Gavin Wood gloves off 🥊
Yahoo Finance DOT prediction, GIGADOT launched, Polka-VM now on Asset Hub testnet, and more.
🐂 boolish - top news
Gavin Wood was on the Empire podcast.
Yahoo Finance ran a piece titled Prediction: Polkadot Will Soar Over the Next 5 Years. Here's Why.
Polkadot representatives were in meetings with Florida lawmakers.
Easy A’s Polkadot hackathon in London was 4x oversubscribed.
Pop (a development platform that makes it easier for developers to build on Polkadot) announced a 4x spike in the number of installations of its CLI tool.
Polka-VM is now live on AssetHub Westend testnet.
Polkadot Blockchain Academy is partnering with HSLU to integrate Polkadot learning programs into higher education.
Hydration launched GIGADOT: a single token that gives you exposure to four yield sources: staking, lending, LP fees, and liquidity incentives. The initial cap of 2,222,222 GDOT was filled in less than 36 hours.
Cyberpunk Labs, the team behind Robonomics, is requesting 618K USDT to develop a Polkadot Humanoid Robot SDK.
Their mission is to establish a framework that enables secure, autonomous, and trustless machine interactions, leveraging the Polkadot cloud to foster resilient advancement of robotics. This will cover advanced robotics research with AI testing, developer engagement, open-source documentation, demos, onboarding support, and more.
Polkadot will have a side event during Token2049 in Dubai.
The Amazon Cloud team saw a synergy between Amazon Neptune (their tool for storing and querying real-world data as graphs) and Origin Trail (a parachain that turns these graphs into a trusted network).
The JAM graypaper has been translated into Chinese.
⭕️ ecosystem
Aventus releases its Company Report, covering key items like its 2.0 Upgrade, real-world enterprise adoption, improved tokenomics, and more.
Astar Foundation proposed the formation of the Astar Finance Committee, transferring control of funds to the new body.
Hydration is the top Polkadot rollup by RPC requests.
Native ETH bridging is now live on Turtle app.
DOT Play announced a partnership with Evrloot (browser-based dark fantasy RPG built on Moonbeam).
Evrloot season 2 is live. Check out this video to recap what happened in season 1 and how to earn marks.
InvArch founder, Dakota, released a heartfelt message to the community announcing that protocol development will slow down.
Integritee has integrated EURC into its Incognitee dApp, allowing private transactions.
OpenGov.Watch published an update to the OpenGov monitoring sheet.
SubWallet's latest update adds support for new tokens and networks including DOT on Polimec and Snowbridge MYTH on Asset Hub.
Xcavate (who secured funding through Polimec’s decentralized funding platform) launched its mainnet live on Polkadot.
Upon feedback from the first release of rewards for Polkadot yappers, the Polkadot Marketing Bounty will adjust to a fairer spread of awards to entice the best mindshare.
Various teams released new development reports: Moonbeam, Aventus.
💰 opportunities
You can win $100 through the new Polkadot challenges on the EasyA app.
Entropretty’s algorithmic tattoo design competition continues in Saarbrücken, Germany, from April 18th to 21st.
Web3 Foundation is hiring for several positions, including Support Specialist, Growth Operations Manager, Research Scientist Intern, and Investor Relations Manager.
🏛️ governance
For more information on Polkadot governance statistics, check out the Polkadot Dune governance dashboard.
🕓 confirming
Ref 1504: Funding PolkaBiz for business mentorship and ecosystem support for 2025
👍🏾 passing
Ref 1501: Converting 5,001,000 DOT into USDC and USDT
Ref 1513: Ratify payout for Talisman Mobile Wallet approved by Ref 1390
Ref 1516: Further funding for the Infrastructure Builders Program
Ref 1522: Funding the operation and maintenance of Polkaworld
Ref 1528: Upgrading the Polkadot Bridge Hub runtime to 1.4.3
Ref 1529: Setting Snowbridge-wrapped USDC & USDT as sufficient assets, their ED to $0.01, and their metadata on Asset Hub
👎🏾 failing
Ref 1500: Sponsoring Frank Porté for the Porsche Supercup and Porsche Benelux
Ref 1505: Funding SportStake to support DOT staking for sports club donations
Ref 1509: Funding Ajuna for development of the Substrate Asset Game Engine
Ref 1514: Polkadot x MotoGP Partnership & Integration Proposal
Ref 1517: Funding the production of Guestlist+1 live panel podcast series
Ref 1518: Retroactively funding Integritee for developing Incognitee
Ref 1523: Funding development of the Polkadot Humanoid SDK at Cyberpunk Labs
Ref 1526: Retroactively funding Subsquid for indexing infrastructure
Ref 1530: Rewarding Amfroc for their work on The Spammening
Ref 1531: Funding the Polkadot Ecology Research Institute
Ref 1533: Funding a meta-proposal combining 7 initiatives to strengthen the Polkadot Hivemind and enhance outward-facing projects
✅ approved
Ref 1465: OpenZeppelin Support for Polkadot Hub and Polkadot Cloud in 2025
Ref 1485: Funding for Public RPC Providers via Bounty 31
Ref 1487: Topping up the Paseo developer testnet bounty
Ref 1492: Funding OpenGuild to accelerate Polkadot builder activating in Asia
Ref 1497: Funding Polkadot Blockchain Academy for 9 months
Ref 1502: Reimbursing accounts affected by Polkadot runtime upgrade to v1.1.2
Ref 1503: Funding the development of an MVP integration for MinIO to be run in Acurast’s decentralized compute environment
Ref 1510: Setting Snowbridge-wrapped USDC & USDT as sufficient assets with an existential deposit of $0.01 on Asset Hub
Ref 509: Opening a request-for-proposal for Shielded Kusama Hub transfers at $50,000. To apply for the prize, fill out this form
Ref 511: proposing to increase the max_validators parameters from 600 to 700
Ref 512: proposing to adjust the ideal bulk proportion for Kusama coretime sales
❌ rejected
Ref 1499: Retroactively funding Bounty Manager V2
📺 what to watch and listen to
Tips and best practices for Encode hackathon by Polkadot Africa.
Polkadot Scalability Hackathon Workshop: Solidity Smart Contracts on Polkadot Hub by Encode Club.
Overview of Chrawnna Corps’ activities for Q2 2025 by The Kus.
Attempts at Governance #223, #224, and Friday DOT News Pump (weekly news update) by The Kus.
📖 what to read
Polkadot Digest pt. 8 by Polkadot Editorial Team.
Security isn’t optional: What builders are factoring into chain choice by Polkadot blog.
Why on Polkadot + JAM, the 6-second block finality time literally doesn’t matter at all by JAMman.
the nine laws of god: why Polkadot is the only blockchain that gets it by gbaci.
📅 events
Gavin Wood is taking JAM to Protocol Berg in Berlin (June 12-13).
Erin from Parity will lead a workshop on building test infrastructure from the ground up at Protocol Berg in Berlin.
Polkadot is hosting a mini-summit in New York on April 25.
Thank you for taking the Dot Leap!