Polkadot Update: Q1 2023
Polkadot has enjoyed a spectacular start to 2023, with a range of eye-catching partnerships coming to fruition and development activity breaking all-time records. In March, 19,090 developer contributions were tracked on GitHub repositories, a record for a single month for any network.
Messari, a leading provider of crypto market intelligence, released its own Q1 State of Polkadot report, noting: “Polkadot's future looks promising, with a loaded roadmap featuring XCM V3, OpenGov, system parachains, asynchronous backing, and parathreads. Given its large and committed developer community, Polkadot is expected to deliver innovative products throughout 2023.”
One story that attracted considerable media attention involved Beatport - the global leader in electronic music for DJs, producers, and their fans - launching a digital collectible marketplace on Polkadot parachain Aventus.
In addition to launching the new marketplace, Beatport will collaborate on 10 major Polkadot events over the next 18 months. Each event will celebrate the launch of a new NFT collection accessible via Polkadot-integrated wallets and will be scheduled alongside major music and Web3 events.
Aventus was not the only parachain getting involved in the burgeoning Web3 music space. KILT announced a collaboration with Public Pressure to issue identity credentials on NFT collections, helping artists add certificates of authenticity, and DJs to verify that individual songs are part of their playlist, building the identity of the assets.
KILT and Moonsama also joined forces to help launch the first NFT drop organized by Public Pressure and fashion giant Diesel, which sold out in just four hours.
Another big fashion story for the ecosystem came when Unique Network partnered with DUNDAS, a designer clothing brand known for pairing fashion with modern technology and dressing celebrities such as Beyonce, Reese Witherspoon, and Olivia Wilde.
DUNDAS provided Proof of Attendance tokens to 340 guests at Paris Fashion Week, minted on Unique Network's carbon-neutral advanced NFT infrastructure.
Astar Network announced in January it was entering into a long-term strategic collaboration with Toyota Motor Corporation, beginning with co-sponsorship of a hackathon. This was followed by their launch of a Web3 incubation program in conjunction with another mega brand, Sony Network Communications, which runs until mid-June. More recently, Astar announced a partnership with Shibuya - Tokyo’s “Silicon Valley” - to host Web3-focused events, including educational programs and hackathons.
By the end of Q1, a host of new parachains had won fresh auction slots, with a total of 42 having launched or won an auction on Polkadot. The new slot winners include two, Zeitgeist and Subsocial, who successfully migrated their projects from Kusama (Polkadot’s experimental “canary” network) to the Polkadot Relay Chain, following the path pioneered by KILT in October 2022.
New Revolut staking course, Academy to return
Revolut, the global financial platform with more than 27 million customers, launched a second Learn & Earn course with Polkadot, in which users are introduced to the mechanics of staking and the benefits of multichain interoperability. Revolut customers in Europe can collect DOT for completing the courses, and can then choose to stake those tokens directly in-app, getting the same rewards other staking participants receive for helping secure the Polkadot network.