a brand-new experimental initiative, but rather support for continuing a content and communication system that has already been operating publicly and has demonstrated consistent delivery.

Over the next year, PolkaWorld’s goal remains clear:

to continue providing stable, accessible, and sustainable multi-channel content and communication for the Chinese community, while maintaining bilingual visibility around key ecosystem discussions related to Polkadot.

We welcome questions and feedback from the community.

Contact:

Telegram: @xiaojie_web3world

Email: xiaojie@polkaworld.org

Polkadot Sensei v1.0.0

Amount: 25,500 DOT
Track: 33 | Medium Spender

Full Proposal: vonFlandern.org/polkadot-sensei/proposal | 🕐 15 min read

What is Polkadot Sensei?

An onboarding engine that converts curious newcomers into verified, active Polkadot participants.

What is being funded?

The technical foundation (game mechanics, OCR, CEA, leaderboard) is already live as a working beta — built at the proposer's own expense.
This referendum funds exclusively the content creation for Polkadot Sensei v1.0.0.

Payout Schedule

DOT/USD rate at submission: 1.46 — Total: 25,500 DOT ≈ 37,300 USD

This Referendum is canceled. Please (continue to) vote Nay.

A new version incorporating the feedback received here is up for vote: New Proposal

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Voters have become increasingly cautious, making it harder for projects to gain approval for their proposals. Our project introduces a clawback mechanism to significantly reduce risks to the Polkadot Treasury. By implementing this safeguard, we aim to lower financial exposure and provide voters with peace of mind to confidently approve funding for impactful projects.

With our tool, a group of decentralized treasury guardians is incentivized to oversee scheduled payouts and intervene when necessary to protect the Treasury.

Key features of our proposal:

• No upfront payments are requested.
• All payouts are tied to milestone delivery, with sufficient time for the community to review and delay/ cancel disbursements if needed to ensure accountability on our behalf.Milestone Delivery Deadlines:
  Milestone 1: Nov 9 2025 -> Scheduled Payout: Dec 29 2025
  Milestone 2: Dec 7 2025 -> Scheduled Payout: Jan 26 2026
  Milestone 3: Jan 4 2026 -> Scheduled Payout: Feb 23 2026
  Milestone 4: Feb 1 2026 -> Scheduled Payout: Mar 23 2026
  Milestone 5: Mar 1 2026 -> Scheduled Payout: Apr 20 2026
  Milestone 6: May 29 2026 -> Scheduled Payout: May 18 2026

We are passionate about leading the charge to de-risk the Treasury, enhance its efficiency, and better align the interests of token holders and proposers. We eagerly look forward to collaborating with the Polkadot community and new + existing ecosystem teams to achieve these goals.

Read our full proposal here.