Polkadot Hub - Launch Campaign

Ecosystem
1

From conversations with agents in Parity, W3F, and other orgs I have come to the conclusion that we don’t yet have a clearly defined campaign to make sure the Hub launch will be meeting expectations and considered a success.

Currently it feels to me like the core tech is covered, and the ecosystem has to figure out the rest. But “the” ecosystem has not yet developed this awareness.

To me, this represents a risk, since the expectation of many people will be that there will be a rush of activity on Hub. If we experience a slow uncoordinated start and there is an impression we did not bother to organize around this launch, it will be a bad signal. So our ambition should be to pull together all our expertise and skill and show what the ecosystem is capable of!

What we know

Currently, the following roles have been assigned:

  • Parity/@pierreaubert: deliver Ethereum-compatible stack on top of the AssetHub system chain
  • Velocity Labs/@nico_a: Onboard financial integrations (DeFi, Ramps, Custodians…) → BD for finance products
  • PaperMoon/@albertov19: Provide documentation
  • W3F/@radha: coordinate with other ecosystem agents to provide tangential support, especially DevRel

The current stated goal is to lay out the foundation of an Ethereum-compatible chain with a focus on financial applications on which then can be built.

Missing Clarity

What I am currently missing is clarity on our approach to:

  • Outreach efforts, such as Marketing, Events, Conference Attendance
    • developer specific outreach efforts like hackathons, developer community building/activation
  • Non-finance BD (NFTs, Games, other interesting stuff)
  • Investors Relations, Acceleration, Success
  • clarity on what secondary tooling is currently in the works/needed that will be relevant for devs
  • onboarding parachains to expose their functionality properly to Hub via XCM

This thread

  • This thread aims to coordinate to make sure we have a launch campaign for the Hub in place.
  • I have created a small page on what public information I have found: Polkadot Hub
  • If you are part of a team that works on an aspect to Hub, please make it known so we can get a more complete picture
  • If you have unanswered questions on the Hub, please drop them here and I will collect them and get them answered on the - I have created a small page on what public information I have found: Polkadot Hub info page I created
  • Once we have collected the basic information and know what bases are covered and which not, we can start developing a campaign from there.
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2

Hi Tommi,

Thanks for creating this topic, we also found it’s extremely important to take a portion of ecosystem effort for the Polkadot Hub’s success, at least (in-this-year), like 80% our efforts because:

  1. Polkadot Hub is simple for EVM-compatible engineers to quickly switch to Polkadot - deploy existing projects or build a new projects.
  2. Solidity Developers dominates the market in terms of web3 developers. (based on Electric Capital 2024 - report)
  3. Be able to focus on consumer layer.

Then, it’s important to coordinate and prepare for successful launch - short term: testnet commercial launch and mainnet launch definitely.

Our plan is to focus on Polkadot Hub this year, because OpenGuild’s mandate is in Asia and Asia is dominating the amount of Solidity developers in the globe.

How we see OpenGuild team fits in this full pictures:

  1. Builders full-stack support (from Ecosystem Resources Guiding to developers relation) by multiple types of activities (mandate mainly SEA and support broader Asia)
  2. Outreach efforts - organizing developer-focused activation, organizing cultural activities and build relationship between builders in the ecosystem.
  3. We aims to organize an acceleration program (follow-up program) in Q3 which gathers a reasonable amount of quality teams (10-15 teams in Asia), to build consumer apps which provide relevant/popular usecases around DeFi, PayFi, NFTs (based on their current MVPs), providing community building support, building presence in Asia and social media, guide to ecosystem resources to make sure the growth would be assured.

Happy to contribute to the general picture that ecosystem key agents are establishing.

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Hey @alice_und_bob , the BD group just posted an update which I believe might address a few points mentioned in your post: A Polkadot Hub launch update from Business Development group: April, 2025

Thank you for flagging this!

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Hey AuB, Nate from Distractive here. Thanks for kicking this off, and I hope this input helps.

Here is the setup of the product launch of Hub:

On the Distractive side, we’re supporting a number of workflows (synchronous and asynchronous) to support product development, product messaging, and business development with Parity, W3F, Magenta Labs, Velocity Labs, DotPlay, and Papermoon to make this a successful launch.

To align with some of the buckets you’ve outlined, here is where we’re seeing the workstreams/focuses broken out:

  1. Strategy & Product: Parity & Web3F
  2. Non-finance BD/Outreach: Velocity Labs, Magenta Labs, DotPlay
  3. Marketing: Distractive & Parity
  4. DevRel: Papermoon, OpenGuild
  5. Developer outreach: W3F, with Encode and EasyA
  6. Investor Relations, Acceleration, Success teams: Web3 Foundation

As with other prior product launches, Distractive will deploy its full-spectrum marketing capabilities across all departments (Marcomms, Digital, Programs, Creative & Product Marketing) to drive Hub adoption and awareness.

As Parity works to refine Hub’s feature set, value props and target audience, we’re working alongside them to develop a phased launch approach, which begins with the launch of smart contracts on Kusama and includes:

  • Strategic content deployment via Polkadot blog, ecosystem newsletters, and developer communications,
  • Coordinated social media campaigns across Polkadot and Kusama channels,
  • Dedicated Hub landing page on the Polkadot website

Going forward, future pre-launch and launch initiatives will involve:

  • Collaborative promotions with integrations and deployments committed to Polkadot to help drive broader awareness in EVM circles as well as across broader industry
  • Targeted press release aligned with the Polkadot Hub launch timeline
  • Educational content focusing on smart contract capabilities & what Hub unlocks for devs and users
  • Consistent messaging integration across industry events, including specialized hackathons emphasizing smart contract awareness and usability.

This coordinated approach aims to ensure maximum visibility, developer adoption, and ecosystem growth throughout the Hub launch cycle. I hope this helps to get a better understanding of our aligned strategy as we continue to actively plan and refine it. Please let me know if you have any open questions.

-Distractive Crew (via Nate)

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