Polkadot System Parachain Collator Bounty 2nd Top-up

Dear community,

This proposal requests a second top-up for Polkadot system parachain collators covering seven months, from July 2026 through January 2027.

The total request is 96,775 USDT.

Compared with Referendum 1870, the main changes are:

• The funded set increases from 30 to 38 community invulnerable collator assignments, with 8 additional assignments for Bulletin.
• Standard collator compensation is reduced from $300 to $250 per month.
• Bulletin collators receive $500 per month because of their higher infrastructure and operational requirements.
• Curator compensation is fixed at $250 per curator per month, and coordinator compensation is set at $1,000 per month.
• Local infrastructure costs $575 per month, including the Bulletin instance.
• Staking rewards and payments to permissionless collators remain excluded.

The July portion covers work already provided during the gap between the previous allocation and the expected approval of this top-up. This top-up request is needed earlier than expected because the lower DOT price reduced the value of the previous allocation and shortened the programme’s runway. Requesting the funding directly in USDT avoids the same DOT price risk for this period.

The separate Kusama collator top-up is not included in this request.

Check the full details of the proposal here

Regards,

System Parachain Collator Bounty Curator Team