the situation
we have multiple massive catalysts that haven’t broken through the noise:
-
Polkadot 2.0 is fully live with all three pillars (Async Backing, Agile Coretime, Elastic Scaling)
-
tokenomics overhaul with supply cap and inflation halving every 2 years starting Pi Day 2026
-
Asset Hub just migrated 1.6B DOT with zero failures—one of the most ambitious blockchain upgrades ever executed
-
smart contracts launching on Asset Hub in december, making it Polkadot’s EVM-compatible hub
these are legitimately huge. but they’re getting drowned out because crypto moves fast and attention is scattered. we need a single moment that brings everything together into one sharp narrative that the community rallies around and the wider crypto world can’t ignore.
what worked before
the spammening in 2024 was our most successful community event. period.
what made it work:
-
community galvanization – everyone united around a single touchpoint. Gavin got involved. the community showed up. social media engagement went through the roof. the event lives on forever on-chain.
-
technical flex with substance – we hit 143,343 TPS on Kusama (23% capacity) in a live mainnet stress test. real economic value. real validators. real conditions. not some fake testnet benchmark.
-
it crossed ecosystems – people outside Polkadot paid attention because it was audacious and backed by actual data. we still reference the spammening constantly when showing what Polkadot can do.
-
fun factor – it wasn’t just technical. 1,933 people manually spammed the network through an interface. it was participatory, chaotic, and entertaining.
the spammening was the last time Polkadot truly broke through the noise. when something works, you do it again.
the proposal
make Asset Hub’s smart contract launch the main event by hosting spammening v2.
here’s why this works:
v2 has natural upgrades over v1:
-
first spammening was Kusama. this is Polkadot—bigger, more validators, beefier hardware, higher stakes.
-
Asset Hub is brand new infrastructure fresh off a historic migration. this becomes its baptism by fire.
-
smart contracts make it Polkadot’s EVM-compatible hub. launching with a massive public stress test proves it works at scale from day one.
-
we can integrate games/apps as spam vehicles. FlappyWUD edition? something else? the key is making participation more engaging than just clicking “spam.”
the narrative writes itself:
Asset Hub just got EVM compatibility. now the community gets to prove what it can actually do. can we beat Kusama’s 143K TPS on Polkadot’s infrastructure? can Asset Hub handle real Web2-scale traffic with smart contracts live? let’s find out publicly—and set records while we’re at it.
that’s a story. that’s a moment. that’s something people rally around and talk about.
the strategy
this isn’t just about TPS numbers. it’s about:
-
culture formation – the spammening becomes Polkadot’s signature move. the thing we do when major upgrades ship. a tradition that builds identity and brings the community together repeatedly.
-
killing multiple birds – one event that:
-
proves Asset Hub can handle serious load with smart contracts live
-
generates data for post-event PR and marketing (just like we still reference v1)
-
creates a community moment that galvanizes participation
-
gives developers confidence in the infrastructure as they start building
-
positions Polkadot as the network that stress-tests in public, not in labs
-
-
breaking through noise – scattered announcements get lost. a single high-energy community festival with measurable outcomes cuts through. when the community is genuinely excited and participating, that energy spreads.
-
Gavin interview leverage – perfect timing for Gavin to do interview rounds where he can speak to both the spammening results (the technical achievement, what the numbers mean) AND the tokenomics overhaul (economic sustainability story). both together paint the “Polkadot 2.0 delivered” narrative with substance.
-
making it repeatable – if this works, spammening becomes a periodic tradition tied to major milestones. JAM launch? spammening v3. next major upgrade? another one. it becomes part of Polkadot’s identity.
what this requires
execution details i’m leaving to the teams (Parity, Technical Fellowship, ecosystem participants), but the core components:
-
games/apps as spam vehicles at minimum, one highly polished game/app that makes participation fun. FlappyWUD is the obvious candidate since it already exists and has community recognition. could expand to multiple apps/games if capacity allows. the goal: make spamming engaging, not just functional.
-
incentives the first spammening proved participation matters. incentives drive participation. ballpark: 50K-100K DOT reward pool for most active wallets/participants during the event. this isn’t optional if we want mass engagement.
-
timing coordinate with smart contract launch (december 2025 target). the event can happen at launch or immediately after—key is riding the launch momentum, not pre-launch anticipation.
-
infrastructure live dashboard (like v1 had at migration.paritytech.io). real-time TPS tracking. public monitoring so everyone can watch records get set or broken.
-
PR/marketing coordination pre-event hype, live coverage during, post-event data analysis and amplification. this is where the “breaking through noise” happens—before, during, and after. Gavin interview scheduling around this window to maximize impact.
what success looks like
clear metrics matter:
-
participation: more wallets active than v1’s 1,933 participants
-
performance: match or exceed Kusama’s 143K TPS—on Polkadot infrastructure with more capacity
-
social reach: trending on crypto twitter during the event, coverage from major crypto media
-
new user acquisition: measurable spike in new wallet activations
-
narrative win: “Asset Hub launched with massive community stress test proving Web2-scale performance” becomes a talking point we (and others) use for months. but beyond that, this also announces to the world that Polkadot now has smart contracts and is performant as hell
the ask
this proposal is presenting the idea and strategic case. we need:
-
Parity/Technical Fellowship to coordinate technical execution
-
treasury funding for incentives and coordination costs
-
ecosystem teams to build/adapt games/apps for participation
-
community management to drive hype and participation
the spammening worked once because it was bold, fun, technically impressive, and brought everyone together. all those conditions still apply. Asset Hub’s launch is the perfect moment to do it again—and make it even bigger.
this is a starting point, not a final plan. if you see ways to improve this—better timing, different games, additional components, smarter execution—build on it. the goal is to create something the whole community can rally around. let’s make it happen together.