Polkadot Weekly Report | Polkadot Hub launches user growth plan! Hydration TVL surpasses $250 millions!

Polkadot

There is still one Core available for sale in the current Polkadot network! At the time of writing, only 7 hours remain until its official bidding phase! If you want to own a Polkadot Core, seize the opportunity! But a small tip: the starting price for this core is 9225.79 DOT, and the auction ends on July 26!

Recently, the community has started discussing the issue of reducing DOT inflation again! Last year, Polkadot already reduced the inflation rate from 10% to 8%. Some were worried that stakers would exit and the staking rate would collapse. But in reality, this did not happen—the current staking rate remains stable at 50%. So, is it time to further reduce the inflation rate to 6% to lay a more solid foundation for DOT’s long-term value? Share your thoughts!

In a recent interview, Gavin Wood stated that Ethereum was "forced" to become a rollup hosting chain, while Polkadot was built for this purpose from the start. A clear difference is that rollups within Polkadot can freely exchange value and information, whereas rollups in Ethereum face liquidity fragmentation issues. This leads to L2s extracting value from L1 in the Ethereum ecosystem! Learn more here.

When Gavin Wood stepped down as Parity CEO, many thought he had "left" Polkadot. Of course, that's not the case! For him, this was an opportunity to become even more deeply involved in Polkadot!

Gavin said: "I am better at architecting systems than managing companies. Creating the Fellowship allowed me to return to this network I designed with my own hands, as a 'Polkadot Architect.'"

This is a decentralized transition, and also a continuation of responsibility.

"It's a bit like personally experiencing the system I designed myself, which is great for me and for Polkadot!"

"Because when Parity became the key force of Polkadot, it was both a pillar and a risk. I left the CEO position to reduce this critical risk, so that Polkadot could more purely become itself!"

Learn more in PolkaWorld’s latest article

Polkadot Hub officially launches its user growth plan! From DeFi to innovative applications, from developer tools to marketing, everything revolves around one goal: to make Polkadot Hub the most user-friendly Ethereum-compatible platform!

Parity and ecosystem partners have developed a three-stage growth strategy:

1. Ethereum Developers First: Create a seamless compatibility experience, making it feel like using L2. At the same time, introduce key infrastructure providers, such as custodians and liquidity providers, to lay a solid foundation for the ecosystem.

2. DeFi First: DeFi is the starting point for everything. Through Velocity Labs, launch the DeFi Builders Program to attract liquidity and developers. Parity believes DeFi is the foundation for other fields—only with strong DeFi can other applications thrive.

3. Innovation Phase Next Year: Focus on supporting innovative applications built on PolkaVM, such as smart contracts supporting JIT compilation and running cryptography-intensive algorithms. This phase will feature more PolkaVM-specific hackathons and developer events.

It looks like Polkadot Hub will soon launch another wave of liquidity incentive programs~~

What do you think of this growth plan?

DOT demand is heating up, and the ecosystem is pushing adoption on multiple fronts!

• Elastic Scaling is about to go live, which will improve the efficiency of the coretime market and help with coretime price discovery;
• Polkadot Hub will launch in a few months, bringing brand new use cases for DOT;
• The Gigahydration campaign is enhancing DOT market liquidity and economic activity;
• The DeFi Singularity plan will bring DOT into four chains of the Ethereum ecosystem;
• The JAM protocol will support a brand new on-chain programming model and use DOT as a payment method.

Polkadot is opening up a whole new growth curve! Let’s wait and see!

Major update! The PolkaVM smart contract preview is now live on Kusama! This is not another EVM clone, but a re-engineered next-generation Web3 contract engine: compatible with the Ethereum ecosystem, faster performance, more flexible architecture, and native integration of Polkadot’s multi-chain features! A black phoenix reborn from the canary.

Polkadot launches PolkaVM:

1. Supports Solidity, Hardhat, MetaMask—no need to change development habits

2. Does not rely on EVM, but uses the more efficient RISC-V architecture PolkaVM

3. Finality target of 30 seconds, block time target of 500 milliseconds—blazingly fast

4. Natively supports XCM cross-chain communication, staking governance, and future JAM integration

5. Supports smooth migration of contracts to independent parachains, building a full lifecycle path

Developers can now:

1. Deploy Solidity contracts to the testnet Paseo or Kusama

2. Get started directly with your familiar toolchain (Hardhat / MetaMask, etc.)

3. Submit feedback and co-create the experience:

In PolkaWorld’s latest article, learn about the major progress underway, what Polkadot’s smart contract platform is, how it differs from Ethereum contracts, what the experience is like, its relationship with Polkadot Hub, and more! This is definitely an article you can’t miss for a comprehensive understanding of PolkaVM smart contracts!

The Web3 Foundation's "Decentralized Node Support Program" Phase 3 is now open for applications! This program, launched by the Web3 Foundation, is dedicated to discovering and supporting validators with high technical capabilities, stable operation, and active participation in the ecosystem, promoting greater decentralization and security of the Polkadot network.

At the same time, through delegation, support, and incentives for those Polkadot validators who are stable, actively participate in governance, and have technical capabilities, to enhance network decentralization and diversity!

• Application deadline: July 31
• Announcement: August 25-29
• Delegation starts: September 10, for a period of 4 months
• Apply to join:

The Web3 Foundation has released its annual report! Announcing annual achievements and focusing on five key areas: education, governance, ecosystem grants, research, and network decentralization, comprehensively advancing the long-term development of Polkadot:

Education

• Polkadot Wiki has accumulated over 290,000 words and 5,000 contribution submissions
• EdX course registrations exceed 18,000, becoming the entry point for PBA
• Participated in 70+ global events (ETH Denver, Decoded, Hong Kong Polytechnic, NUS, etc.)

Governance

• Launched Decentralized Voices representative governance mechanism
• Delegated over 6 million DOT, influencing over 1/4 of referendum results, greatly improving transparency and representation

Ecosystem Grants

• Grants and Decentralized Futures programs run in parallel
• More than 50 projects funded, with committed funds reaching $30 million
• Representative projects: Distractive, Blockdeep Labs, etc.

Research

• Key participation in the development of core protocols such as JAM, Snowbridge, ELVES, PoP
• Multiple research papers published at top conferences such as EuroCrypt, AAAI
• Launched key cryptographic tools such as ring VRF, threshold signatures, and censorship-resistant designs

Validator Decentralization

• Launched the Decentralized Nodes Program
• Two batches selected a total of 249 Polkadot/Kusama nodes, improving network distribution and resilience

Web3 Summit returns strong in 2024

• Gathered 700+ tech pioneers, reigniting Berlin Funkhaus
• Gavin Wood and Richard Stallman shared the stage, discussing infrastructure and societal structural change

Looking ahead to 2025, the focus will be on three main directions:

• Launch Polkadot Hub and JAM, lowering the barrier to building
• Support BD and go-to-market strategies for the US market
• Expand developer grant programs to strengthen long-term ecosystem support

Additionally, the Open Source Developer Program will be launched. Governance experiments and research will be strengthened, such as OpenGov mechanism modeling and reducing validator computational load!

Full report:

Web3 Summit is two weeks away—are you ready? This year’s Web3 Summit is about to kick off, with an agenda covering everything from decentralized AI to staking as expression, from on-chain gaming to next-generation wallet primitives, and to real-world assets (RWA). The topics are exciting and not to be missed! Check out the full agenda and join us in welcoming the next wave of Web3 innovation:

Ecosystem Projects

At the time of writing, Hydration’s TVL has surpassed $250 million, making it one of the most active DeFi platforms in the Polkadot ecosystem. Lending, stablecoin trading, and liquidity aggregation are currently the main use cases. Daily trading volume reaches $33 million, with fee income of $5,574!

Additionally, Hydration’s founder Jakub tweeted that DeFi is the key to reversal! Liquidity is not a question of whether to do it, but whether to go all out!

Ethereum made a comeback in 2020 thanks to DeFi

Solana staged a "cinematic comeback" in 2023, also relying on DeFi

Now, multiple ecosystems, including Optimism and Arbitrum, are gaining institutional adoption by prioritizing DeFi, liquidity, and integration capabilities.

The trend is clear: startups and large enterprises will only choose ecosystems with strong liquidity, active users, and good system integration.

Want to start experiencing DeFi protocols on Polkadot but don’t know where to begin? We’ve selected three must-try projects for you:

1. Hydration: Global liquidity pool + cross-chain bridge + seamless integration with Nova wallet, an all-in-one DeFi operations platform!

2. Bifrost: Pioneer in liquid staking, allowing you to stake DOT while also playing with Ethereum and BNB Chain!

3. StellaSwap: A cross-chain DEX on Moonbeam, supporting bridging of major chain assets like ETH, SUI, Solana, and more!

Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned player, all three are worth a try!

Polana: Relaunching the Solana smart contract ecosystem on JAM!

From Ethereum’s yellow paper to JAM’s gray paper;

From SVM to PVM;

Having a sudden inspiration while eating pizza, and then directly "moving" Solana contracts to run on JAM.

No code changes, just change the RPC address, and Solana smart contracts can run indefinitely on JAM!

This is not about Solana compatibility, but about expanding Solana; not about migrating Solana tools to JAM, but about using JAM to help Solana evolve!

In the 67th PolkaWorld interview, Polana co-founder Boy Maas shared:

• How he went from coding in 1996 to building JAM today
• Why JAM is another technological paradigm shift after Ethereum
• How he is using continuous computation to reshape the future of DeFi

Learn more

PolkaVM multisig is here! The Mimir team has officially released the PolkaVM Alpha version, with multisig functionality going live first! You can now use a multisig tool similar to Gnosis Safe on Polkadot:

✅ Create / manage multisig

✅ Batch transfers + WalletConnect

✅ XCM, Staking, OpenGov modules coming soon!

This is not a simple "port" of EVM contracts, but a deep adaptation to Polkadot’s account model, cross-chain mechanism, and on-chain governance logic.

On Ethereum, Safe is the security infrastructure for DAOs and projects to manage assets; on Polkadot, Mimir is localizing it, building truly native, cross-chain, and secure asset and governance tools.