Polkadot Q3 2023 Development Overview

In the third quarter of 2023, the Polkadot ecosystem continued to show strong growth, with significant improvements in several key metrics. Staking, on-chain activities, and the number of independent accounts all achieved considerable growth, while development activity remained high.

Five new parallel chain teams have successfully obtained slots, covering diverse Web3 application scenarios such as DAO, metaverse, Internet of Things, and sustainable energy. In addition, some important technical upgrades, such as agile core time and asynchronous support, are also being gradually advanced.

Data Growth Highlights

The staking indicator performs outstandingly. The total amount of staked DOT has increased from 578 million in the previous quarter to 663 million, accounting for nearly 49% of the total supply, approaching the ideal staking rate of 52.5%.

The nomination pool has also made significant progress. Since its launch in November 2022, it has attracted 15,281 members and staked over 7 million DOT by the end of the third quarter.

The growth of two key indicators is particularly noteworthy:

1. On-chain event count: Covers all recordable events on parallel chains, including transfers, governance participation, staking, and smart contract execution. It has been continuously growing since March, reaching 190 million times in September, more than doubling compared to December 2022.

2. Number of independent accounts: reached a new high in September, approaching 4.3 million, an increase of 10% compared to the previous quarter and an increase of 16% compared to the beginning of the year.

Development activities remain active, with GitHub submissions exceeding 49,000 times for two consecutive quarters, maintaining a leading position among Web3 projects.

Cross-chain activities have also seen significant growth, with XCM message sending volume increasing by 20% quarter-over-quarter.

Ecosystem Expansion

The newly added parallel chain projects include:

1. peaq: Committed to building a decentralized physical infrastructure network.
2. Bit.Country: A platform where users can quickly create and customize their own metaverse.
3. InvArch: Providing multi-chain DAO infrastructure for the Polkadot ecosystem.
4. Energy Web: Leveraging Web3 technology to help large enterprises accelerate carbon reduction.
5. Nodle: A low-energy Bluetooth-based IoT connectivity solution.

In addition, the Astar Network successfully renewed its parachain slot, ensuring its long-term development within the ecosystem.

Technical Progress

The decentralized technology consulting agency Fellowship of Polkadot has approved the development of a dedicated system chain for purchasing and 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 development of asynchronous support has also made progress, and it is expected to bring an eightfold increase in scalability for Polkadot, with a launch anticipated first on the Rococo testnet. In the long term, these upgrades are expected to enable Polkadot to support over 1,000 parallel chains and a transaction processing capacity of over 1 million transactions per second.

Other Important Developments

• Native USDC is about to enter the Polkadot ecosystem and will be usable across all parachains and dapps.
• Zodia Custody announces the provision of institutional-grade custody and staking services on Polkadot.
• Banxa is working hard to achieve comprehensive ecosystem integration with Polkadot, providing users with multiple payment options.
• Snowbridge (the bridge to Ethereum) is expected to launch on Kusama.
• Zondax has launched a new Polkadot Ledger app that supports any parachain in the network.
• OpenZeppelin has completed its first batch of work, simplifying the development of Polkadot's native ink! smart contracts.
• The third session of the Polkadot Blockchain Academy successfully concluded at the University of California, Berkeley, with new courses aimed at entrepreneurs.