Thanks to everyone who contributed to the discussion following our initial post, Kusama Futures in the JAM Era. The feedback has been extremely useful and, above all, shows that people care deeply about Kusama. Special thanks to Daniel, author of WFC #573, for his candid contribution.
Full position paper
We have now published a full position paper setting out our view on where Kusama should go next:
We propose that the KSM DAO set a direction for negotiations with the DOT DAO around a package of 16 total cores for 5 years on JAM Prime, with 450,000 JAMKB-equivalent of footprint, protected KSM control, and Fellowship-led migration and maintenance, using US$8.64 million originating from the Kusama Vision Fund as the complete-package negotiating reference and settling in DOT.
The proposal combines a finite infrastructure commitment with suggestions for a renewed vision programme for Kusama’s next era on JAM. Its terms must leave that programme funded.
Next steps
We propose continuing a 4 week discussion until 16 October 2026, after which we intend to incorporate the feedback into a revised proposal and response record to inform a direction-setting Wish for Change for Kusama’s Future. Corrections, counterarguments, alternative proposals and additional evidence are very welcome.
Who will build on Jam when the KV program that has been onboarding teams will be shutdown/squeezed out of funding ? Do you think there is a future where the KV program can continue to deliver result and on-board teams into the ecosystem? Such as the Cryptography bounty has been funding important projects that have generated a sales funnel of new teams of developers that want to build on Kusama.
Kusama Should honor web3 values of resilience, being a place where developers and new projects can run and experiment without getting censored, embodying resilience as a network. But How do you suggest to onboard new teams that want to build if they drain the KV program, which is serving as a funnel for projects to come to Kusama.
Kusama Does offer a unique place for Zero Knowledge and Cryptography developers to develop privacy applications, more efficently with PolkaVM, lots of Unique selling points are added to the stack such as the precompile that makes it easier and more efficeint for future users.
This reads to me like Kusama’s purpose is to subsidize JAM and its idle cores. Using KV funds for securing Kusama doesn’t sound like a “vision” to me. Certainly not the one I invested my time into as a kv bounty curator.