Polkadot Referendum Roundup Week 40: Decentralization

Introduction

• The Polkadot Referendum Roundup summarizes key governance activities in the Polkadot ecosystem during week 40 of 2023. Notable executed proposals include maintenance funding for PolkaWorld and charitable initiatives leveraging Polkadot from The Phunky One.

• We’ll also have a look at implications for staking rewards and share analysis on recently approved proposal.

Treasury Update

• The current treasury balance of 44.37M DOT represents a decrease of approximately 1.92% from the last week’s balance of 45.24M DOT.

Executed proposals

• Referenda #158: PolkaWorld proposes Ops and Maintenance proposal for October 2023 - March 2024 | 32,420 DOT | 2hrs 49mins ago.

• Referenda #155: The Phunky One proposes leveraging charitable giving in Web3 with Polkadot & Teddy DAO | 45,074 DOT | 2d 3hrs ago.

• Referenda #145: Subsquid Labs Official proposes Public data indexing Infrastructure for Polkadot and Kusama (Q2 2023) | 58.25K DOT | 5d ago.

• Referenda #141: Cim Topal | missing-link.io proposes increasing hiring success in Polkadot by Missing Link | 44,196 DOT | 2d 20hrs ago.

Rejected Proposals

• None this week

Current Proposals

Medium Spender Queue

• Referenda #185: OneBlock proposes Polkadot Hackathon 2023 Winter in HongKong | 90,540 DOT | 59mins 38s ago.

• Referenda #183: Polkassembly proposes Polkassembly Social Contract | Maintenance proposal Q3 & Q4’23 | 43,154 DOT | 1d ago.

• Referenda #181: Valletech proposes Polkawatch, Decentralization Analytics, Continued Operation and Development | 12,115 DOT | 2d 21hrs ago.

• Referenda #180: Polkascan Foundation/Wouter proposes Beyond Raw Data: How Polkascan Transforms Subsquid Aggregates into a User-Friendly Polkadot Experience | 16,955 DOT | 2d 22hrs ago.

• Referenda #178: DotLeap Editor proposes Dot Leap 2: Let's grow! | 37,851 DOT | 4d ago.

• Referenda #177: AJUNA NETWORK proposes Polkadot Unity SDK proposal to become a Verified Solution (Part 1) | 42,685 DOT | 4d ago.

• Referenda #175: ✨👍✨ Day7 ✨👍✨ proposes SubQuery <> Nova Wallet Common API: Maintenance Cost For Q1-Q2 2023 | 11.18K DOT | 5d ago.

• Referenda #172: OpenSquare proposes infrastructure products maintenance(2023 Q2 and Q3) and a new batch of features development | 67,438 DOT | 6d ago.

• Referenda #165: MOTIF.NETWORK proposes Polkadot Nominator Insight Hub. Spreading the Best Nominator Strategies through TOP Nomination Leaderboards | 32,480 DOT | 9d ago.

• Referenda #163: Zhixi Interlay proposes Polkadot Parachain Assets Onramp Bounty Program | Medium Spender | 11d ago.

• Referenda #162: JKRB | Tower Bridge 🇬🇧 proposes Polkadot Live: Proposal for funding community-driven development to initial release | 24,937 DOT | 11d ago.

• Referenda #160: Web3 Education and Investment proposes AIWeb3 Chinese Unit proposal (爱Web3 中文社区提案) - September, 2023 - March, 2024 | 16,231 DOT | 15d ago.

• Referenda #159: frankywild proposes Moderation Team Bounty Curator Proposal | Medium Spender | 16d ago.

• Referenda #154: PARACHAINS.INFO proposes retroactive and future maintenance/development of Parachains.info | 22,400 DOT | 19d ago.

• Referenda #153: Brushfam proposes ink! OpenBrush 8-9, 11 milestone delivery | 14.83K DOT | 21d ago.

• Referenda #148: NotifiNetwork2023 proposes Notifi - Communication & Notification Tooling for Polkadot's Broader Ecosystem V2 Proposal | 35.01K DOT | 24d ago.

• Referenda #147: NotifiNetwork2023 proposes Ignore / Nay (Duplicate Ref) | Medium Spender | 25d ago.

Big Spender Queue

• Referenda #179: FINOPS_PBA_TIM proposes Polkadot Blockchain Academy - retroactive funding for wave 3 of the Academy held at UC Berkeley this Summer | 255.84K DOT | 3d ago.

• Referenda #161: Matjaz ⧓ proposes Apillon Platform Milestone 1 Proposal | 171.45K DOT | 11d ago.

• Referenda #157: Tobias Airdrop.com proposes to increase DOT media visibility through media buying and airdrop campaign | 247.06K DOT | 18d ago.

• Referenda #150: Agyle proposes a Bounty: The Genesis Incentive Pool | Big Spender | 20d ago.

• Referenda #146: kml proposes KAGOME – the C++ implementation of Polkadot Host milestone 2 | 253.86K DOT | 26d ago.

AAG Spotlight

• Agyle - The Genesis Incentive Pool
  Overview: Agyle discusses The Genesis Incentive Pool and expresses gratitude for the community's engagement. He shares his takeaways and outlines future steps.

• Alice und Bob - Shaping OpenGov
  Overview: Alice und Bob highlight Polkadot's promise, envisioning it as a vibrant community of developers and enthusiasts committed to crafting the Web3 infrastructure. Delving deeper into his latest proposal, Alice und Bob's primary aim is to accelerate the pace at which governance is being shaped and refined.

Discussion Digest

• Polkadot Events Bounty Curator Candidacy V2
  On 29th Sep '23, zoemc proposed an expansion of the Polkadot Events Bounty. Recognizing community feedback, zoemc suggests enhancing the review process's efficiency. This proposal highlights:

  • The introduction and selection of new events bounty curators.

  • An increase in the multisig from 3 to 5 bounty curators.

  • The addition of 3 new curators and 14 new community members to the bounty structure.

  • Establishment of more structured communication channels between bounty curators and the community.

• Polkadot Sanctuary - Retroactive Funding
  A recent proposal by six, submitted 2 days ago, brings attention to the dedicated efforts of Six and Gabo in the APAC region. They spotlight the creation of the Polkadot Sanctuary in Denpasar, Bali. This hub, central to the local community, epitomizes the advantages of a dedicated space for Polkadot. Importantly, six clarifies that the proposal seeks retroactive funding for their research and efforts from January onwards, rather than funds for the hub itself.

• Check out the whole thread by The Kusamarian from AAG stream for other interesting presentations.

Governance in Action

• Dolpha.com - Polkadot Analytics on Delegate Vote Records
  Overview: The Dolpha recently reported an interesting development in Polkadot's delegate voting dynamics. In a recent vote, Delegate 🍺 Gav 🥃 surpassed Delegate Ivy's previous record for the highest number of votes from a delegate on a referendum.
  
  Gav's contribution reached a whopping 18M votes on referenda #158, overtaking Ivy's previous record of 16.5M votes on referenda #147. However, a notable distinction is that all of Gav's votes originated from a single address, while Delegate Ivy's votes were distributed across 25 different delegator addresses.

• Bill Laboon on Referenda 166
  Overview: Bill Laboon, Head of Education and Grants at W3F clarified the intricacies of referenda #166, which pertains to Polkadot's staking rates. Polkadot's inflation is steady at ~10% annually, but staking rewards fluctuate based on the staking rate and its relation to the "ideal" rate. Ref 166 introduces an algorithm adjusting this ideal rate, considering recent parachain auctions and expected transitions from long-locked DOTs. The result could change staking rewards for nominators, dependent on the percentage of DOT staked.
  

Closing Thoughts

• In this week's roundup, Bill Laboon's clarification on referendum #166 underscored the nuances in Polkadot's staking rate adjustments and their potential impact on rewards. We also saw the continuing evolution of delegate voting patterns, with large but concentrated votes emerging as a new dynamic. Discussions like these highlight the ever-present need to educate and inform token holders on governance mechanics.

• As the system continues maturing, it's crucial that the community stays engaged, whether participating directly or delegating judiciously. The Polkadot Referendum Roundup aims to keep you updated on key developments as we collectively shape the future of the network.

Would you like to go deeper into Polkadot beyond just OpenGov? Check out We3kly Web3 R3cap to stay up to date on all things Polkadot.