candidates

members

proficients

fellows

senior_fellows

experts

senior_experts

masters

senior_masters

grand_masters

Miscellaneous

Postmortem: Polkadot 2.0.1 Release

Kian Paimani

Polkadot 2.0 &amp; Hub migration celebration thread :partying_face:

Alexander Mitrovich

Polkadot 2.0 & Hub migration celebration thread 🥳

Does Kusama Asset Hub actively accept anything other than Kusama?

The Forum serves as a digital town square to co-create the future of Polkadot by the ecosystem, for the ecosystem. Suggestions on how to improve the Forum live here.

The Forum serves as a digital town square to co-create the future of Polkadot by the ecosystem, for the ecosystem. Suggestions on how to improve the Forum live here.

Polkadot Forum Meta

Welcome to the Polkadot Forum :waving_hand:

Rajesh Shirsagar

Welcome to the Polkadot Forum 👋

Getting started: Read this first

Polkadot Forum Super Admin

Why is Polkadot officially recommending Fearless Wallet despite zero support, zero response to theft, and confirmed app vulnerability?

If you’re looking for discussion or discourse for anything and all things Tech related, then this is the place for you. .

Tech Talk

Hardhat Deployment Hangs While Local Substrate Node Stays Idle (No Blocks Produced)

Abdulrahman Fiala

Polkadot Native Storage Updates

Schreck

[Revive] Solidity contracts using a polkadot signer

Victor Oliva

Whether you’re new to Polkadot’s Governance or an OpenGov OG, this is the place for you to get involved and join the discussion.

Governance

Marketing Bounty Deep Dive

Polkadot Legal Bounty Update

Concerns about WagMedia

If you’re looking for discussion or discourse for anything and all things Ecosystem, then this is the place for you. .

Ecosystem

Polkadot Digest 14 November 2025

Radhakrishna Dasari

Proposal: Dynamic Allocation Pool (DAP)

jonas

Elastic Scaling - wen 500ms blocks

Pablo Andrés Dorado Suárez

If you’re looking for discussion or discourse for anything and all things Ambassador related, then this is the place for you. .

Ambassador Programme

Polkadot Ambassador Fellowship (PAF) Governance: Critical Questions Before On-Chain Implementation

Luke

Transition to the On-Chain Collective: Next Steps for the Ambassador Fellowship

Official statement of the Advisory Board of the Polkadot Ambassador Fellowship

If you’re looking for a resource, FAQ or guide, then this is the place to be. We urge all users of the forum to try and use this category when needed.

Resources & FAQs

How to P&lt;&gt;K bridge USDT or USDC

Alain Brenzikofer

How to P<>K bridge USDT or USDC

Asset Hub Migration - XCM FAQ

Remy Le Berre

Asset Hub Migration - Balances FAQ

You could make videos of 10,000s penguins colony in Antarctica, that would still not make them your audience.

Jay Chrawnna

Today we’re sharing the first community update for the Polkadot Legal Bounty. The goal of these updates is simple: keep the Polkadot community informed on how the bounty is being used to advance practical, open legal work for builders and contributors across the ecosystem.
In this post, we’ll briefly recap what’s been done so far, outline the workstreams currently in motion, and share what to expect next. You’ll also find ways to get involved, whether that’s proposing topics, pointing us to pain points you’re seeing in the wild, or contributing expertise.
Going forward, we’ll publish these updates on a quarterly basis to provide clear, consistent visibility into progress, decisions, and deliverables.
Finished and Current Bounty Activities
Administrative Work
We set up a Discord server exclusively for the Legal Bounty. This allows us to secure client-attorney privilege and keep the process operationally as effective as possible. Users accept the T&amp;C, put in an onboarding request (which serves as a first filter), after onboarding accept a Mandate Agreement (to ensure privacy) and open a legal ticket. Further administrative work includes discussion among curators regarding setup/onboarding of projects or teams, and communication with those teams regarding past and ongoing legal requests.
Sample Case of a Crypto Foundation
The Legal Bounty was engaged by an ecosystem project to establish and implement the necessary legal framework as well as obtain the relevant approvals and rulings from the competent authorities. After assessing the available options, it was decided that a Swiss-based crypto foundation would be the optimal vehicle.
Our work included drafting incorporation and formation documents, as well as organisational guidelines. We also provided assistance with finding possible foundation council members, securing a domicile and an accountant, and liaising with the relevant authorities, notary public and the Foundation Supervision Authority. We have taken, and continue to take where ongoing, all the necessary steps and measures to secure the recognition and establishment of the structure as a non-profit crypto foundation, including ongoing coordination with the competent authorities.
We are also preparing comprehensive organisational guidelines for crypto foundations and drafting an informal supervisory request (“no-action” letter) to the financial market supervisory authority in connection with this request. In parallel, we are preparing an advanced tax ruling to seek confirmation that the foundation is classified as a non-profit crypto foundation, and the conditions for tax exemption. We are also assembling the application package for opening a bank account and coordinating the foundation’s onboarding with selected institutions. A preliminary draft of the tax ruling regarding token valuation was prepared. However, in this case it was not suitable and therefore this part was not further processed.
The resulting work product is designed to be reusable for comparable future matters. Subject to confidentiality constraints, we will make the relevant templates and distilled guidance available to other teams and projects in the Polkadot ecosystem, either as contract templates or via the wiki.
Polkadot Community Foundation
There is currently further need in the community for clarification regarding the PCF, specifically if (and if yes, how) Cayman law allows for the community to have better oversight powers and what ways there are to protect community-elected representatives from excessive personal liability. We provided an initial, 14-page document that outlines some of the key legal facts, including both analysis and recommendations for a possible implementation roadmap. We are currently trying to reconcile our opinion with Autonomous, the law firm managing the PCF, and define concrete next steps that would most benefit Polkadot for a fair price.
Templates and Legal Wiki
We have set up a wiki for templates that is restricted for onboarded ecosystem members via Discord, meaning that only members of the Polkadot community can access the documents. Available templates are:
<ul>
<li>Two NDAs, a one-way version and a mutual one</li>
<li>SAFT</li>
<li>General Employment Contract Template</li>
<li>General Freelancer Agreement Template</li>
</ul>
The latter two need country-specific modifications and serve as the base template for various jurisdictions.
Work on the Legal Wiki is progressing steadily, with the first entry expected to be published within the next four weeks. This initial contribution will serve as a practical guide, outlining the key steps involved in choosing the right jurisdiction and establishing the appropriate corporate structure for new projects.
Beyond the initial focus, the Legal Wiki is designed to become a broader knowledge base addressing recurring legal and strategic questions - not only for startups, but also for established companies. Future sections will cover topics such as the selection of a tax domicile, regulatory and licensing requirements, and intellectual property considerations.
Our aim is to build a clear, reliable, and evolving resource that helps organizations navigate complex legal frameworks and make informed decisions at every stage of their development.
We would like to encourage and are grateful for suggestions and topic requests from the community, as they help ensure that the Wiki reflects real needs and relevant issues faced by our users. Contributions and feedback are warmly welcomed, so that the content can continue to grow in a way that is practical, impactful and community driven.
In addition, there is always the possibility to discuss open questions individually and confidentially with us. Such communications are protected under attorney-client privilege, ensuring that specific or sensitive matters can be addressed and handled with the necessary discretion, care and professional confidentiality.
IP Strategy Pack
The Legal Bounty offers a comprehensive Intellectual Property Advisory Package designed to help startups and established projects protect and enhance their intangible assets within the Polkadot ecosystem. While often neglected in the early stages of a company given the associated costs, not having a proper IP strategy comes back to bite later and is much harder to fix then.
Our approach combines legal precision with commercial insight, ensuring that IP protection aligns with each project’s business goals, supports sustainable growth, and preserves long-term value across the network.
We begin by aligning IP priorities with a project’s strategic roadmap, focusing on upcoming product launches, key markets, and investment milestones. For startups, we help establish a clean and scalable IP foundation. For mature teams, we review and consolidate existing portfolios. Our initial assessment includes availability, and clearance checks for company and product names, trademarks, domains, and designs across relevant jurisdictions - resulting in a tailored filing and protection plan.
Once individual needs, relevant risks and opportunities have been identified, we assist with the entire registration process for national, EU, and international protection.
To support commercialisation, the Legal Bounty helps teams and projects refine brand, content, and technology licence agreements, collaboration terms, and co-branding frameworks.
Rather than conducting trademark monitoring through the Legal Bounty, we help teams and projects identify and engage trusted IT service providers offering continuous monitoring and alert systems. These tools send regular notifications of potential matches or infringements, enabling teams to maintain oversight and respond proactively.
Deliverables include an IP strategy memorandum, a clearance and filing report, a registration roadmap, and standard key contractual templates. This service is available in defined phases offering a transparent, high-quality IP framework that strengthens brand and technology protection across the Polkadot ecosystem, reduces legal risk, and positions intellectual property as a strategic asset supported by the Treasury for the benefit of the wider community.
Total Hours Worked
Currently, we are at 91 billable hours invested plus some flat rate spends related to the setup (e.g. monthly Discord server charges), coming out to a total of ca. CHF 26k (ca. USD $33k) or 10’904 DOT, plus 2’548 DOT vested over 6 months (total 13’452 DOT). This excludes curator work. Thus, despite the significant decline of the DOT 7d EMA since the original proposal, the Legal Bounty is expected to remain funded and operational at least through H1 2026 without any additional top-ups.
What’s Next for the Legal Bounty?
Besides these ecosystem projects, the Legal Bounty continues to be ready for future projects and support their founders and builders. Additionally, we expect further legal or regulatory questions with ecosystem-wide relevance, such as those regarding OpenGov. We also plan to expand the template library and legal wiki.
Core Corporate Formation
In this section, the goal in the medium term is to provide a “Quick Starter Pack” including documents for incorporation of various corporate structures (Ltd., LLC, Association, Foundation etc.) in various countries, and supplementary contract templates such as a Shareholder’s Agreement, a Founders’ Agreement, a Consulting/Independent Contractor Agreement, or an IP Assignment Agreement. To this, we will also provide jurisdiction-specific addons, for example for the US (SAFE, W-8/W-9, Reg S / Reg D) or the EU (MiCA, CASP terms, GDPR).
Polkadot-Specifics
We plan to supply templates such as:
<ul>
<li>Bounty Curator Agreement (KPIs, curator fees, termination)</li>
<li>OpenGov Delegate Agreement (scope across Tracks; reporting and conflict rules)</li>
<li>Treasury Grant Acceptance Agreement (on-chain payout, milestone proofs, clawback)</li>
</ul>
The goal here is to provide better legal certainty to community participants and protect from excessive personal liabilities wherever possible.
Product, Platform, and User-Facing Apps
There is a plethora of legal work that comes with every product launch – much of which, luckily, can be standardized rather easily and then only requires small adjustments for each specific case. In this category, we are planning to provide general templates for Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy/Consent Banner, among others.
Final Words
We’re interested to hear all feedback – not only on the Bounty itself, but also regarding the structure of this report so that we can implement it in future editions.
Last but not least, if you have a legal question that might be eligible under the rules of the Legal Bounty, please feel free to get started by joining the Discord here: <a href="https://discord.gg/sYw7WkZVzV" class="inline-onebox" rel="noopener nofollow ugc">Polkadot Legal Bounty</a> .

<h2><a name="p-35214-polkadot-news-1" class="anchor" href="#p-35214-polkadot-news-1"></a>Polkadot News</h2>
Polkadot’s flagship conference Sub0 Symbiosis kicks off today in Buenos Aires <a href="https://x.com/Polkadotsub0/status/1962863800861761697" rel="noopener nofollow ugc">https://x.com/Polkadotsub0/status/1962863800861761697</a>
Can’t attend Sub0 in person? Watch the sessions live-streamed here <a href="https://sub0.vbrick.com/" rel="noopener nofollow ugc">https://sub0.vbrick.com/</a>
Check out the schedule of Sub0 Symbiosis side events this weekend <a href="https://x.com/Polkadotsub0/status/1989038050077229431" rel="noopener nofollow ugc">https://x.com/Polkadotsub0/status/1989038050077229431</a>
The referendum to set DOT Asset Rates for USDT and USDC on 
Polkadot Asset Hub is passing unanimously <a href="https://polkadot.subsquare.io/referenda/1787" rel="noopener nofollow ugc">https://polkadot.subsquare.io/referenda/1787</a>
RegionX posted a final funding request for key features and maintenance of their Polkadot coretime UI/dashboard <a href="https://polkadot.subsquare.io/referenda/1788" rel="noopener nofollow ugc">https://polkadot.subsquare.io/referenda/1788</a>
Ratify Approved Referendum #1768 - execution error due to AH migration <a href="https://polkadot.subsquare.io/referenda/1790" rel="noopener nofollow ugc">https://polkadot.subsquare.io/referenda/1790</a>
<h2><a name="p-35214-kusama-news-2" class="anchor" href="#p-35214-kusama-news-2"></a>Kusama News</h2>
The referendum to set KSM/DOT Asset Rate Locations on Kusama Asset Hub (Post-Migration Restoration) is passing unanimously <a href="https://kusama.subsquare.io/referenda/615" rel="noopener nofollow ugc">https://kusama.subsquare.io/referenda/615</a>
Join the Sub0 hackathon today at Buenos Aires and build on the Kusama track <a href="https://hack.sub0.gg/Kusama-Bounty-5k-2a33e52aeb1580edb87fe53f56092a63" class="inline-onebox" rel="noopener nofollow ugc">Notion</a>

Hi Rafael
<blockquote>
<ol>
<li>Does the polkadot ecosystem still target 1000 validators? because if it does - it significantly impacts many of the parameters you’ve mentioned. Will they be updated accordingly? For example the self stake, minimum commission, validators income (both fixed and variable)</li>
</ol>
</blockquote>
Eventually we want to scale the number of validators. I don’t know what is the plan for the immediate future but given the fact that there is enough cores available for the demand and additional validators cost money to maintain and incentivize, I’d argue that it does not make sense to scale further in the short-term. The parameters are scaled to work with 600 validators.
<blockquote>
<ol start="2">
<li>Keep in mind that validators earnings dropped significantly in the last years due to three main reasons - price drop, set expansion &amp; inflation cut. As we know, the inflation is going to be halved soon, and based on my understanding the set should be almost doubled in the future. On top of that, adding the 10k self bond requirement for running a polkadot validator makes it less enticing and too risky</li>
</ol>
</blockquote>
The example budget in the proposal is accounting for this in two ways. 1) a part of the validator payment is fiat-denominated via the stablecoin and 2) the DOT rewards for validators are recomputed.
<blockquote>
<ol start="3">
<li>Therefore, I think we should have a boundaries for validators compensation. For example, validators’ total monthly reward (both fixed and variable) will be between $4k-$10k per month, regardless of DOT price. Meaning whether DOT is $1 or $!00 - the monthly compensation will be between $4k-$10k (this range is just an example - can be discussed in more details)</li>
</ol>
</blockquote>
There is only a limited range of actions when it comes to price volatility as it affects all stake holders (Validators, Treasury, Nominators). The “best” we can do is to give some reasonable fundament with the fixed reward (denoted in $) but ultimately, validators are part of the ecosystem that is subject to volatility.
<blockquote>
<ol start="4">
<li>If validators are required to have 10k self bond (that are slashable), they should have better monthly protection. I wouldn’t suggest this range idea if there wasn’t a 10k self bond requirement, but if we expect validators to run their nodes with strong infra in diversified locations, spend their time and expertise for securing the network, and on top of that invest 10k DOT (which I’m in favor) per node - then at least they should have a solid ground while running Polkadot node</li>
</ol>
</blockquote>
The codebase of Polkadot is so mature that a slash on self-stake only happens if validators intentionally run malicious software or do very basic operational mistakes. In other words, a capable validator should never fear a slash on their stake if they are honest. That means, we can expect them to increase their self-stake.

RAFAEL | LEGEND NODES

We have some logs for that file. This is some part of the logs, I think can help understanding the issues we’re facing.
For that turn, such collator didn’t produce blocks.
<pre><code class="lang-auto">...
aura::cumulus: [Parachain] Using cached data for relay parent. relay_parent=0xc1d1…9bb8
aura::cumulus: [Parachain] Going to claim core relay_parent=0xc1d1e06e7884b8954eab9cc7db6cfcd78029f7965cbaed5ba399e074dc839bb8 core_selector=CoreSelector(1) claim_queue_offset=ClaimQueueOffset(1)
aura::cumulus: [Parachain] Using cached data for relay parent. relay_parent=0xc1d1…9bb8
aura::cumulus: [Parachain] Not building block. unincluded_segment_len=15 relay_parent=0xc1d1e06e7884b8954eab9cc7db6cfcd78029f7965cbaed5ba399e074dc839bb8 relay_parent_num=30955140 included_hash=0xf16d258742eb1d7434ceee84a7b932c7d6556e6ce2e5553c4303e44023fbcc72 included_num=4030439 parent=0x3e27f266b1a3aca11ab85777ed8c22632743fcc203685c626c068f6d475e1c2f slot=Slot(293845727)
aura::cumulus: [Parachain] Expected to produce for 12 cores but only have 1 slots. Attempting to produce multiple blocks per slot. block_production_interval=500ms
aura::cumulus: [Parachain] New block production opportunity. slot_duration=SlotDuration(6000) aura_slot=Slot(293845729)
aura::cumulus: [Parachain] Relay chain best block changed, fetching new data from relay chain. relay_parent=0x2b19…dbdf
parachain::collator-protocol::stats: [Parachain] Collation included on relay chain latency=1 relay_block=0x2b19c1041be629b825a5abf4687cb27abac5fa49f3ee3ff7d88e1a50f977dbdf relay_parent=0xcc4b65fb8997e8bcb5213c5dd66278e17a76b0d8abde4a147d2c04b10f9d3347 para_id=Id(2281) head=0x7e4879de9343a49e7b9fef3b471473a494ad60624b133ee6e1305c949be993d6
parachain::collator-protocol::stats: [Parachain] Included collation not found in tracker head=0x385c215d3f18ea48deea452644bba3a636c2940ddfa954c2d53ad1e839f975fb
parachain::collator-protocol::stats: [Parachain] Backed collation not found in tracker head=0x9fe9e0ef459032660451705cf4a532333c0b5d266451e24c10bed818510ba0a9
parachain::collator-protocol::stats: [Parachain] Backed collation not found in tracker head=0x3033ebb38bad1234cc2a3231099a11ea908d03d9a58979e9aedea25ca98d310f
parachain::collator-protocol::stats: [Parachain] Backed collation not found in tracker head=0x5430fefbe0b8315ca2335b5eed929e3b385e3ec183ecb44677938f51e6a962ea
parachain::collator-protocol::stats: [Parachain] Backed collation not found in tracker head=0x90443c2be1ec478d8e4e6d6a7d49a61b495b22fc687b091107ba6076427aba12
parachain::collator-protocol::stats: [Parachain] Backed collation not found in tracker head=0xdb717c7170ba0ab3822e542bf3d7a47ddf844f1e7e0241be2de488688a2e415b
parachain::collator-protocol::stats: [Parachain] Backed collation not found in tracker head=0x3a3c351ed905a63ff9cfd6d35700ec8329ebf0bba18324b6e5d8bcbb43869b56
parachain::collator-protocol::stats: [Parachain] Backed collation not found in tracker head=0x01da90d0f2629a293c8ba5f66c3507b6fa3864e6e660f3a74ccc5a405b44f983
parachain::collator-protocol::stats: [Parachain] Backed collation not found in tracker head=0xcaa5530dbc7184e61df9fc15423539dcc4831c8c92d718867af91252915a6e05
parachain::collator-protocol::stats: [Parachain] Backed collation not found in tracker head=0xf550b70f5c8e04dff248fbbaccec1ef3444794914946a392e25c3732808ff9e2
parachain::collator-protocol::stats: [Parachain] Backed collation not found in tracker head=0x5f744689301b9d04ba912fe6883f4aba3d6f66947b0598a5b8cd94e7ec754ade
parachain::collator-protocol::stats: [Parachain] Backed collation not found in tracker head=0x702443772e9f4335f24d6cadefefe75918df224287e7d53c48fe157acb41db98
aura::cumulus: [Parachain] Using cached data for relay parent. relay_parent=0xb153…7ecb
aura::cumulus: [Parachain] Relay parent descendants. relay_parent_hash=0xb153…7ecb relay_parent_num=30955141 num_descendants=1
aura::cumulus: [Parachain] Parachain slot adjusted to relay chain. timestamp=Timestamp(1763074368000) slot=Slot(293845728)
aura::cumulus: [Parachain] Using cached data for relay parent. relay_parent=0xb153…7ecb
aura::cumulus: [Parachain] Going to claim core relay_parent=0xb153b60ea70b8fbc4cf1c193223255edffe1cf95d571eb0e049044c6abf97ecb core_selector=CoreSelector(0) claim_queue_offset=ClaimQueueOffset(1)
aura::cumulus: [Parachain] Using cached data for relay parent. relay_parent=0xb153…7ecb
aura::cumulus: [Parachain] Not building block. unincluded_segment_len=14 relay_parent=0xb153b60ea70b8fbc4cf1c193223255edffe1cf95d571eb0e049044c6abf97ecb relay_parent_num=30955141 included_hash=0x8db3c4ed5eef9d8fb9ebb94a3ac1750cd18c0ce24eed014a866da18d2d2e5282 included_num=4030440 parent=0x3e27f266b1a3aca11ab85777ed8c22632743fcc203685c626c068f6d475e1c2f slot=Slot(293845728)
aura::cumulus: [Parachain] Expected to produce for 12 cores but only have 1 slots. Attempting to produce multiple blocks per slot. block_production_interval=500ms
minimal-polkadot-node: [Parachain] Received finalized block via RPC: #30955140 (0xe521…29a5 -&gt; 0xc1d1…9bb8)
aura::cumulus: [Parachain] New block production opportunity. slot_duration=SlotDuration(6000) aura_slot=Slot(293845729)
aura::cumulus: [Parachain] Using cached data for relay parent. relay_parent=0x2b19…dbdf
aura::cumulus: [Parachain] Using cached data for relay parent. relay_parent=0xb153…7ecb
aura::cumulus: [Parachain] Relay parent descendants. relay_parent_hash=0xb153…7ecb relay_parent_num=30955141 num_descendants=1
aura::cumulus: [Parachain] Parachain slot adjusted to relay chain. timestamp=Timestamp(1763074368000) slot=Slot(293845728)
sync: [Parachain] 💔 Error importing block 0x4a722cbdf118bbd66f9b526dc93f156555432fce03d849851b44bc517d8b5dc0: block has an unknown parent
parachain-system: [Parachain] Validating header #30955141 (0xb153b60ea70b8fbc4cf1c193223255edffe1cf95d571eb0e049044c6abf97ecb)
parachain-system: [Parachain] Validated header #30955141 (0xb153b60ea70b8fbc4cf1c193223255edffe1cf95d571eb0e049044c6abf97ecb)
parachain-system: [Parachain] Validating header #30955142 (0x2b19c1041be629b825a5abf4687cb27abac5fa49f3ee3ff7d88e1a50f977dbdf)
parachain-system: [Parachain] Validated header #30955142 (0x2b19c1041be629b825a5abf4687cb27abac5fa49f3ee3ff7d88e1a50f977dbdf)
...
</code></pre>

And Polkadot will also be delayed, around what date? <a class="mention" href="/u/torsten">@torsten</a>

Xiscocv

Torsten

Smart Contracts on Polkadot Hub: Progress Update

<h2><a name="p-35187-polkadot-news-1" class="anchor" href="#p-35187-polkadot-news-1"></a>Polkadot News</h2>
The referendum to set DOT Asset Rates for USDT and USDC on Asset Hub is now up for voting. This is needed for treasury spend proposals that request funds in USDC/USDT to execute successfully <a href="https://polkadot.subsquare.io/referenda/1787" rel="noopener nofollow ugc">https://polkadot.subsquare.io/referenda/1787</a>
Watch Andrei Mihail from Parity Technologies demonstrate a low-latency, high-throughput web3 infrastructure setup with 500ms blocks and 12 execution cores using Polkadot SDK <a href="https://x.com/PolkadotDevs/status/1988882070546854297" rel="noopener nofollow ugc">https://x.com/PolkadotDevs/status/1988882070546854297</a>
Join Polkadot India’s hacker house in Mumbai and Bengaluru, Nov 15-18, hosted for Polkadot Builder Party Hackathon participants <a href="https://x.com/Polkadot_In/status/1983245311087947913" rel="noopener nofollow ugc">https://x.com/Polkadot_In/status/1983245311087947913</a>
Polkadot People Initiative: Incentives for Mass Polkadot Activation Campaign is in the decision period <a href="https://polkadot.subsquare.io/referenda/1783" rel="noopener nofollow ugc">https://polkadot.subsquare.io/referenda/1783</a>
<h2><a name="p-35187-kusama-news-2" class="anchor" href="#p-35187-kusama-news-2"></a>Kusama News</h2>
The referendum to set KSM/DOT Asset Rate Locations on Kusama Asset Hub (Post-Migration Restoration) is up for voting <a href="https://kusama.subsquare.io/referenda/615" rel="noopener nofollow ugc">https://kusama.subsquare.io/referenda/615</a>
Encointer runtime upgrade to 2.0.0 is passing unanimously <a href="https://kusama.subsquare.io/referenda/613" rel="noopener nofollow ugc">https://kusama.subsquare.io/referenda/613</a>

Polkadot Digest 13 November 2025

As an investor who has accompanied Polkadot for 5 years and still holds DOT, despite facing an 80% paper loss, I still hope to provide some thoughts for Polkadot’s future development through rational analysis.
<h2><a name="p-35182-i-strategic-dilemma-of-the-technical-route-1" class="anchor" href="#p-35182-i-strategic-dilemma-of-the-technical-route-1"></a>I. Strategic Dilemma of the Technical Route</h2>
Polkadot’s core problem lies in the mismatch between its technical positioning and market demand. While cross-chain technology is indeed advanced, when it lacks a thriving ecosystem to support it, technical advantages lose their commercial value. A harsh reality is: cross-chain infrastructure without an active ecosystem is essentially a false proposition. The market has proven through action that users don’t need cross-chain technology itself, but rather the practical application value that cross-chain can bring.
<h2><a name="p-35182-ii-strategic-mistakes-in-ecosystem-building-2" class="anchor" href="#p-35182-ii-strategic-mistakes-in-ecosystem-building-2"></a>II. Strategic Mistakes in Ecosystem Building</h2>
<h3><a name="p-35182-h-1-excessive-historical-baggage-3" class="anchor" href="#p-35182-h-1-excessive-historical-baggage-3"></a>1. Excessive Historical Baggage</h3>
There are numerous projects on the Polkadot chain that lack vitality. Not only do they fail to contribute value to the ecosystem, but they continue to consume resources. These projects should be decisively cleared out to make room for new forces.
<h3><a name="p-35182-h-2-inefficient-resource-allocation-4" class="anchor" href="#p-35182-h-2-inefficient-resource-allocation-4"></a>2. Inefficient Resource Allocation</h3>
The current “cast a wide net” ecosystem investment strategy has serious problems:
<ul>
<li>Funds are overly dispersed, making it difficult to form a clustering effect</li>
<li>Some funds flow to low-quality or even fraudulent projects</li>
<li>Extremely low input-output ratio, failing to incubate even one market-influential star project over many years</li>
</ul>
Recommended Direction: Concentrate resources on supporting 2-3 potential projects, striving to create at least one killer application within 2 years. History proves that one successful unicorn project is enough to activate the entire ecosystem and attract more quality teams to join.
<h2><a name="p-35182-iii-the-necessity-of-narrative-renewal-5" class="anchor" href="#p-35182-iii-the-necessity-of-narrative-renewal-5"></a>III. The Necessity of Narrative Renewal</h2>
Polkadot needs to break through the single narrative framework of “cross-chain” and proactively embrace cutting-edge Web3 trends:
<ul>
<li>RWA (Real World Asset Tokenization): Connecting traditional finance with the crypto world</li>
<li>Payment Infrastructure: Building practical payment solutions</li>
<li>AI Integration: Exploring the intersection of blockchain and artificial intelligence</li>
</ul>
While technological innovation is important, what’s more critical is maintaining keen insight into market trends and adjusting development direction in a timely manner.
<h2><a name="p-35182-iv-disconnect-between-governance-and-the-market-6" class="anchor" href="#p-35182-iv-disconnect-between-governance-and-the-market-6"></a>IV. Disconnect Between Governance and the Market</h2>
There is an obvious gap between Polkadot’s current management and the market. Decision-makers seem immersed in technical idealism, ignoring the market’s true judgment of DOT’s value.
Suggestions:
<ul>
<li>Establish more effective community feedback mechanisms</li>
<li>Conduct regular market research to understand real user needs</li>
<li>Find a balance between technical development and market promotion</li>
</ul>
<h2><a name="p-35182-v-economic-model-optimization-7" class="anchor" href="#p-35182-v-economic-model-optimization-7"></a>V. Economic Model Optimization</h2>
<h3><a name="p-35182-h-1-marketing-strategy-adjustment-8" class="anchor" href="#p-35182-h-1-marketing-strategy-adjustment-8"></a>1. Marketing Strategy Adjustment</h3>
<ul>
<li>Reduce ineffective marketing spending and avoid treasury fund waste</li>
<li>Shift focus from “selling technology” to “demonstrating DOT value”</li>
<li>Establish a clear value proposition to help investors understand the meaning of holding DOT</li>
</ul>
<h3><a name="p-35182-h-2-deflationary-mechanism-design-9" class="anchor" href="#p-35182-h-2-deflationary-mechanism-design-9"></a>2. Deflationary Mechanism Design</h3>
The deflationary design of the economic model must be seriously considered. Investors need to see a clear logic for value growth—otherwise, why should they choose to hold DOT?
<h2><a name="p-35182-conclusion-10" class="anchor" href="#p-35182-conclusion-10"></a>Conclusion</h2>
Choosing to invest in Polkadot is essentially a long-term bet on the future of blockchain. Although we face many challenges currently, I still believe that through strategic adjustments, resource optimization, and market-oriented reforms, Polkadot still has the opportunity to regain market recognition.
I hope these suggestions will be taken seriously and help Polkadot find its own development path again. After all, for long-term supporters like us, Polkadot’s success is not only about investment returns, but also represents adherence to technological ideals.

Reflections and Suggestions on Polkadot&rsquo;s Current Predicament

Reflections and Suggestions on Polkadot's Current Predicament

Mark

<h3><a name="p-35176-h-1-price-collapse-from-hype-to-decline-1" class="anchor" href="#p-35176-h-1-price-collapse-from-hype-to-decline-1"></a>1) Price Collapse: From Hype to Decline</h3>
<ul>
<li>DOT reached an all-time high of around $55 in November 2021, but is now trading at roughly $3 (as of Nov 2025) — a drop of more than 90% from its peak. This reflects both capital flight and fading market confidence.</li>
</ul>
<hr>
<h3><a name="p-35176-h-2-inflation-and-tokenomics-pressure-2" class="anchor" href="#p-35176-h-2-inflation-and-tokenomics-pressure-2"></a>2) Inflation and Tokenomics Pressure</h3>
<ul>
<li>Polkadot has a built-in inflation model: 120 million DOT are minted every year (15% to the Treasury, 85% as staking rewards).</li>
<li>With a circulating supply of roughly 1.6 billion DOT, this means an annual expansion of about 7–8%, which continually dilutes holders and creates structural sell pressure.</li>
</ul>
<hr>
<h3><a name="p-35176-h-3-weak-on-chain-activity-and-user-adoption-3" class="anchor" href="#p-35176-h-3-weak-on-chain-activity-and-user-adoption-3"></a>3) Weak On-Chain Activity and User Adoption</h3>
<ul>
<li>Despite its advanced technology, Polkadot’s real user base remains small.</li>
<li>Active wallets and daily active users (DAU) on major parachains number only tens of thousands, far below 2021 levels.</li>
<li>The ecosystem’s total value locked (TVL) has dropped from over $1 billion at its peak to roughly $250 million today — a sign that few applications are attracting meaningful liquidity or real users.</li>
</ul>
<hr>
<h3><a name="p-35176-h-4-treasury-spending-and-inefficient-marketing-4" class="anchor" href="#p-35176-h-4-treasury-spending-and-inefficient-marketing-4"></a>4) Treasury Spending and Inefficient Marketing</h3>
<ul>
<li>Community discussions have repeatedly criticized extravagant Treasury spending, particularly on marketing, influencer campaigns, and ecosystem grants that showed little measurable impact on user growth.</li>
<li>Even the Web3 Foundation has acknowledged the need to tighten funding efficiency, confirming that earlier spending was heavy but not always effective.</li>
</ul>
<hr>
<h3><a name="p-35176-h-5-lost-narrative-and-competitive-pressure-5" class="anchor" href="#p-35176-h-5-lost-narrative-and-competitive-pressure-5"></a>5) Lost Narrative and Competitive Pressure</h3>
<ul>
<li>In 2021, Polkadot’s “cross-chain + parachain auction” narrative was fresh and exciting.</li>
<li>By 2024–2025, the market focus has shifted to Layer 2 scaling, modular blockchains, DePIN, and AI + crypto integration.</li>
<li>Polkadot’s story no longer resonates with investors, while networks like Solana, Celestia, and EigenLayer captured new capital and attention.</li>
</ul>
<hr>
<h3><a name="p-35176-conclusion-6" class="anchor" href="#p-35176-conclusion-6"></a><img src="https://emoji.discourse-cdn.com/twitter/white_check_mark.png?v=15" title=":white_check_mark:" class="emoji" alt=":white_check_mark:" loading="lazy" width="20" height="20"> Conclusion</h3>
Polkadot’s prolonged price weakness stems from a combination of structural and strategic factors:
<blockquote>
High inflation and constant sell pressure, limited real-world usage, inefficient Treasury spending, and an outdated market narrative.
</blockquote>
Technically strong, Polkadot remains a “research-driven project,” but it has yet to find a compelling commercial or narrative breakthrough to reignite demand for DOT.

Why Polkadot (DOT) Has Remained Depressed

Last Friday, we introduced the <a href="https://staking.usepapi.app/" rel="noopener nofollow ugc">PAPI Staking Optimizer</a>, the most performant staking dashboard to date.
This release is the culmination of an effort that originated from building the <a href="https://papi.how/sdks/staking-sdk" rel="noopener nofollow ugc">PAPI Staking SDK</a>, similar to how we built the <a href="https://bounties.usepapi.app" rel="noopener nofollow ugc">PAPI Bounty Manager</a> using the <a href="https://papi.how/sdks/governance/bounties" rel="noopener nofollow ugc">Governance SDK</a>.
In addition, we’ve abstracted the account management used across our dApps into a new modular library, <a href="https://github.com/polkadot-api/polkahub" rel="noopener nofollow ugc">PolkaHub</a>, making it effortless to integrate with any Polkadot wallet. It’s also the first library to support the air-gapped Polkadot Vault out of the box!
I wanted to create a post explaining the SDKs, the main points of the Staking Optimizer, and a quick overview of PolkaHub’s core principles.
<h2><a name="p-35175-papi-sdks-1" class="anchor" href="#p-35175-papi-sdks-1"></a>PAPI SDKs</h2>
The Polkadot-API library is designed to be modular and chain-agnostic, meaning it does not include any business-level logic. It reads the chain metadata to understand how to interact with the chain, but it’s up to the developer to define its specific use and purpose.
With this modular architecture, it becomes possible to build additional libraries on top that simplify common workflows when dealing with specific pallets. So far, we’ve built the following SDKs, highlighting their most important features:
<ul>
<li>
Identity: Decodes identity information and resolves sub-identities.
</li>
<li>
Linked Accounts: Explores proxy and multisig relationships between accounts.
</li>
<li>
Bounties: Simplifies access to bounty information and finds linked referenda.
</li>
<li>
Referenda: Calculates support curves and optimizes referendum creation.
</li>
<li>
Voting: Abstracts voting information and calculates locks.
</li>
<li>
Ink!: Handles smart contracts with <code>pallet-contracts</code> and <code>pallet-revive</code>, supporting both ink! and Solidity ABIs.
</li>
<li>
Multisig: Creates multisig transactions based on the current state.
</li>
<li>
Remote Proxy: Creates remote proxy calls.
</li>
<li>
Statement: Simplifies access to the statement store.
</li>
</ul>
Now we’ve added the Staking SDK. When interacting with the staking pallet, relevant information such as validator status, nominator settings and rewards is typically scattered across different storage entries. This SDK aggregates everything, making it much easier to consume.
For example, getting the bond of a nomination pool member is not straightforward. It’s not stored directly as an amount of tokens in the pallet’s storage but as points, a mechanism that determines how a slashing event affects the members in a nomination pool. This makes it non-trivial to retrieve a member’s bond, as those points have to be transformed to tokens.
Additionally, the SDK provides utilities to manage nomination status. Any nomination change can be performed with a single batch transaction, and it also helps optimize bond amounts by rebonding previous locks when possible.
As you can see, this suite of libraries enhances specific blockchain features while preserving the modular philosophy. We also encourage other teams to build their own SDKs. For example, the Statement Store SDK actually originated from an external team, the ParaSpell team also developed an <a href="https://github.com/paraspell/xcm-tools/tree/0cdb43d5ee9516cc509136abeba6638a845c44e2/packages/sdk" rel="noopener nofollow ugc">XCM SDK</a>, Hydration built the <a href="https://github.com/galacticcouncil/sdk" rel="noopener nofollow ugc">Galactic SDK</a>, etc.
<h2><a name="p-35175-staking-optimizer-2" class="anchor" href="#p-35175-staking-optimizer-2"></a>Staking Optimizer</h2>
To build the right abstraction, we need a real use-case example. When developing the Governance SDK (bounties, referenda, and voting), we built <a href="https://bounties.usepapi.app/" rel="noopener nofollow ugc">Polkadot Bounties</a>. Similarly, for the Staking SDK, we created the <a href="https://staking.usepapi.app/" rel="noopener nofollow ugc">Staking Optimizer</a>.
<div class="lightbox-wrapper"><a class="lightbox" href="https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/uploads/polkadot2/original/2X/0/06b67f64d83d76725f4d45e880984781901bd8bd.png" data-download-href="/uploads/short-url/XnRzYmD7iaf9RMc800ADlpn9HT.png?dl=1" title="image" rel="noopener nofollow ugc"><img src="https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/uploads/polkadot2/optimized/2X/0/06b67f64d83d76725f4d45e880984781901bd8bd_2_594x500.png" alt="image" data-base62-sha1="XnRzYmD7iaf9RMc800ADlpn9HT" width="594" height="500" srcset="https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/uploads/polkadot2/optimized/2X/0/06b67f64d83d76725f4d45e880984781901bd8bd_2_594x500.png, https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/uploads/polkadot2/optimized/2X/0/06b67f64d83d76725f4d45e880984781901bd8bd_2_891x750.png 1.5x, https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/uploads/polkadot2/optimized/2X/0/06b67f64d83d76725f4d45e880984781901bd8bd_2_1188x1000.png 2x" data-dominant-color="F5F5F5"><div class="meta"><svg class="fa d-icon d-icon-far-image svg-icon" aria-hidden="true"><use href="#far-image"></use></svg>image2086×1754 388 KB<svg class="fa d-icon d-icon-discourse-expand svg-icon" aria-hidden="true"><use href="#discourse-expand"></use></svg></div></a></div>
These are what we call our white-label dApps: They help us test and refine the SDKs while also serving as examples or even potential starting points for anyone who wants to fork and improve them.
The Staking Optimizer has been used to battle-test the SDK, with a focus on a few key points:
<ul>
<li>
Making it light-client first.
</li>
<li>
Displaying the important validator metrics.
</li>
<li>
Keeping it highly performant.
</li>
</ul>
<h3><a name="p-35175-light-client-first-3" class="anchor" href="#p-35175-light-client-first-3"></a>Light-Client First</h3>
We believe in a fully decentralized network. There’s still work to be done to reach that ambitious goal, but building dApps that prioritize decentralization is key to push the ecosystem in the right direction.
Polkadot’s light client, Smoldot, is an impressive piece of engineering. It can fully synchronize with the chain to the latest finalized block in less than 10 seconds, and in a completely trustless manner. This is extremely important: not only is it unstoppable, but any information you retrieve from Smoldot is fully verified.
The Staking Optimizer was built with Smoldot in mind from the ground up. It includes several performance optimizations that make it run smoothly, achieving more than acceptable performance levels.
We’ve also added support for centralized RPCs and a small <a href="https://github.com/polkadot-api/staking-indexer" rel="noopener nofollow ugc">open-source</a> indexer to offload some heavy operations. However, these are optional enhancements intended only to make things slightly faster. At any time, users can switch back to the fully trustless and decentralized option using Smoldot.
<h3><a name="p-35175-validator-metrics-4" class="anchor" href="#p-35175-validator-metrics-4"></a>Validator Metrics</h3>
What defines the performance of a validator? From an investment perspective, what matters is the amount of rewards you receive relative to the tokens you have locked. In other words, the APY (Annual Percentage Yield).
In staking, active validators earn points as they produce blocks. At the end of each era, a total reward is determined (based on inflation curves and current issuance), and that reward is distributed among validators in proportion to the points they’ve earned.
Each validator’s reward is then shared with its active nominators. First, the validator takes their commission (according to their commission setting), and the remaining amount is split proportionally based on each nominator’s active stake (including the validator’s if they have self-stake).
From this description, it might seem that a validator APY’s performance depends mainly on the number of points earned and its commission rate, since these directly affect the total rewards shared with nominators. However, that’s not actually the full picture.
If you look at the data, validator points are quite similar across the active set. Validators with more stake tend to earn slightly more points, but the difference is marginal compared to the total amount of tokens. When thinking in terms of APY, how much return you get per token, it’s usually better to nominate validators with less total stake.
This is why you might find a validator with 10% commission yielding a higher APY than another with 0% commission: the 0% validator often has too many tokens bonded, which dilutes its yield.
If every nominator based their decision purely on APY, the system would naturally self-balance: validators with higher APY would attract more nominators until their performance evens out, and the other way around.
Another interesting aspect is blocked nominations. Validators can configure a setting to block new nominations. If you disable the Block nominations filter, you’ll often see that the top-performing validators are blocked. And for good reason, as they prefer not to take additional stake from unknown nominators that would in turn decrease their APY.
Related to this, a few months ago, joining a nomination pool could yield a higher APY than directly nominating, even with double commission (validator + pool). This was because those pools were nominating blocked validators that happened to have the highest APY.
This APY-based performance metric is what the Staking Optimizer focuses on displaying clearly. It’s unclear what metric the other Staking Dashboard uses (since it relies on its own indexer which is closed-source), it just shows validators with a “Top 10%” tag, and the charts are based on points or total rewards. This is something we aimed to improve upon.
We also plan to add more important metrics in the future, such as decentralization, to help users make even more informed validator selections.
Sorry if this section got a bit long, but these findings were too interesting not to share.
<h3><a name="p-35175-performance-5" class="anchor" href="#p-35175-performance-5"></a>Performance</h3>
There are two distinct sides of performance: startup performance (getting the application to run as quickly as possible) and runtime performance (making the application feel responsive and smooth).
For startup performance, the most important concept is the critical path: all the steps that must happen in sequence before the application becomes usable.
Ideally, you want to minimize the amount of data that needs to be downloaded, including the code itself: HTML, JS, and CSS. One common way to achieve this is server-side rendering, where a server generates the application and ships it with a minimal JavaScript runtime. However, in our case, that approach is off the table since it goes against decentralization principles.
Instead, we focused on reducing the amount of code that needs to be downloaded using code splitting. The idea is to keep a minimal “main bundle” containing only the essential code needed to get the app running, while additional code (such as other pages, animations, and extra features) loads in the background as the user interacts with the app.
PAPI helps with this. Its code generation system, which ensures runtime safety, condenses the chain metadata into a small bundle that’s lazy-loaded in the background, so it doesn’t increase the main bundle size.
We can examine the bundles used by the Staking Optimizer:
<div class="lightbox-wrapper"><a class="lightbox" href="https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/uploads/polkadot2/original/2X/5/5c690f855804951ad276915f44a8a8e76512e2fa.jpeg" data-download-href="/uploads/short-url/dbv19EkJi9snuvEEs99bOm1GGhQ.jpeg?dl=1" title="Screenshot 2025-11-11 at 12.52.05" rel="noopener nofollow ugc"><img src="https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/uploads/polkadot2/optimized/2X/5/5c690f855804951ad276915f44a8a8e76512e2fa_2_690x376.jpeg" alt="Screenshot 2025-11-11 at 12.52.05" data-base62-sha1="dbv19EkJi9snuvEEs99bOm1GGhQ" width="690" height="376" srcset="https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/uploads/polkadot2/optimized/2X/5/5c690f855804951ad276915f44a8a8e76512e2fa_2_690x376.jpeg, https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/uploads/polkadot2/optimized/2X/5/5c690f855804951ad276915f44a8a8e76512e2fa_2_1035x564.jpeg 1.5x, https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/uploads/polkadot2/optimized/2X/5/5c690f855804951ad276915f44a8a8e76512e2fa_2_1380x752.jpeg 2x" data-dominant-color="9D6E7A"><div class="meta"><svg class="fa d-icon d-icon-far-image svg-icon" aria-hidden="true"><use href="#far-image"></use></svg>Screenshot 2025-11-11 at 12.52.051920×1048 822 KB<svg class="fa d-icon d-icon-discourse-expand svg-icon" aria-hidden="true"><use href="#discourse-expand"></use></svg></div></a></div>
As you can see, the main bundle (top-left corner) is roughly 20% of the total size. And looking closer, most of that main bundle is made up of dependencies needed to render a typical React app: about 36% of the main bundle is React and React Router alone. There are still a few pages that could be further optimized, but at some point, the trade-off isn’t worth it: saving ~5 KB often adds unnecessary complexity.
This is what lets the application load as fast as possible, to let the light client start connecting to peers as the rest of the non-essential assets are loaded in the background.
As for runtime performance, following general best practices (avoiding unnecessary re-renders, using smart caching, etc.) is usually sufficient. For certain operations, such as fetching nominator rewards, a large amount of data needs to be processed. For those cases, we use a web worker, which offloads computation to a separate thread to avoid blocking the main UI. This optimization is specific but very effective for that heavy workload.
<h2><a name="p-35175-polkahub-6" class="anchor" href="#p-35175-polkahub-6"></a>PolkaHub</h2>
With this new dApp, we’ve also extracted our wallet integration into a standalone library called <a href="https://github.com/polkadot-api/polkahub" rel="noopener nofollow ugc">PolkaHub</a>, built from everything we’ve learned so far. It integrates with multiple providers, including browser extensions, Ledger, and Polkadot Vault, and also supports other account types such as read-only accounts, multisigs, and proxies.
<div class="lightbox-wrapper"><a class="lightbox" href="https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/uploads/polkadot2/original/2X/1/13aa046101d7b4280fd06826bb1723e2d8dbc181.png" data-download-href="/uploads/short-url/2NXkzQBYjpbJxD9wbWCsAqM93B7.png?dl=1" title="image" rel="noopener nofollow ugc"><img src="https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/uploads/polkadot2/optimized/2X/1/13aa046101d7b4280fd06826bb1723e2d8dbc181_2_690x437.png" alt="image" data-base62-sha1="2NXkzQBYjpbJxD9wbWCsAqM93B7" width="690" height="437" srcset="https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/uploads/polkadot2/optimized/2X/1/13aa046101d7b4280fd06826bb1723e2d8dbc181_2_690x437.png, https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/uploads/polkadot2/optimized/2X/1/13aa046101d7b4280fd06826bb1723e2d8dbc181_2_1035x655.png 1.5x, https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/uploads/polkadot2/optimized/2X/1/13aa046101d7b4280fd06826bb1723e2d8dbc181_2_1380x874.png 2x" data-dominant-color="EEEEED"><div class="meta"><svg class="fa d-icon d-icon-far-image svg-icon" aria-hidden="true"><use href="#far-image"></use></svg>image1394×884 79.5 KB<svg class="fa d-icon d-icon-discourse-expand svg-icon" aria-hidden="true"><use href="#discourse-expand"></use></svg></div></a></div>
We wanted this library to serve the entire ecosystem, so it’s not tied to any specific Polkadot client library: you can use it with whichever setup suits you best.
PolkaHub is designed to be extremely modular. The core library is empty by default, and you can extend it by adding providers through a plug-in system to fit your needs. The state and integration logic are completely decoupled from the UI, allowing you to build your own interface on top without worrying about implementation details, like how Ledger connections work, for example.
For faster development, it also includes a set of predefined React + shadcn/ui components and hooks, so you can have a working integration up and running within minutes.
<h2><a name="p-35175-whats-next-7" class="anchor" href="#p-35175-whats-next-7"></a>What’s Next</h2>
We have a busy end-of-year schedule ahead. We’re on track to deliver the remaining parts of our PAPI proposal. A v2 release is just around the corner, introducing a few minimal but much-needed breaking changes to improve the API.
As for future improvements on this project, we’re looking for feedback for the Staking SDK as it gains adoption. For the Staking Optimizer, we plan to add more validator metrics and possibly integrate the W3F validator picker based on <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0305048323000336" rel="noopener nofollow ugc">Jonas’ research</a>. For PolkaHub, we’ll focus on improving proxy and multisig support, and work on further <a href="https://github.com/polkadot-js/api/issues/6213" rel="noopener nofollow ugc">standardizing the signer interface</a>.
Stake your tokens at <a href="https://staking.usepapi.app/" rel="noopener nofollow ugc">staking.usepapi.app</a> and let us know what you think, we’re completely open to feedback. We hope this post was informative.

Introducing a new trio from PAPI: Staking Optimizer, Staking SDK, and PolkaHub

“Proof of Personhood” 
Proof-of-Ink (PoI) and Proof-of-Video-Interaction (PoVI). How can PoI distinguish between real tattoos and printed tattoo stickers? And PoVI requires participants to play a regional video game for five minutes simultaneously? (I find this absolutely absurd.) It feels like we’re still stuck in the old cypherpunk fantasy. Maybe due to inflation, the “palace” needs additional construction funding.
Polkadot should focus on entering the U.S. market and seeking broader support — not figuring out how to request more money from the treasury!
Seeing proposals to block treasury burns and developers arguing against removing the 28-day unbonding period — just to keep users’ funds locked — it’s disappointing. Are they sacrificing users’ financial freedom for the sake of treasury interests?
Instead of seeking external support, they keep exploiting DOT holders. 
Low-quality airdrops can’t attract real users; both users and development teams are continuously leaving Polkadot.

Polkadot is facing an unprecedented crisis

<h2><a name="p-35159-polkadot-news-1" class="anchor" href="#p-35159-polkadot-news-1"></a>Polkadot News</h2>
Get your free tickets to attend Polkadot’s flagship conference, Sub0 Symbiosis, in Buenos Aires, Nov 14-16, or join the livestream remotely <a href="https://sub0.gg/" rel="noopener nofollow ugc">https://sub0.gg/</a>
Check out the Polkadot side events in Buenos Aires happening this weekend <a href="https://luma.com/joinwebzero" class="inline-onebox" rel="noopener nofollow ugc">WebZero · Events Calendar</a>
Hear from Pierre Aubert, VP of Engineering at Parity Technologies, about upcoming development plans on Polkadot <a href="https://x.com/TheKusamarian/status/1987566331588145481" rel="noopener nofollow ugc">https://x.com/TheKusamarian/status/1987566331588145481</a>
The referendum “Infrastructure Funding for Polkadot Asset Hub #4 - Maintenance &amp; Continuation of Public good Polkadot NFT marketplace” failed to execute due to an issue with the asset rate config on Asset Hub. A fix to this issue is in the works <a href="https://polkadot.subsquare.io/referenda/1768" rel="noopener nofollow ugc">https://polkadot.subsquare.io/referenda/1768</a>
The referendum for Paseo Developer Testnet 2nd Top-up Request is now up for voting <a href="https://polkadot.subsquare.io/referenda/1786" rel="noopener nofollow ugc">https://polkadot.subsquare.io/referenda/1786</a>
The wish-for-change referendum to preserve DOT treasury from burn is now in the decision period <a href="https://polkadot.subsquare.io/referenda/1781" rel="noopener nofollow ugc">https://polkadot.subsquare.io/referenda/1781</a>
<h2><a name="p-35159-kusama-news-2" class="anchor" href="#p-35159-kusama-news-2"></a>Kusama News</h2>
This Friday in Buenos Aires, the Sub0 hack features the Kusama track on best on-chain art and social experiments <a href="https://luma.com/sub0hack" class="inline-onebox" rel="noopener nofollow ugc">sub0 HACK — a 72hr hackathon · Luma</a>

Polkadot Digest 12 November 2025

root

whitelisted_caller

wish_for_change

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lease_admin

fellowship_admin

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ZKAMA - ZK Verifier SDK Proposal {Post-AssetHub Hackathon Curation}

Unlock Winning Strategies with Playzone

Encointer Outlook for Q4'25 and Onwards

Sol-XCM | A typed interface for interoperability from Solidity

Implement a Kusama Forum MVP (Content Pallet v2)

Discovering the Dynamic Features of JLJL99

Implement pallet_content

Milestone-Based Payouts at Scale: Treasury Guardian Tool for Efficient Polkadot Treasury Spending

Subscan 2025 Q1-Q2 Funding Proposal: Basic service fee for the Kusama Relaychain and Kusama public parachain (AssetHub, Coretime, BridgeHub, People)

Anonymous OpenGov

THE RIGHT TO DISAPPEAR

Deciding

Executed

Whitelist Hub Upgrade To 2.0.2

Rejected

Garbage

- This update fixes the KSM and DOT exchange rates on Kusama Asset Hub.
- The rates were lost during a system move and need to be set again.
- It removes old, unused KSM rate information.
- It adds new exchange rates between Kusama and Polkadot Asset Hubs.
- The KSM to DOT rate is set at 4 to 1, just like before.
- Rates are stored using special large numbers for accuracy.
- This helps the treasury system work correctly with KSM and DOT conversions.

Set KSM/DOT Asset Rate Locations on Kusama Asset Hub (Post-Migration Restoration)

Here is a summary of the post in simple terms:

- Encointer wants to upgrade its system to version 2.0.0.
- This upgrade includes a fix for cross-chain stable coin treasuries.
- The fix was also in an older version (1.9.2) that was not released.
- A proposal has been made to allow this upgrade.
- Links to release notes and the proposal are provided.

[Whitelisted Caller] Encointer runtime upgrade to 2.0.0

- Kusama is now a peer network to Polkadot, not just a test network.
- Polkadot wants to manage identity for Kusama through its own system.
- Kusama should have its own identity system to stay independent.
- Relying on Polkadot could let them change or stop Kusama’s identity rules.
- Having separate systems makes both networks stronger and safer.
- Kusama can build its own identity tools and try new ideas.
- Voting "AYE" means Kusama controls its own identity.
- Voting "NAY" means Polkadot controls Kusama’s identity.

Preparing

Wish for Change: Deploy Native Proof of Personhood Pallets on Kusama Infrastructure

Upgrade Hub To 2.0.2

- Kusama was a sponsor at the Dark Prague event.
- A community member was asked to help fill the Kusama space at the last minute.
- Some Kusama community members attended, but the event was not very successful for Kusama.
- There were no new updates or products to show people, which made it hard to attract builders.
- Privacy is becoming important in web3, and Kusama should be at these events with better materials.
- The request is for 55 KSM to cover travel and stay costs.
- The person is not asking for food, taxis, or payment for their time.

[Small Spender] Tip for Dark Prague Oct 3-5 2025

- Some people want their money back for early proposals on Kusama.
- They paid 100 KSM to submit ideas, but now it only costs 0.0333 KSM.
- Their ideas were not approved, so they lost their money.
- The money is stuck and can't be returned normally.
- This happened because the rules were new and being tested.
- The only way to give the money back is through the community treasury.
- This helps make things fair for those who tried early.

Refund of Early OpenGov Submission Deposits

Delay Demo #2 Treasury Guardian

- The referendum is about testing a new tool called Treasury Guardian.  
- It includes a payment to Mr. Bill Laboon, which might be delayed or canceled.  
- The tool helps with milestone-based payments to improve treasury efficiency.  
- The goal is to get more people involved in Kusama and Polkadot OpenGov.  
- Follow [TreasuryEff on X](https://x.com/TreasuryEff) for updates.

Treasury Guardian On-Chain Demo

Kusama

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