Track: MediumSpender
Requested: 3,200 KSM ($13,500 USD at current 7-day EMA)
Period: April – December 2026 (9 months)
Cost: ~$1,500/month
Encointer is Kusama's second system chain, registered via Referendum 158. It provides Proof of Personhood, Sybil resistance, community currencies, and democratic governance tooling. It is the only system chain unique to Kusama – it does not exist on Polkadot.
This MediumSpender proposal requests funding for basic infrastructure operations of the Encointer system chain for 9 months (April–December 2026). The scope is strictly limited to keeping the chain running reliably: collators, RPC nodes, indexing, explorer, and accounting frontend. This is not a development or community growth proposal.
Encointer had comparable monthly active accounts to Kusama Asset Hub before the AHM migration. The data below shows that for recent months, both chains served a similar-sized user base – yet Encointer's operational costs are a fraction of what other system chains receive:
| Month | Encointer | KSM Asset Hub | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-04 | 141 | 138 | Encointer > AH |
| 2025-05 | 173 | 138 | Encointer > AH |
| 2025-06 | 158 | 165 | Comparable |
| 2025-07 | 181 | 251 | Comparable |
| 2025-08 | 198 | 165 | Encointer > AH |
| 2025-09 | 203 | 185 | Encointer > AH |
| 2025-10 | 178 | 3,459 | AHM migration |
| 2025-11 | 182 | 4,962 | Post-AHM |
| 2025-12 | 155 | 3,848 | Post-AHM |
| 2026-01 | 155 | 3,703 | Post-AHM |
| 2026-02 | 149 | 3,370 | Post-AHM |
Source: Encointer litescan indexer. Subscan has refused to index Encointer as a system chain.
Before the Asset Hub Migration (Oct 2025), Encointer consistently matched or exceeded KAH in monthly active accounts. Encointer is one of the most actively used and still a very cost-efficient system chain in the Kusama ecosystem.
Kusama benefits directly from Encointer and should continue to fund it as a common good system chain. Its proof-of-personhood protocol and community currencies are not just theoretical — they are live experiments with active communities of meaningful size in the hundreds, enabling real experimentation with one-person-one-vote democracy that could complement Kusama's existing stake-weighted governance. Encointer also delivers tangible real-world impact: its Nyota pilot in Tanzania multiplied the economic impact of cash transfer subsidies by 240%, while the community in Nigeria are running solar-powered collator nodes that improve Kusama's own geographic decentralization. Encointer makes Kusama more democratic and more relevant.
This proposal covers five infrastructure components required to operate the Encointer system chain:
| Component | Description | Monthly Cost (USD) |
|---|---|---|
| 2 Invulnerable Collators | Team-operated invulnerable collators/bootnodes for block production. Excluded from system chain collator bounty (Ref #643 funds only community invulnerables). | $500 |
| Load-Balanced RPC Nodes | Public RPC endpoints for wallets, dApps, and community access. Load-balanced for availability. | $350 |
| Litescan Indexer | Simple FOSS indexer providing chain data for explorer and accounting tools. Runs continuously. | $250 |
| Accounting Frontend | accounting.encointer.org – Transparency tool showing community treasury flows and token economics. | $200 |
| Explorer | explorer.encointer.org – Community status explorer for the Encointer chain. Public good for users and developers. | $50 |
| Monitoring & Ops | Alerting, uptime monitoring, trivial incident response, SSL/DNS management for all above services. | $150 |
| TOTAL (monthly) | $1,500 | |
| TOTAL (9 months) | April – December 2026 | $13,500 |
Fundraising efforts from external sources are ongoing and we see progress. Nevertheless, we may need to approach the Kusama Treasury for additional well-scoped packages on top of this one if we want to do more than mere basic maintenance.
The team commits to keeping the system running and performing minimal maintenance for the stated period even in case no further funding can be secured.
The system chain collator bounty (Ref #643) funds community invulnerable collators only. It explicitly allocates 2 slots for Encointer at $250/month each, paid to external community operators. The Encointer team's own 2 invulnerable collators are not eligible for this bounty. The RPC nodes, indexer, explorer, and accounting frontend are entirely unfunded by any other mechanism.
The Polkadot fellowship does not cover any work or infrastructure which is specific to Encointer although Encointer's runtime is maintained within the fellowship repositories.
Other system chain maintenance budgets are not transparently reported for public scrutiny.
Despite operating on one of the leanest budgets in the ecosystem, Encointer has delivered real-world impact:
| Proposal | Period | Amount | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ref 636 | Jul–Dec 2025 | 73,811 CHF / 19,339 KSM | ❌ Rejected |
| Ref 564 | Jan–Jun 2025 | 61,592 CHF / 5,047 KSM | ✅ Awarded |
| Ref 489 | Jul–Dec 2024 | 64,300 CHF / 2,413 KSM | ✅ Awarded |
older proposals linked in all proposal documents
Track: MediumSpender
Requested: 3,200 KSM ($13,500 USD at current 7-day EMA)
Period: April – December 2026 (9 months)
Cost: ~$1,500/month
Encointer is Kusama's second system chain, registered via Referendum 158. It provides Proof of Personhood, Sybil resistance, community currencies, and democratic governance tooling. It is the only system chain unique to Kusama – it does not exist on Polkadot.
This MediumSpender proposal requests funding for basic infrastructure operations of the Encointer system chain for 9 months (April–December 2026). The scope is strictly limited to keeping the chain running reliably: collators, RPC nodes, indexing, explorer, and accounting frontend. This is not a development or community growth proposal.
Encointer had comparable monthly active accounts to Kusama Asset Hub before the AHM migration. The data below shows that for recent months, both chains served a similar-sized user base – yet Encointer's operational costs are a fraction of what other system chains receive:
| Month | Encointer | KSM Asset Hub | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-04 | 141 | 138 | Encointer > AH |
| 2025-05 | 173 | 138 | Encointer > AH |
| 2025-06 | 158 | 165 | Comparable |
| 2025-07 | 181 | 251 | Comparable |
| 2025-08 | 198 | 165 | Encointer > AH |
| 2025-09 | 203 | 185 | Encointer > AH |
| 2025-10 | 178 | 3,459 | AHM migration |
| 2025-11 | 182 | 4,962 | Post-AHM |
| 2025-12 | 155 | 3,848 | Post-AHM |
| 2026-01 | 155 | 3,703 | Post-AHM |
| 2026-02 | 149 | 3,370 | Post-AHM |
Source: Encointer litescan indexer. Subscan has refused to index Encointer as a system chain.
Before the Asset Hub Migration (Oct 2025), Encointer consistently matched or exceeded KAH in monthly active accounts. Encointer is one of the most actively used and still a very cost-efficient system chain in the Kusama ecosystem.
Kusama benefits directly from Encointer and should continue to fund it as a common good system chain. Its proof-of-personhood protocol and community currencies are not just theoretical — they are live experiments with active communities of meaningful size in the hundreds, enabling real experimentation with one-person-one-vote democracy that could complement Kusama's existing stake-weighted governance. Encointer also delivers tangible real-world impact: its Nyota pilot in Tanzania multiplied the economic impact of cash transfer subsidies by 240%, while the community in Nigeria are running solar-powered collator nodes that improve Kusama's own geographic decentralization. Encointer makes Kusama more democratic and more relevant.
This proposal covers five infrastructure components required to operate the Encointer system chain:
| Component | Description | Monthly Cost (USD) |
|---|---|---|
| 2 Invulnerable Collators | Team-operated invulnerable collators/bootnodes for block production. Excluded from system chain collator bounty (Ref #643 funds only community invulnerables). | $500 |
| Load-Balanced RPC Nodes | Public RPC endpoints for wallets, dApps, and community access. Load-balanced for availability. | $350 |
| Litescan Indexer | Simple FOSS indexer providing chain data for explorer and accounting tools. Runs continuously. | $250 |
| Accounting Frontend | accounting.encointer.org – Transparency tool showing community treasury flows and token economics. | $200 |
| Explorer | explorer.encointer.org – Community status explorer for the Encointer chain. Public good for users and developers. | $50 |
| Monitoring & Ops | Alerting, uptime monitoring, trivial incident response, SSL/DNS management for all above services. | $150 |
| TOTAL (monthly) | $1,500 | |
| TOTAL (9 months) | April – December 2026 | $13,500 |
Fundraising efforts from external sources are ongoing and we see progress. Nevertheless, we may need to approach the Kusama Treasury for additional well-scoped packages on top of this one if we want to do more than mere basic maintenance.
The team commits to keeping the system running and performing minimal maintenance for the stated period even in case no further funding can be secured.
The system chain collator bounty (Ref #643) funds community invulnerable collators only. It explicitly allocates 2 slots for Encointer at $250/month each, paid to external community operators. The Encointer team's own 2 invulnerable collators are not eligible for this bounty. The RPC nodes, indexer, explorer, and accounting frontend are entirely unfunded by any other mechanism.
The Polkadot fellowship does not cover any work or infrastructure which is specific to Encointer although Encointer's runtime is maintained within the fellowship repositories.
Other system chain maintenance budgets are not transparently reported for public scrutiny.
Despite operating on one of the leanest budgets in the ecosystem, Encointer has delivered real-world impact:
| Proposal | Period | Amount | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ref 636 | Jul–Dec 2025 | 73,811 CHF / 19,339 KSM | ❌ Rejected |
| Ref 564 | Jan–Jun 2025 | 61,592 CHF / 5,047 KSM | ✅ Awarded |
| Ref 489 | Jul–Dec 2024 | 64,300 CHF / 2,413 KSM | ✅ Awarded |
older proposals linked in all proposal documents