Polkadot Q3 2023 Development Report

In the third quarter of 2023, the Polkadot ecosystem showed comprehensive growth, with several key indicators significantly improving. Staking, on-chain activities, and the number of independent accounts all saw substantial increases, while GitHub development activity remained high.

Five new parallel chain projects have successfully obtained slots, covering diversified Web3 application scenarios such as DAO, metaverse, Internet of Things, and sustainable energy. In addition, some important technological upgrades, such as agile core time and asynchronous support, are gradually approaching maturity.

Data Growth Situation

In terms of staking, the total amount staked increased from 578 million DOT to 663 million DOT, accounting for 49% of the total supply, close to the ideal staking rate of 52.5%. The nomination pool has developed rapidly since its launch in November 2022, with 15,281 members at the end of the third quarter, staking over 7 million DOT.

The number of on-chain events continues to rise, reaching 190 million in September, more than doubling compared to December 2022. The number of independent accounts also hit a new high, approaching 4.3 million, an increase of 16% since the beginning of the year.

Development activities maintain strong momentum, with GitHub commits exceeding 49,000 for two consecutive quarters, continuing to lead other Web3 projects. The cross-chain message (XCM) saw a 20% month-on-month increase in sending volume, reflecting the continuous enhancement of interoperability within the ecosystem.

Ecosystem Expansion

The newly added parallel chain projects include:

1. peaq: Committed to building a decentralized physical infrastructure network.
2. Bit.Country: Users can quickly create their own metaverse.
3. InvArch: Provides multi-chain DAO infrastructure for the Polkadot ecosystem.
4. Energy Web: Utilizing Web3 technology to assist large enterprises in accelerating carbon reduction.
5. Nodle: A low-energy Bluetooth-based IoT connectivity service provider.

At the same time, Astar Network has renewed its parachain slot to ensure long-term development.

Technology Upgrade Progress

The decentralized technology consulting organization Fellowship has approved the development of a dedicated system chain for trading future block space. This is an important step in the "Agile Core Time" upgrade, aimed at providing Web3 projects with a more flexible way to access computing resources.

The asynchronous support upgrade has also made significant progress, which is expected to enhance Polkadot's scalability by 8 times. This upgrade is about to go live on the Rococo testnet and is expected to enable Polkadot to support over 1000 parallel chains and more than 1 million transactions per second in the future.

Important Events in the Third Quarter

• Native USDC is about to enter the Polkadot ecosystem.
• Zodia Custody announced the provision of institutional custody and staking services on Polkadot.
• Banxa is working hard to achieve full ecosystem integration with Polkadot.
• Snowbridge is expected to launch on Kusama later this year.
• Zondax has launched a new Polkadot Ledger application that supports any parachain in the network.
• OpenZeppelin has completed the first batch of work, simplifying the development of Polkadot's native ink! smart contracts.
• The third session of the Polkadot Blockchain Academy has successfully concluded at the University of California, Berkeley, with the addition of a founder training course.

Overall, Polkadot exhibited strong development momentum in the third quarter of 2023, with technological upgrades and ecological expansion working in tandem to lay the foundation for large-scale Web3 applications in the future.