PSEUDONYM: generative portraits of Kusama and Polkadot accounts (retroactive + Phase 1)

PSEUDONYM turns any Kusama or Polkadot address into a generative portrait, using only public on-chain data. This referendum funds the working version (retroactive) and Phase 1: a public experiment in whether people want to see, keep or hide their on-chain portrait.

Discussion since 7 October: Polkadot Forum · Subsquare #56

Live work: https://arkain.vercel.app · Archive: https://arkain.vercel.app/archive

Request

Total: 3,333 KSM (Medium Spender limit)
Budget: 14,000 USD (4,000 retroactive + 10,000 Phase 1). At 4.17 USD/KSM (CoinGecko, 20 October 2026) this would be 3,357 KSM, so the request is capped at 3,333 KSM (≈ 13,899 USD) and the difference is taken from the contingency line.
Beneficiary (Kusama Asset Hub): EMsUTbNpFuTUwa6ybNZLAtA9sT3Fi6PSPP2gF9BWFbHfyad
Duration: 26 weeks

Payouts (scheduled treasury spends; future payouts can be voided by governance)

#	When	KSM
1	On enactment	1,785.5357
2	~Week 10 (relay block 36,994,453, ≈ mid-January 2027)	714.2143
3	~Week 22 (relay block 38,204,053, ≈ mid-April 2027)	833.25

Phase 1 deliverables

Wallet ownership via message signing (Polkadot.js, Talisman, SubWallet, Nova)
Claim or veil: owners can mint a snapshot of their portrait on Kusama Asset Hub (no fee, no sale), or hide it from the public archive
Verified reflections
Public report on the results
Code under MIT, artwork under CC BY

How Phase 1 will be judged

Public counter and archive numbers reported at weeks 10 and 22, alongside the scheduled payouts
A written report at week 26: portraits generated, claims, veils, reflections, and what did not work
If adoption stays low, the report will say so plainly, and no follow-up proposal will be made without new evidence

Current state (honest numbers): 23 portraits generated since 16 October 2026 (the counter counts portraits, not people, and includes one of my own test renders). The archive includes my own portrait.

Why KSM: the Kusama treasury currently holds only a negligible amount of DOT, so the request is denominated in KSM.

Why Kusama: portraits read both Kusama and Polkadot activity, because many identities span both networks, but the experiment itself (claim or veil, snapshot mints, public archive) runs on Kusama Asset Hub.

Edited

PSEUDONYM (project)

PSEUDONYM is a project that turns Kusama and Polkadot wallet addresses into made-up pictures (portraits). It only uses information that is already public on the blockchain.

What it wants

It asks for 3,333 KSM from the Kusama treasury.
The money pays for work already done and for "Phase 1," a test to see if people want to show, keep, or hide their on-chain portrait.
The project would last 26 weeks.

What Phase 1 will do

Let people prove they own a wallet by signing a message with apps like Polkadot.js, Talisman, SubWallet, and Nova.
Let owners "claim" a copy of their portrait on Kusama Asset Hub (free, not for sale) or "veil" it so it is hidden from the public archive.
Add verified reflections.
Publish a public report on the results.
Share the code (MIT) and the artwork (CC BY).

How it will be judged

Numbers will be shared at weeks 10 and 22 along with payments.
A written report at week 26 will honestly say what worked and what didn't. If few people use it, the report will say so, and no new proposal will be made without new evidence.

Current state (honest numbers)

23 portraits have been made since 16 October 2026.
The counter counts portraits, not people, and includes one test picture by the creator.

Why KSM and Kusama

The Kusama treasury has almost no DOT, so the request is in KSM.
Portraits look at both Kusama and Polkadot activity, but the test itself runs on Kusama Asset Hub.

Source