Highlights of Polkadot Decoded 2023 Shanghai Satellite Event (I)
The annual Polkadot Ecosystem Conference, Polkadot Decoded 2023 Shanghai Satellite Event, was successfully held at Shanghai Hongqiao International Exhibition Center from July 15th to 16th. Industry experts, developers, investors, entrepreneurs, and teams participating in the Polkadot Hackathon 2023 Summer gathered in Shanghai for two days, including speeches and roundtable discussions. The guests focused on the current state and future trends of Polkadot ecosystem development, engaging in deep exchanges and sharing.
The conference received nearly 700 registrations, with over 500 attendees present. Now, let’s review the highlights of speeches on day 1 at Polkadot Decoded 2023 Shanghai Satellite Event!
Opening Speech & Substrate Asia Pacific Market Talent | Parity Technologies Helena
The conference began with an opening speech by Helena from Parity Technologies, titled “Opening Speech & Substrate Talent Overview in the Asia-Pacific Market.” Helena introduced key metrics from the Substrate ecosystem, including 3500+ active developers, 25+ Substrate courses, 280+ mature Substrate projects, 24+ ecosystem updates per month, 56+ online conferences, and 8+ Substrate ecosystem hackathons. Currently, Polkadot boasts the second-largest community of active developers, with a vibrant and engaged group. Among the top four cities in China with popular Substrate blockchain talent are Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Shanghai, and Beijing. Moving forward, we aim to provide more practical use cases for Rust beginners and XCM guidelines. We also plan to offer Substrate courses in languages beyond Chinese, such as English and Vietnamese, to support developers in various regions and contribute to ecosystem growth.
Roundtable Discussion: 2023 Polkadot Ecosystem Development and Opportunities
Next, “2023 Polkadot Ecosystem Development and Opportunities” roundtable discussion was led by Foresight News Chloe, IOSG Ray, AWS Lishu, PAKA Owen, and SevenX Yuxing. The guests discussed the impact of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lawsuit, which has drawn attention to regulatory concerns in the cryptocurrency industry. The SEC classified most L1 and major DeFi project tokens as securities, but the Web3 Foundation has declared that Polkadot blockchain’s native digital asset DOT is not considered a security but rather software. This illustrates that Polkadot is at the forefront of compliant development, providing a favorable environment for the growth of cryptocurrency projects.
The Polkadot ecosystem is flourishing with a plethora of parachains. The Polkadot ecosystem consists of multiple specialized and interconnected parallel chains, formed by independent platforms, communities, and economies, disrupting the traditional way networks connect. These parachains have already covered various tracks in the Web3 space, including but not limited to a smart contract parachain compatible with EVM Moonbeam, DeFi parachains Bifrost and Paralle, an NFT parachain Efinity, a privacy computing parachain Phala, a DID parachain Litentry, and many other innovative projects continuously building within the ecosystem. With the introduction of XCM protocol, cross-chain interoperability between parallel chains is constantly evolving, which will collectively boost the future of the multi-chain Polkadot ecosystem.
Dr. Gavin Wood, the founder of Polkadot and Chief Architect at Parity Technologies, mentioned at Polkadot Decocded in Copenhagen that Polkadot may move away from the auction-based approach for deploying parallel chains and shift towards an application-centric focus. The goal is to create a resilient platform capable of withstanding game-theoretical challenges, indicating that Polkadot is geared towards building a decentralized, cryptographic, and game-theory-tested 2.0 system. For ecosystem developers, this suggests that exploring ways to deploy various applications in the Polkadot environment and enabling decentralized applications to benefit a broader user base could be a promising path ahead.
Facilitating Mass Adoption of Web3 | Wanxiang Blockchain Lab Sherry
Each development cycle in the blockchain field requires a broad audience, and now the development path for blockchain scalability is clearer. The next major theme for the widespread adoption of Web3.0 is the integration of a large number of users with advanced infrastructure. How far are we from the mass adoption of Web3.0? Currently, Web3.0 has become one of the most promising areas for venture capital, but barriers to achieving its widespread adoption include user experience challenges, subpar product experiences, and regulatory concerns. However, with the construction and advancement of landmark applications, improving product experiences, and reducing interaction barriers, we seem to foresee the future of mass adoption of Web3.0. Wanxiang Blockchain Labs and Polkadot have jointly incubated 38 projects in three years. Now, Wanxiang Blockchain Labs and HashKey Capital have announced the launch of the Future3 Campus, a Web3.0 innovation incubation platform that focuses on Web3.0 Massive Adoption, DePIN, and AI. This platform will provide incubation services, one-on-one Office Hours, network and infrastructure support, as well as alumni privileges, to help us collectively embark on the road to the future of Web3.
Exploring the Universe of Cross-chain Interoperability | Moonbeam Network Yuki Pan
Moonbeam is an smart contract platform designed for building cross-chain interconnected applications, enabling access to users, assets, and services from any chain. By integrating functionalities from Ethereum, Cosmos, Polkadot, and other chains into one platform, Moonbeam addresses the issue of fragmented user experiences, unlocks true interoperability, and lays the foundation for the next generation of applications. In terms of ecosystem support, Moonbeam offers the Moonbeam Foundation Grants Program, Moonbeam Accelerator Program, The Arrington Moonbeam Growth Fund, Web3 hackathons, and global community offline events. Currently, the Moonbeam Layer1 development platform provides support for over 330 projects through multi-chain and cross-chain solutions, continuously unlocking more cross-chain application scenarios.
Unlocking Private Use of Personal Data | Litentry Hanwen Cheng
In the traditional era of the internet, we used “accounts” on various platforms for online interactions, which required identity authentication. However, centralized identity authentication brings issues like data fragmentation, platform manipulation of data, and security concerns. Litentry helps create a personal Identity Graph that bridges off-chain information to on-chain, leveraging the rapidly growing on-chain data to provide more Web3 context, meeting cross-chain identity needs. As a result, users can manage their identities through Litentry, and DApps can access real-time DID data of identity owners across different blockchains. By aggregating cross-chain identities, blockchain projects will be able to offer specialized and tiered identity services to support the next generation of Web3.0 services.
Full Chain LSD Based on XCM Interoperability | Bifrost Lurpis Wang
Bifrost is a modular parachain designed specifically for the Omnichain Liquid Staking Derivatives (LSD). Bifrost is evolving towards a decentralized, multi-chain, and standardized LSD approach. XCM communication is the foundation for achieving cross-chain staking derivatives in Bifrost and is an integral part of the SLP protocol, ensuring broader circulation of derivatives created by the SLP/SALP protocols. Therefore, Bifrost has been actively working to promote the opening of HRMP channels between Bifrost parachains and other parachains. Bifrost’s derivative protocol (SALP) for Polkadot and Kusama slot auctions has supported a total of 21 successful auctions for Polkadot parachains and 21 for Kusama parallel chains. All LSDs supported by Bifrost are developed based on XCM. Compared to other ecosystem LSDs, the most significant achievement of Bifrost LSD, apart from standardization and shareable liquidity, is its support for on-chain governance of the original chain.
ZKP, MantaNetwork and zkSBT | Manta Network Godot
Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZKP) is a method of encrypting the computation itself, where the Prover proves a proposition to the Verifier without revealing any other information during the process, except the truthfulness of the proposition. The Manta ecosystem consists of two parts: Manta Atlantic and Manta Pacific. Manta Atlantic is built on Substrate and focuses on Web3 programmable privacy zkDID and transactions. On the other hand, Manta Pacific serves as an EVM native execution layer specifically designed for the widespread adoption of ZK applications, offering powerful scalability and extremely low gas fees. It allows for easy development of EVM native ZK applications using Solidity. Currently, the Manta ecosystem is continuously developing, with over 80+ ecosystem projects. In the domain of Public Good, Manta Network leads OpenZL, which provides interoperable libraries, tools, and standards for ZK development. It currently supports Plonky2, Groth16, and arkGroth16. Additionally, Manta Network collaborates with Jump to research zkWasm proof acceleration.
Toward a User-Centered Future: How SubWallet and Dotinsights are Bringing Polkadot to the Public | SubWallet & Dotinsights DJ Hà Trang
One of the challenges facing Polkadot is the complexity of top-notch technology for end-users. SubWallet is a Web3 plugin wallet based on Substrate chain, aiming to bring Polkadot to the next billion users. With SubWallet’s browser extension and mobile app, users can easily track, send, receive, and sign transactions on DeFi and GameFi applications. The main features of SubWallet include a built-in portfolio tracker for monitoring local and multi-chain crypto assets, NFT asset tracking and management, crowd-lending management, in-app staking, and XCM transactions. SubWallet is fully compatible with Substrate and EVM chains, currently supporting over 80 networks in the Polkadot and Kusama ecosystems. Additionally, with the support of Parity Technologies, SubWallet has built this interactive ecosystem map to provide a comprehensive overview of the Polkadot and Kusama ecosystems.
Phat Contract: Deploy a Customized Oracle in 5 Minutes without Code | Phala Network Wenfeng Wang
Phala Network focuses on building decentralized off-chain computing infrastructure, aiming to drive the development of Web3 networks. “Computation as it’s meant to be” is the primary slogan of Phala. The core product, Phat Contract, is an innovative off-chain smart contract running on Phala Network, enabling developers to build DApps with full blockchain compatibility, internet connectivity (HTTP Request), and verifiable computation capabilities. Phat Contract provides pre-defined components (Phat Bricks) and customizable templates (Blueprints), allowing developers to deploy a custom Oracle in just 5 minutes. Recently, the LensAPI Oracle, developed based on Phat Contract, has been officially documented as part of the Lens protocol.
Prosperity through the Universal Asset Center of Acala | Acala Network Yuzhu
Acala is dedicated to building a decentralized and sustainable financial network, featuring a Universal Asset Hub capable of hosting multi-chain liquidity staking (LST) protocols such as LDOT, an AMM-based DEX, and a highly customizable application platform compatible with EVM (based on Substrate). Acala has launched the Exodus Plan, aimed at resolving liquidity issues with aUSD through aSEED, introducing a new Universal Asset Hub for LST, and unveiling a new economic model, among other contents. Furthermore, Acala engineers have delivered an open-source “Chopsticks” test client, enabling developers to fork any Substrate-based network and simulate an environment identical to the mainnet, including block numbers and more. Additionally, Acala has introduced a multi-chain asset cross-chain routing service, enabling automatic routing of assets from outside the Polkadot ecosystem to different parallel chain accounts with just one click. Lastly, Acala has created a new model called “HyFi” (Hybrid Finance), merging traditional finance with DeFi, intending to bring large real-world assets into the L1/L2 layers, providing seamless liquidity across any ecosystems in the future.
How Infrastructure Enables Development in the Multichain Era | SubQuery & Onfinality Siqi
For blockchain developers, searching, managing, and querying blockchain data can be like finding a needle in a haystack. To build increasingly complex and intuitive applications, developers need powerful tools to process and query data faster. SubQuery serves as a blockchain data indexer, offering a fast, flexible, and reliable data indexing solution, empowering leading Web3 applications across multi-chains. Their open-source SDK allows developers to create and run their SubQuery projects in just a few minutes. Developers have the ability to build their own GraphQL API for their DApp and even run it themselves. SubQuery’s hosted service is a leading hosting solution in the industry, enabling DApps to deploy their projects on high-performance nodes and leverage their enterprise services. Currently, SubQuery serves over 5,000 projects and has more than 3,600 registered users.
Onfinality provides API services to developers and helps ecosystem development by lowering the barrier to access high-performance nodes. Besides offering availability, reliability, and high uptime, it also provides powerful API insights, offering valuable data about the types of requests made to RPCs worldwide, where they originate, and their purpose. Both of these infrastructure tools support multi-chain deployments, making them very useful for developers with multi-chain development needs.
What is the Core Competence in the Post Era of Layer2? | Polkadot Ecology Research Institute Yang Zou
The development of Layer2 solutions is gaining momentum and gradually forming a rich multi-chain ecosystem. The relationship between Layer2 and Ethereum is more complex, as it involves both symbiosis and competition. Layer2 acts as an extension of Ethereum, offering advancements by enabling applications that couldn’t run on Ethereum due to performance and fee issues. Currently, Layer2 mostly consists of existing application types from Ethereum, such as gaming, DeFi, and NFT, without driving significant industry expansion. However, the next era of Layer2 could bring substantial development by finding logical increments, such as new capital, users, and use cases, like storage, computing, and transmission. In this regard, Polkadot has advantages in new narratives as it excels in supporting the development of decentralized infrastructure projects, particularly in the DePIN category (decentralized physical infrastructure networks). The Substrate framework behind Polkadot provides more flexibility and customization compared to OP Stack, ZK Stack, and Cosmos SDK, making it attractive to numerous decentralized infrastructure projects. This will gradually enable Polkadot to build a more network-effective multi-chain ecosystem, fostering more innovation and new narratives within the Polkadot ecosystem.
Web3Go: Building Al Native Digital Asset Tools and Real-Time Data Infrastructures | Web3Go Jennie Liu
Web3Go is building an intelligent network on the blockchain, seamlessly integrating AI and data, aiming to create a fair, self-regulating, and trustless ecosystem for users. After the development of Web3Go 1.0, Web3Go 2.0 DIN represents a new generation of data infrastructure centered around human, AI, and blockchain-driven proof of equity. It is committed to providing a comprehensive set of AI-native digital asset creation and management tools tailored for creators. With real-time data infrastructure access, creators will be able to access on-chain transaction data, off-chain social media data, and user-generated data, providing limitless possibilities for innovative digital asset creation.
The Use of Crust | Crust Network Luke Fan
Crust provides a decentralized storage network for the Web3 ecosystem, supporting various storage layer protocols, including IPFS, and offering interfaces for application layers. Its technical stack also supports decentralized computing layers. Crust aims to build a distributed cloud ecosystem that values data privacy and ownership. The project has successfully raised millions of dollars in funding from DWF Labs, which will further strengthen its infrastructure and advance the development of its latest technology, the EVM Storage protocol. The EVM Storage protocol was officially launched on July 17th and seamlessly supports providing storage services for any EVM-based public chain, offering a more comprehensive and flexible storage architecture for the entire Web3 ecosystem. In terms of product use cases, Crust has achieved many accomplishments in DeFi, NFT, and DSocial domains, acting as a decentralized storage infrastructure. Furthermore, Crust Shadow, as a Kusama parallel chain, has been launched, and the cross-chain storage module xStorage pallet, based on XCMP, has been designed and developed. It has already opened message channels with multiple parallel chains, providing storage capabilities for the entire Polkadot ecosystem.
Deeper Network: Building a Secure, Powerful, Dynamic Web3 Ecosystem | Deeper Network Bin Guo
Deeper Network is an outstanding DePIN project that combines blockchain, network security, and the sharing economy. It has created a global peer-to-peer network that empowers real internet users and paves the way for the next-generation internet. With over 100,000+ global nodes, 6,000+ in the last 30 days, and daily network shared traffic exceeding 300TB, Deeper Network boasts a strong network presence. Deeper owns multiple intellectual properties and patented technologies, including its self-developed AtomOS network security operating system, which implements 7-layer enterprise-grade firewall security on a $1 chip. Their IP multiplexing technology enables device interconnectivity without requiring a public IP, making it especially suitable for scenarios lacking public IPs. The NPoW consensus algorithm, also developed in-house by Deeper, significantly reduces blockchain energy consumption and effectively mitigates 51% attacks. Built upon a foundation of nodes and network effects, Deeper presents the first typical DePIN framework — DEP (Decentralized General Infrastructure Off-Chain), providing an innovative platform for the development, deployment, and operation of large-scale off-chain DApps. Deeper’s technology, products, and network have the potential to greatly improve the user experience on the traditional internet and help users build a decentralized gateway to Web3.0. Their devices can filter ads, block harmful content, and automatically search for the cheapest flight options when booking international flights, helping users save costs. As a data oracle, it can provide data services for DeFi projects, assisting users in earning profits. Furthermore, its plug-and-play, zero-configuration feature is key to providing an excellent user experience.
Subscan: Building a Modular, Composable, and Customizable Blockchain Browser Platform | Subscan Yakio Liu
Subscan is a multi-chain Web3 browser that offers rapid support for Substrate-based networks. Besides searching for Block, Extrinsic, Event, and Account information, it provides user-friendly interactions in modules like Staking, EVM, and Parachain, as well as customized services for unique functionalities. Subscan is planning to release new features, such as “onchain insights,” which allow users to freely configure time and network to generate data reports for specific periods, with options to export images and share with third parties. This feature will be available for all networks in the near future. Moreover, Subscan’s underlying architecture is highly modular, where each module can run independently, providing specific dashboards and dedicated services for EVM networks. After three years of accumulation, Subscan offers comprehensive support for Substrate native pallets, including staking, governance, and multisig functionalities. However, despite this, it still can not cover the vast ecosystem based on Substrate. To address this, Subscan developed the Subscan Dashboard custom platform, funded by Polkadot Treasury, to facilitate collaborative work and lower development barriers.
Embracing a Multi-Chain Future with Builders
The excitement of the first day of Polkadot Decoded 2023 in Shanghai was a fantastic event with fruitful discussions and interactions among tech experts and industry specialists. While the event has come to an end, it marks the beginning of new possibilities and opportunities. Looking forward to next year’s conference, where more developers will join in the construction of the Polkadot ecosystem and witness the progress of outstanding projects. OneBlock+ will continue to provide professional technical articles and development courses, as well as organize seminars and other online and offline activities, standing side by side with everyone on this journey of advancement!
About OneBlock+
OneBlock+ is the first and the largest blockchain developer community in China. At OneBlock+, we provide full support for developers with their substrate studies and further set off their career paths. We host Polkadot Hackathons every season to attract top-notch developers to build and innovate for the prosperity of the ecosystem. As a greater China technology resource integrator, OneBlock+ also partners with developers, communities, business elites, and key media who have business insights and experiences in the blockchain industry to provide educational events, such as technical courses, webinars, AMAs, and offline events for the industry. Want to shape the crypto world together? Come and join us today!
