Etherscan-as-a-Service x Polkadot Hub - PolkaVM Block Explorer (1 Mainnet, 1 Testnet)

Summary:
Polkadot Hub needs a custom Etherscan integration for PolkaVM/revive Smart Contracts. The proposed $1MM Etherscan-as-a-Service integration provides Web3/Solidity developers seamless tools for deploying and interacting with PolkaVM contracts first on Westend Hub and then on Polkadot Hub, aiming for increased developer+user growth of Polkadot Hub in 2025-2026.

Problem: Polkadot Hub needs a PolkaVM Block Explorer

Polkadot Hub (also known as Asset Hub or “Plaza”) is now positioned in the Polkadot 2.0 Roadmap as the primary home for user-facing and developer-facing smart contract activities as well as staking, governance and managing programmable assets.

Historically, EVM contracts have been deployed in the Polkadot ecosystem in Moonbeam and Astar through the “Frontier” pallet, but with key breakthrough PolkaVM (a RISC-V-based virtual machine also at the heart of Polkadot JAM) there is a new Polkadot Hub+Cloud roadmap:

Contracts on AssetHub Roadmap
Solidity on PolkaVM
Contracts on Polkadot Introducing Project Revive

These are a part of numerous Polkadot 2.0 innovations from Plaza: A Batteries-Included, Scalable Polkadot System Chain (summary)) to CoreVMs + CorePlay JAM Services. This roadmap enables 4th generation Web3 developers to access Polkadot in both high-performance ways in “old” ways (Solidity-based Smart Contracts on Polkadot Hub) and “new” ways – enabled by Polkadot JAM Services, not with yet another EVM Chain but with PolkaVM, revive and Polkadot 2.0 innovations at its foundations.

This proposal concerns giving Web3 developers the best blockchain service available: Etherscan as Service, with dominant usage in the Ethereum ecosystem (Ethereum, Base, Optimism, Arbitrum, …) in addition to Moonbeam users in the Polkadot ecosystem.  Etherscan’s feature set is comprehensive and difficult for other block explorers to match. For an overview, see Diving deeper with EVM block explorers.

Our key motivation is simple: Give Users + Developers the industry-leading explorer for Polkadot Hub: Etherscan – but fully customized for PolkaVM + revive-pallet innovations.

Alex Thiessen (Parity Contracts team lead, also proponent of OpenGov #885 - Should we allow EVM compatible contracts on Asset Hub?) indicates unequivocal support of Etherscan here:

Solution: Etherscan as a Service (EAAS) Custom Integration

The vast majority of Smart Contract Developers write contracts in Solidity and deploy compiled EVM byte code to an EVM chain – most commonly Ethereum and Ethereum rollups but also Polkadot rollups (Moonbeam, Astar).  With the revive pallet deployed on Polkadot Hub, these Solidity contracts will be compiled to PolkaVM instead of EVM, and interpreted by the revive-pallet on Polkadot Hub instead.

Widely used REMIX tooling has already been customized for PolkaVM at https://remix.polkadot.io/ and enables compilation and deployment to Polkadot Hub in 2025, but is available on WestEnd Hub now: See Deploy Your First Contract to see how simple and familiar this is to everyday Solidity developers.

In the same way, this proposal strives to have Etherscan also be simple and familiar as REMIX is to users and developers alike. This is enabled by a set of JSON-RPC methods necessary for indexers to do their work – our tests indicate Westend Hub is ready for Etherscan integration in early 2025 and after all systems are fully tested, can proceed to Polkadot Hub as soon as pallet-revive is deployed in mid-2025.   

However, a custom integration is required to fully address PolkaVM. 

Here is a full link to the detailed proposal:

Etherscan-as-a-Service x Polkadot Hub - PolkaVM Block Explorer (1 Mainnet, 1 Testnet)

The proposal provides adequate budget ($1MM) for the Etherscan team to address + support the PolkaVM + revive custom integration fully.   Colorful Notion is taking on project management of the integration through 2025 into early 2026.

Key Benefits:

(1) Technical: Fully functional PolkaVM-based Westend and Polkadot Hubs, supported by robust secure infrastructure from industry leader.
(2) Developer Impact: Seamless Etherscan interface for PolkaVM/revive contracts on Polkadot Hub will attract leading Web3 teams deploying on Polkadot Hub. Tools for contract interaction and code verification match EVM.
(3) User Impact: Dapp deployment on Polkadot Hub can support an order of magnitude growth in usage, driven by the above.


Budget:
$1,000,000 USDC

Services: 

• 1 TestNet EAAS Integration: Westend Hub hosted at westend-hub.polkadot.io (or similar)
  Expected coverage: Q2 2025 — Q1 2026 ( 1 year )
• 1 MainNet EAAS Integration: Polkadot Hub hosted at hub.polkadot.io (or similar)
  Expected timeline: Q3 2025 — Q2 2026  ( 1 year )

Merry Christmas🎄🎅 and Happy New Year 2025! 🍺🎉🤗 

We look forward to making 2025 a great success together!