Online Hackathon Theme: Polkadot 2.0 Developer Activation
“I have not followed what is happening on Polkadot after 2021. What’s up?” - an average developer at every major blockchain conference
A lot has happened, and many features have been implemented on Polkadot that did not receive the spotlight they deserve. A comprehensive developer activation event gives a decent shot at addressing this issue, which can feature:
- Hackathons with streamlined bounties
- Demos and Workshops on Polkadot Cloud (and Hub)
- Developer support, office hours from developers and product teams
- Parachain developer (re)engagement efforts
- Spammening 2.0
Strategy
Online Hackathon (4-6 weeks)
To try out the features and functionalities and develop a legitimate proof of concept using Polkadot SDK, it takes time and cannot be fit into the traditional 2 day to 1 week hackathon models. Based on the conversations earlier with the working group, here are the target audience for the online hackathon
- Web3 developers from other ecosystems
- Enthusiastic developers who have no or little experience in Web3/Blockchain
- Existing developers in the Polkadot ecosystem
We could use one or multiple online hackathon platforms based on the target demographic we like to prioritize. Some of the platforms considered:
It is possible to run the 2.0 hackathon on different platforms at the same time, capturing different set of audience.
Polkadot Cloud and Hub workshops
W3F, Parity and any interested ecosystem team (Papermoon, OpenGuild, R0gue etc.) can actively engage the hackathon registrants with workshops and demo sessions on
- What can be built with Polkadot SDK and its USPs
- Runtime development, and how it differs from Smart Contract development
- Hub Smart Contracts, intro to the pioneering work on RISC-V VM (PolkaVM)
- Cross-chain applications, with emphasis on trustless bridges
- Agile coretime, async backing and elastic scaling
- Web3 usecases and verticals
Developer Support
Activate official Polkadot Developer support framework on official channels on different platforms
- Polkadot DIscord
- Polkadot Devs Telegram
- Polkadot Devs Element
- Polkadot and Substrate Stack Exchange
Have DevRel staff from W3F, Parity and Papermoon together with OpenGuild and R0gue be the first line of support and then direct advanced issues and questions to Polkadot Technical Fellowship. Arrange for dedicated office hours with Polkadot 2.0 core developers.
Parachain Developer Re-engagement
Establishing an active communication channel with existing or prospective parachain developers has not worked very well in the past. Though Polkadot continues to ship new features on its SDK, there is little or no feedback pouring in from the Parachain developers. Currently, there are 40 parachains running on Polkadot. How many of them have actually looked into or are considering upgrading to access 2.0 features like Async backing and Elastic Scaling? A re-engagement effort is needed to align Polkadot SDK feature development with the actual needs of parachain developers.
Spammening 2.0
While The Spammening showed what Polkadot can do, there has not been a full demonstration of what a parachain can do. Yes, Polkadot may have 100K+ TPS, but who cares? If I launch as a parachain, what TPS can “I” achieve? Time to show Polkadot SDK’s prowess with async backing and elastic scaling and showing the world what peak performance can be achieved by chains that plan to make Polkadot their future home.