Weekly news from Kusama & Polkadot #53
1. Ajuna Network has won the 31st parachain auction on Polkadot
Ajuna Network recently won the 31st auction on the Polkadot network by raising ~87k DOT worth ~$603k from 711 contributors. Ajuna Network was leading the auction all the time, so there was no surprise this project would get the slot.
The Ajuna project’s long-term goal is to create a decentralized, open gaming ecosystem that allows virtual goods trading.
This will imply that users can continue to enjoy their favorite game, own and control virtual products associated with it, and trade them in a decentralized manner wherever an active community of willing gamers exists. Ajuna wants to revolutionize the blockchain gaming industry.
Polkadotters recently has the Ajuna team in the AMA on Twitter Spaces, which you can listen to from the recording.
https://twitter.com/i/spaces/1YqxoAPXpggGv
2. Crab Network won auction #59 on Kusama by self-funding 11 KSM
Could you ever imagine, that there is the possibility to win a parachain slot with $400 worth of $KSM tokens? Yeah, the time has now come! Crab Network, which is a canary network of Darwinia, just won the recent parachain auction on Kusama by self-funding a parachains slot by the lowest amount ever. 11 $KSM worth ~$400 was enough for Crab to secure the parachain slot!
Compared to Karura, which needed 501k $KSM (worth ~$18M with today's prices), the amount of 11 $KSM sounds kinda ridiculous. By simple math, you’ll find out, that the 1st slot on Karura was 45 558x much more expensive that the 59th slot. Consider also that Crab got its second slot, cause they already won auction #22.
Darwinia Crab is a decentralized bridge project that aims to bridge projects built on various blockchains such as Ethereum, Tron, BSC, and others into the Kusama ecosystem. Crab is the first cross-chain bridge with EVM compatibility (Ethereum Virtual Machine) that natively supports DeFi dApps and NFT.
3. Nomination pools are live — stake natively with just 1 $DOT
Nomination pools are now live on Polkadot after testing its functionality on Kusama. From last week, users are able to stake and obtain staking rewards by using nomination pools with a minimum of 1 DOT.
Nomination pools are made to function as a single nominator account and to permit members to pool their tokens without requesting authorization. With their usage, the time and effort required to participate in the nomination process is reduced, because the pool’s creator controls nominations on the members’ behalf.
Nomination pools removed the theoretical user cap on the system, enabling a growing number of nominators to practically indefinitely. This makes native staking more accessible to individuals with less DOT necessary to stake directly on the relay chain. Actually, users need as low as 1 DOT to join the pool, which is a huge step to wider adoption.
For more information about nomination pools follow our recent article called The power of nomination pools on Polkadot.
4. Polkadot’s native token DOT is software, not a security
Polkadot’s native token $DOT had morphed and is software, rather than a security.
After 3 years of proactive engagement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (aka SEC), Web3Foundation last week announced a huge step towards the achievement of Web 3.0, a decentralized, trustless, serverless internet.
“In the meantime, we mark three years since the date of our initial outreach to FinHub and nearly one year since the completion of the Polkadot launch process, which includes a truly decentralized governance mechanism and on-chain treasury. Consistent with the views that we have shared with the SEC staff, we are pleased to announce that DOT, the native digital asset of the Polkadot blockchain, has morphed. In our view, current day offers and sales of DOT are not securities transactions, and DOT is not a security. It is merely software.”
stated Daniel Schoenberger, Chief Legal Officer at Web3 Foundation in the announcement
5. Mangata X had another liquidity bootstrapping event for IMBU/MGX LP
$IMBU is coming to #MangataX. The Liquidity Bootstrapping event started on November 7th and will run for 3 more days. Mangata X users and the Imbue community will be able to join the bootstrap by providing IMBU or MGX.
Before this LBP, Mangata X listed $IMBU, the native token of the Imbue Network. Imbue is aiming to provide decentralized crowdfunding services in the Polkadot ecosystem as an alternative to centralized crowdfunding platforms such as Kickstarter or Indiegogo. Imbue aims to create a platform that solves fundamental problems in launching crypto projects, such as the lack of transparency and further accountability.
This LBP event is another of its kind, while Mangata X recently presented the previous one for the TUR/MGX liquidity pool. TUR is from that moment tradable on the Mangata X decentralized exchange.
6. DOTBrno announced the last speaker: Todd Norton from Manta Network
The 8th and also the last announced speaker of the DOTBrno conference is Todd Norton, lead developer from Manta Network. His talk will be focused on privacy and the topic is “SNARKs, ZKPs, and other things the NSA doesn’t want you to know about”.
Besides that, the DOTBrno organizing team announced the topic of the panel discussion, which will be “Smart contracts vs Parachains”. The participants will be revealed within a couple of hours, so stay tuned on the official Twitter account of DOTBrno.
There are just 3 days to the start of this one-day Polkadot conference. There are still a few tickets, but you need to reserve your spot by using the Eventbrite app via the link down below:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/dotbrno-polkadot-conference-in-brno-czech-republic-tickets-428553835057
7. Pendulum introduced the Stellar Oracle
Pendulum recently introduced the Stellar Oracle. It's an innovative piece of infrastructure, which brings the project closer to the vision of a truly decentralized Spacewalk bridge. Spacewalk bridge is the trust-minimized bridge between Stellar and Polkadot.
The main issue here is bridging a token between two blockchains, which requires concerted actions on both chains, namely burning tokens on one side and minting tokens on the other side, simultaneously. Because a blockchain can usually only see its own state, every bridge then requires a reliable mechanism to exchange information between chains.
In order to create a system that can accurately confirm whether a transaction was carried out on the Stellar network, the Stellar Oracle makes use of unique characteristics of the Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP). In actuality, this allows third parties to demonstrate to any Substrate chain that a specific transaction was incorporated into a Stellar completed block.
To be able to act on this knowledge, the bridging blockchain must be as certain as feasible that a Stellar transaction was carried out (e.g. by minting or burning tokens).
Popular blockchain Stellar focuses on fiat money. It aspires to enable low-cost transactions and borderless global payments with a market cap of more than 2.8 billion USD. Because Stellar provides a wide variety of fiat-backed stablecoins that can add significant value to the DotSama ecosystem, Pendulum underlines how important it is for them and for Polkadot as well.
Consider supporting us by nominating your tokens to the Kusama or Polkadot validator going by the POLKADOTTERS name.
