Proposal: Paradigm’s biweekly digests on the Polkadot & Kusama ecosystems

Proponent: 5ETwVfUX3gxVfBUP1cvjbyaRRwxnjbG1qiXXC2DAAVEq1Rnu (Sasha Shilina, Paradigm)

Date: February 2023

Requested DOT: $12,000 USD, to be converted to DOT using the EMA-7 Dot price from Subscan on the day of the submission.

Short description: This proposal is intended to fund a series of biweekly digests on the Polkadot & Kusams ecosystem that will help the community to be up-to-date with the current state of the Polkadot universe as well as to systematize recent news and developments. The proposal covers 24 biweekly digests about Polkadot and its ecosystem published on the Paradigm Platform and Medium, as well as 24 Twitter threads and 24 publications on Paradigm Telegram, LinkedIn, and Reddit + on Polkadot Discord, and subreddits.

Context of the proposal

Paradigm (https://paradigmresear.ch) is a research institute that has been deeply involved in technology since 2013. Our team consists of experts and PhD's from around the globe that have fully dedicated themselves to the idea of creating a transparent information space through an exchange of relevant research and news from the leading science fields including computer science, DLT and blockchain, and cryptography.
The Paradigm team has been conducting regular reports on the Polkadot and Kusama ecosystems since 2018. In 2022, the anniversary 50th issue of ‘Polkadot biweekly’ has been released (can be found here).
Paradigm is one of the oldest and most trustworthy news sources in the crypto community with over 26,000 subscribers and over 4K daily readers. Besides our native Paradigm Platform, we have a set of media channels where we spread the news and top-notch research with the audience. Among these channels are Paradigm Medium blog (≈3.5K followers), Twitter profile (≈20K followers), Telegram channel (≈2K followers) and Linkedin, and Reddit.

Problem statement

The Polkadot ecosystem is one of the biggest in the crypto space and it is constantly evolving, expanding, and flourishing. There are a lot of activities, news, and updates arising every day that are sometimes hard to follow. Sure, there are wonderful initiatives on a mission to educate the community and spread awareness (like Polkadot Digest by Bill Laboon, and Polkadot Ecosystem News). Still, in our point of view, news should be systematized and comprehensive enough to be internalized by the community. That is why we started to conduct biweekly reports on the ecosystem back in 2018, and we want to continue to do that further. The biweekly format and division and layout of news and updates within the article into parts connected to topics seem to us the most convenient for perception. Positive community feedback and growing reading stats only confirm this.

Solution & proposal objective

The Paradigm team will make the Polkadot universe closer to the community by letting them be up-to-date with the recent updates, events, proposals, and developments from the Polkadot and Kusama ecosystems (some ecosystem projects that appeared in the previous reports are: Acala, Astar Network, Bifrost, Centrifuge, Celer, Clover, Composable Finance, ChainX, Crust Network, Darwinia, Dock, Edgeware, Enjin, Equilibrium, HydraDX, Humanode, Interlay, KILT Protocol, Kylin Network, Litentry, Manta Network, Moonbeam, Ocean Protocol, Parallel Finance, Phala Network, SORA, StaFi, Robonomics, Zenlink, as well as Web3 Foundation, Parity, and Substrate, et cetera). The format implies that all updates will be systematized for simplified and efficient perception.

Main objective:
Increase awareness and accelerate the adoption of Polkadot.

The solution would consist of several content hubs:

Paradigm Platform and Paradigm blog: We will write and publish 1 digest, twice per month (24 total), covering the latest Polkadot and Polkadot and Kusama-related projects’ news, developments, and events.

Paradigm socials: We will create 24 Twitter threads covering Polkadot’s latest and most important updates, and will post 24 publications on Paradigm Telegram channel, Reddit, and LinkedIn page.

Polkadot community media: We will share biweekly digests with the community on Polkadot Discord, and subreddits (r/Polkadot, r/Kusama, r/DOT (unofficial)).

All of this content will be made available for the public and will be crafted having the Polkadot dedicated community in mind.

Target audience

The target audience includes developers and devotees from the Polkadot and Kusama communities as well as other crypto enthusiasts, and those who are not yet familiar with Polkadot and Kusama universe.

Timeline

The anticipated timeline for this project starts in March-April 2023 and ends in March-April 2024. The actual start date may be adjusted depending on the grant date.

Topics to be covered

Here’s an overview of the topic directions to be covered in our biweekly updates during the period of the proposal. We will also include topics that develop during the year.

-Polkadot and Kusama latest updates and developments;

-Polkadot and Kusama events, conferences, meetups;

-Polkadot and Kusama governance updates;

-Ecosystem projects, parachains news.

More topics to be added during the year.

Reporting

We will provide a quarterly report, to be posted on the community forum, with the links to each of the pieces published.

Payment details

We are requesting $12,000 USD. The cost will be converted to a quantity of DOT using the EMA-7 DOT price from Subscan on the date of submission.

Budget breakdown

24 Biweekly digests 500 USD per post 12,000 USD total.

Beneficiary information

Fund recipient address: 5ETwVfUX3gxVfBUP1cvjbyaRRwxnjbG1qiXXC2DAAVEq1Rnu

Fund manager contact: Sasha Shilina ([email protected], @sshshln)

We would love to get your feedback on the proposal! 🤍