Polkadot Updates

🔴 ⭕️ Relay Chain

• ⚠️ New upgrade for relay chain nodes to v0.9.8. This release introduces a new host function, which will be a breaking change once the corresponding runtime is enacted. If you do not upgrade your nodes before the next runtime upgrade, your node will be unable to sync. The corresponding runtime upgrade for Polkadot is targeted for after Kusama’s upgrade on Monday, July 19. Please plan accordingly.

• Parity prepared a survey for node operators to improve ease of use and security.

🔴 🏛 Governance

🧐 Nothing to see here

Kusama Updates ₑₓₚₑcₜ cₕₐₒₛ

🦅 ⭕️ Relay Chain

• ⚠️ New upgrade for relay chain nodes to v0.9.8. This release introduces a new host function, which will be a breaking change once the corresponding runtime is enacted. If you do not upgrade your nodes before the next runtime upgrade, your node will be unable to sync. The corresponding runtime upgrade for Kusama is targeted for roughly Monday, July 19, with the corresponding Polkadot runtime upgrade happening at some point after that. Please plan accordingly.

* Khala Network wins the fifth parachain slot with over 132,280 KSM locked by 2,759 addresses.

🦅 🏛 Governance

• Motion 326 is now up for vote: the treasury proposal by Helikon aims to develop Subvalt, a native mobile application that provides node operators with tools to help them run their validators on any Substrate-based blockchain network. It includes configurable notifications about the on and off-chain events, node monitoring features, and validator performance reports. 
• Motion 327 to open the 5th parachain auction slot was approved and the auction has begun.
• Motion 325 to fix the Moonriver parachains runtime upgrade issue has passed as Referendum 124.
• Motion 324 funded DotScanner’s next milestones.
• Motion 328 is now up for vote: requesting Council members to authorize the minting of three classes of NFTs on Statemine for a campaign commemorating the launch of parachains on Kusama.

⛓ Parachains, dApps, and others

• Moonriver (2nd Parachain auction winner) stopped producing blocks on Friday 9th July after a runtime upgrade threw its Collator nodes out of sync with the Relay Chain nodes. An explanation of what happened has been released by Moonriver, while Acala Co-founder, Bryan Chen has helped with a technical analysis of the issue. As of this writing, the issue has been resolved through the help of on-chain governance.
• SubQuery announces the launch of their ambassador program.
• Litentry announced a partnership with MathChain to jointly explore more possibilities in the adoption of Decentralized Identity (DID) in DeFi and cross-chain markets.
• Kilt Protocol has decided to shift from a Nominated Proof of Stake (NPos) network to Limited Delegated Proof of Stake (LDPos), “in order to adopt a mechanism that better supports KILT in the long term.”
• Moonriver became the first parachain to hand over block production to a decentralized collator set thanks to their custom staking pallet. In the coming weeks, community-run collators will take over block production for the network.
• Litentry released a new article explaining their technical architecture in detail.

🌎 Ecosystem

• Acala Network hosted a Defi & Polkadot meetup in Chicago. Some videos from the event have been uploaded to their youtube channel. Here is a panel with DeFi Alliance, Cumberland, and CoinFund, and here is a video of Dan Reecer, Acala’s VP of growth, offering an introduction to Polkadot, Kusama, and Acala.
• The max funding limit for Web3 Foundation general grants has been removed.
• The Polkadot wiki has been updated with a new tutorial showing users how to use Ledger Devices with Statemine.
• Astar Network (previously Plasm) received a new Web3 Open Grant to implement a Zk Plonk pallet for Substrate. The plonk will be a core technology in terms of scaling and privacy solutions.
• A new article by Harry Alford on Cointelegraph explaining how Polkadot has built a Web 3.0 version of Y Combinator for projects joining the ecosystem.
• Introducing Parachains Info, a Polkadot & Kusama ecosystem projects directory with projects comparison table (investors, GitHub activity, and more), auctions & crowdloan information, news, and events. Users can even create a watchlist of their favorite projects to keep tabs on.
• The Encode Polkadot Club, a nine-month program funded by the Polkadot Treasury was launched last week. The program consists of a series of educational events about Polkadot, a hackathon, and a dedicated accelerator.
• Art installation in Vancouver BC, Canada is using the RMRK NFT platform on Kusama to deliver a physical art experience. Funded 100% by the Kusama Treasury, it includes a historical journey through the 20 most prominent events from the Kusama network on the first year from genesis.
• Sub0 returns this fall! The Parity-run developer conference is online again this year.

⚙Core Stack

* A new DoS protection method has been added into Substrate, checking when a validator or collator is too slow to send a collation. This timeout will then select another member of the network instead.

• Proposing a motion will no longer auto-vote “aye” on it.

🛠 Tools

• You can now build Polkadot JS Extension with all dependencies as a single browser bundle in a new experimental feature. This lets you have much lighter dapps with no NodeJS dependencies!
• Polkadot JS Apps UI is getting Metamask support!
• Polkadot JS API now has a built-in feature to use rollup to build a completely standalone browser bundle!
• Cross-communication from Polkadot JS Extension to Metamask is being worked on!
• Substrate API Sidecar 8.0.3 is out with some updates for Polkadot API breaking changes from v 5.0.1 and other low priority upgrades.
• Polkadot JS API 5.0.1 is out. Breaking change: @polkadot/metadata package has been removed, adjust imports to @polkadot/types.Important: Internally, rxjs has been upgraded to the 7.0 version, affecting users of the ApiRx interface.
• Polkadot JS Extension 0.39 is out, following the breaking changes of 5.0.1 above, and adding the ability to compile and export a standalone browser bundle.

👷‍♂️ Jobs in Web 3.0

Want your ad here? Email the editor.

• RMRK is looking for an Artist Advocate [remote], Community Manager [remote], Marketing Master [remote], Rust developers [remote]. Interested? Email us.
• Phala Network is hiring for Developer Advocate, Rust Blockchain Engineer, and a Community Manager.
• Acala Network is looking for a Senior Solidity Engineer, Full-Stack Engineer, Senior Substrate Developer, Software Engineer, Growth Marketing Officer, and a lot more. You can find out all the available roles and apply here.

That's it for this week - I hope this was as useful for you to read as it was for us to write!

The Dot Leap is put together by Bruno Škvorc and gbaci.

Got any links for Bruno for the next edition? Find me on Riot at @bruno:web3.foundation, on Twitter, or via email at [email protected].