Polkadot Summit - Polkadot Hubs
I’d like to say a huge thanks to all who attended the Copenhagen Polkadot Summit, we’ve managed to gather some valued feedback from our recent ‘Polkadot Hub’s’ workshop.
We had quite a few in attendance and managed to gain some valuable insight, however we’re excited to hopefully gather some feedback from our community here on the forums as well.
Polkadot Hubs
Number Attendees: 18
Key Participants
Tom Humber [Parity] - Presenting
Zoe Mekbach [Phala] - Presenting
What are the hubs?
The main aim of the Polkadot Hubs is to offer a space for continuous decentralised Innovation, allowing those within the community and ecosystem an opportunity to collaborate in new and innovative ways.
The main goal of the hubs?
The main goal will be improved collaboration, allowing us to remove barriers to grow the community and numbers of projects / teams.
Who currently manages and contributes to the project?
Polkadot Hubs currently has an ongoing working group of roughly 10 people, which is currently open to all within the Polkadot community who want to join. The idea behind the working group is to create different levels and types of hubs, depending on the city and the size of the hub.
Overall the Hub aims to be a physical space dedicated to the community where we can learn and funnel down information, especially to those new to the ecosystem or Polkadot. Helping break down that learning curve.
How does Polkadot Hub’s Support the Ecosystem?
The main benefit of the hubs is the collaboration it nurtures. Helping incubate new projects, increase synergy, attract research and remove barriers, all whilst supporting/enabling operational efficiency.
The main focus of Polkadot Hubs will always, first and foremost be Polkadot’s adoption however we shouldn’t be just limited to this only.
Currently in the works
- Bali - Currently in the works and the test pilot for the hubs. The initiator (group of ambassadors) submitted a proposal for treasury funding to get it kick started but eventually these hubs will be self reliant and financially sustainable.
- Berlin, Lisbon - Current Parity offices explored as spaces for increased Polkadot ecosystem collaboration
- Slovenia, Bled (SubWork)
- Dali, China (Litentry)
We asked everyone who attended the Hub’s session to let us know where they’re or their team is based, to help get a rough idea of where the interest for the Hub’s lies. Below is a list of where some of the attendees are based.
- Slovenia
- New Zealand
- Austria
- Hungary
- United Kingdom
- Brazil
- France
For more information please see the forum post linked below
Polkadot Hubs - Uniting the Community Worldwide through Physical Spaces
Seeing the feedback from our project parachains, we’re wanting to extend this survey to our forum readers and hear your thoughts and feedback:
What services would be the most interesting to you, if you were to use a polkadot Hub?
We asked the attendees what they would find to be the most interesting aspect of using a Polkadot Hub.
- The ability to use these hubs as our own incubation factories
- Events, such as hackathons could be moved into such a model whilst also providing a more sustainable alternative, moving away from treasury funding.
- Onboarding in general. Helping teams with a starter pack, getting introduced to project teams.
- E.g. You’re a team who wants funding, come to a day at the hub and speak about options
- E.g. You’re fresh out of the builders programme and want to find a career in Polkadot or perhaps you want to do a talk
- Education - Many thought education was a good example of the usefulness of the Hub’s. They can be positioned in a unique way to help.
The workshop then explored the idea of Parity Kick-starting a Polkadot Hub within Berlin, below are the notes in which the discussion took place.
How do you feel about a Berlin Hub kick-started by Parity?
- Parity would join like any parachain, contributing to the hub’s rent and utilities and particularly Parity would sign the lease, as we will always need an entity to do that.
- Hub’s should be strategically placed around universities that are Web3 friendly, helping encourage participation from such universities.
- Parity is already in Berlin and has established quite a large Polkadot presence. Some within the ecosystem would like to see elsewhere explored, especially those where there are communities of those interested in Polkadot.
- Berlin would be good, especially as it should not be too hard to set up, however after Berlin we should then direct our focus to adoption cities.
Closing
Overall the workshop was a success, we managed to gain the valued feedback from multiple different project and ecosystem leads, all who would love to see the Polkadot Hub’s project develop and thrive.
We welcome any feedback, queries and questions you may have and urge you to get involved and have your say on the project.