This proposal funds 16 months of maintenance for the open-source substrate-api-client, a Rust RPC client library for interacting with Substrate/Polkadot-based chains, with a particular focus on no_std environments such as trusted execution environments, embedded systems, and constrained devices.
The library is actively used by ecosystem teams and fills an important gap alongside other Rust clients, such as subxt by enabling lightweight, no-std-compatible chain interaction.
The requested funding covers:
This is a continuation of previous maintenance efforts and aims to ensure that the library remains reliable, compatible, and accessible.
The Polkadot ecosystem depends on shared infrastructure libraries that many teams use. The substrate-api-client is one of these pieces of infrastructure:
This makes the library a common good: useful across the ecosystem, open source, and maintained for broad benefit rather than a single product.
This proposal covers maintenance work for the period:
September 2026 - Dec 2027
Polkadot SDK and related dependencies evolve quickly. To keep the library usable, we will:
Maintenance is not only code updates; it also includes direct developer support. We will:
In addition to maintenance, we plan to implement a selected set of smaller improvements and fixes.
Candidate items include:
Final prioritization may depend on urgency, compatibility requirements, and ecosystem demand.
By the end of the proposal period, we commit to delivering:
Supercomputing Systems AG (SCS), Zurich, Switzerland
SCS is an engineering company with approximately 140 engineers working across software, electronics, and system design. Within SCS, a dedicated blockchain team has been contributing to the Polkadot ecosystem since 2019.
In 2022–2026, the team’s primary ecosystem contribution has been the ongoing maintenance and improvement of the substrate-api-client.
GitHub contributors:
This proposal requests $38,500 in USDT. SCS bills engineering work at 185 CHF/hour.
| Work Package | Deliverables | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Ecosystem updates | Dependency updates, release tracking, compatibility maintenance | $18,400 |
| User support | Issue triage, user support, PR review, bug investigation | $7,300 |
| Small improvements | Implementation, code review, documentation, release notes | $12,800 |
| Total | $38,500 |
Corresponding Forum post and discussion: https://forum.polkadot.network/t/pre-proposal-discussion-maintenance-for-the-substrate-api-client/18148
substrate-api-client is a free tool that helps computers talk to Polkadot and similar blockchain networks. It is useful for small devices that do not have much power.
This plan asks for money to keep the tool working well for 16 months. The team will update it, help people who use it, and make small fixes. They also want to add new features and answer questions from users.
The work will cost $38,500. The team has done this before, and they share updates every 3 months. This helps many projects in the Polkadot community.
This proposal funds 16 months of maintenance for the open-source substrate-api-client, a Rust RPC client library for interacting with Substrate/Polkadot-based chains, with a particular focus on no_std environments such as trusted execution environments, embedded systems, and constrained devices.
The library is actively used by ecosystem teams and fills an important gap alongside other Rust clients, such as subxt by enabling lightweight, no-std-compatible chain interaction.
The requested funding covers:
This is a continuation of previous maintenance efforts and aims to ensure that the library remains reliable, compatible, and accessible.
The Polkadot ecosystem depends on shared infrastructure libraries that many teams use. The substrate-api-client is one of these pieces of infrastructure:
This makes the library a common good: useful across the ecosystem, open source, and maintained for broad benefit rather than a single product.
This proposal covers maintenance work for the period:
September 2026 - Dec 2027
Polkadot SDK and related dependencies evolve quickly. To keep the library usable, we will:
Maintenance is not only code updates; it also includes direct developer support. We will:
In addition to maintenance, we plan to implement a selected set of smaller improvements and fixes.
Candidate items include:
Final prioritization may depend on urgency, compatibility requirements, and ecosystem demand.
By the end of the proposal period, we commit to delivering:
Supercomputing Systems AG (SCS), Zurich, Switzerland
SCS is an engineering company with approximately 140 engineers working across software, electronics, and system design. Within SCS, a dedicated blockchain team has been contributing to the Polkadot ecosystem since 2019.
In 2022–2026, the team’s primary ecosystem contribution has been the ongoing maintenance and improvement of the substrate-api-client.
GitHub contributors:
This proposal requests $38,500 in USDT. SCS bills engineering work at 185 CHF/hour.
| Work Package | Deliverables | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Ecosystem updates | Dependency updates, release tracking, compatibility maintenance | $18,400 |
| User support | Issue triage, user support, PR review, bug investigation | $7,300 |
| Small improvements | Implementation, code review, documentation, release notes | $12,800 |
| Total | $38,500 |
Corresponding Forum post and discussion: https://forum.polkadot.network/t/pre-proposal-discussion-maintenance-for-the-substrate-api-client/18148
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