I would like to contribute to the discussions started by @alexdimes on A Polkadot Hub launch update from Business Development group and @alice_und_bob on Polkadot Growth Strategy by sharing the results of our efforts at WEB3DEV to onboard more developers into the Polkadot ecosystem throughout 2024.
With the new focus on attracting developers to build with Solidity on AH, we believe it’s important to take these learnings into account when producing future educational materials and onboarding strategies.
We’ve learned something crucial along the way:
One of the most important takeaways is that we can make the biggest impact by focusing on developers transitioning from Web2 to Web3. Participants without prior Web3 experience tended to be more engaged, more consistent, and more likely to complete the course. Our beginner-friendly approach seems to resonate particularly well with those building a foundation from scratch, especially when introducing deeper concepts like decentralization and the Nakamoto Coefficient, which are sometimes overlooked by more seasoned Web3 developers.
We also noticed the importance of direct support. Students who asked questions or sought help were significantly more likely to finish the course. Personal interaction and timely guidance proved to be key drivers of success, reinforcing the value of localized and community-driven education.
How can we better shape the onboarding journey to help Web2 developers thrive while still re-engaging experienced builders who might have been discouraged by technical depth or early assumptions?
TL;DR
WEB3DEV launched the Rust State Machine Course in March 2024 to prepare students for the Rust Exam required by PBA. Over one year, we produced high-quality, bilingual educational content (videos, study groups, lessons) and supported over 17,000 interested students, with 258 actively participating and 52 graduating.
Key achievements:
- 83 educational videos across 4 YouTube playlists in English and Portuguese
- 28 live study group sessions on Discord with integrated tracking
- 4 course cohorts, including an always-open self-paced version
- High engagement on Twitter (100k+ impressions), email (33.8% open rate), and YouTube (95k+ views and 2,500+ hours watched)
- At least 10 students joined PBAx using our exclusive promo codes
Top learnings:
- Web2 developers with no prior Web3 experience had the highest graduation rates
- Direct support during the course significantly boosted completion rates
We’ll use these insights to keep growing the program and welcoming more Web2 developers into the Polkadot ecosystem.
Full Report: Rust State Machine Course
In March 2024 WEB3DEV community proposed the creation of Rust Course to prepare students for the Rust Exam requested by PBA to qualify students for their IRL Campus.
We would like to share the results of actions taken by the web3dev community to deliver what was proposed at our Treasury Proposal 627.
Over the course of one year (from March 28, 2024, to March 28, 2025), we created a solid set of multimedia educational resources focused on training native English and Portuguese-speaking developers.
These resources include:
-
Rust State Machine Build: educational content and hands-on lessons available in both English and Portuguese
-
4 YouTube Playlists:
A total of 83 videos and livestreams covering the fundamentals of dApp and blockchain development using Rust on Polkadot: -
Weekly Study Groups on Discord:
28 weekly sessions for discussions, Q&A, and Rust lessons.- Portuguese: from Feb 28 to July 31, every Wednesday from 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM (BRT)
- English: from May 27 to July 29, every Monday from 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM (ET)
-
Outreach Campaigns:
Communication strategies used to promote the build, study groups, and YouTube content:- Social media posts (Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter)
- Google Ads campaigns
- Email campaigns
Course Performance
The course had four cohorts: three of them ran for 20 days and offered a special NFT certificate, while the fourth is always open for students who prefer to learn at their own pace.
We reached a total of 17,360 interested students, with 1,760 officially registered and 258 submitting at least one lesson. Out of those, 52 successfully graduated. Thanks to the promo codes we provided for our students, at least 10 of these graduates have enrolled in the PBAx course. The number is higher since some students mentioned in open chats that they’ve also registered.
Here’s a breakdown of our overall conversion rates:
Graduation Rates per Cohort
- PIONEERS: August 5, 2024 – August 25, 2024
- EXPLORERS: October 16, 2024 – November 5, 2024
- HACKERS: February 6, 2025 – February 26, 2025
- ETERNALS: March 28, 2024 – March 28, 2025 (always open)
| Cohort | Active Students | Graduated | Graduation rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| PIONEERS | 95 | 24 | 25,26% |
| EXPLORERS | 37 | 6 | 16,21% |
| HACKERS | 51 | 8 | 15,68% |
| ETERNALS | 70 | 14 | 20,00% |
- We’re counting only students who submitted at least one lesson. This helps us focus on active participants and remove those who registered but never started.
The PIONEERS cohort had the highest graduation rate, with nearly one in four students completing the course. The ETERNALS cohort, which is self-paced and always open, also showed solid results, especially considering its longer duration and flexible format.
Study Groups on Discord
During the first cohorts, we hosted weekly study groups on Discord, with one meeting in Portuguese and another in English. These sessions helped students stay on track and keep progressing through the lessons. We had already noticed that many students were dropping out after the first section, so these live meetings played a key role in keeping people engaged and moving forward.
The sessions were also used to record the classes live, which allowed us to produce and publish two full video courses on YouTube, one in English and one in Portuguese.
This approach provided real-time support while also creating lasting learning material for future students.
The image below shows the number of students attending the live sessions on Discord throughout the cohorts.
Marketing Performance
Most of our marketing efforts focused on content marketing through our main channels. We invested in creating high-quality content to attract students who were truly aligned with the course goals, rather than just casual visitors. The only paid media we used was Google Ads, targeting key search terms related to bootcamps and Web3 software development courses with Rust.
On Twitter, our posts reached over 100,000 impressions and received more than 7,000 likes. Below are some of the top-performing posts:
Polkadot Threads with Technical Content:
- Polkadot 2.0
- Thread about RWA on Polkadot
- Snowbridge
- PolkaVM
- Polkadot State Q2
- JAM
- Coretime
- Agile Coretime
- Asynchronous Backing
- Stable Polkadot-SDK
- Reactive DOT
- Polkadot.JS
Email marketing also played a key role. We sent a total of 33,936 emails to our student base, with an impressive 33.8% open rate, resulting in 11,417 opens and 489 clicks showing registration intent.
Our Rust-focused content on YouTube also contributed significantly. Across all playlists, we reached over 95k views and recorded 2562 hours of total watch time.
Most viewed videos in the playlists:
- Rust vs C: Type Safety Showdown – See How Rust Prevents Common Errors
- Rust vs C vs Python: Performance Showdown – Which Language is Fastest?
- Rust #0.1 - Getting Started: Setting Up Your First Project
- Rust #0.2 - Setting Up Code Formatting: Using Rust Analyzer and Rustfmt
We also used Instagram and LinkedIn to promote the course to potential students. Below you can find a few examples of the posts we shared:
Conclusion
During this program, we built a strong learning experience and a growing community around Rust and Polkadot. We also learned some important lessons that will help us improve in the future.
One key lesson we’ve learned is that our biggest impact comes from focusing on developers transitioning from Web2 to Web3. Students without prior experience were often more engaged and had higher completion rates. This suggests that our content and approach are especially effective for beginners looking to build a solid foundation.
We also saw that our direct support and follow-up during the course had a significant impact. Students who reached out with questions or asked for help were much more likely to finish the course. Personal interaction and timely guidance keep people motivated and on track. It demonstrates the value of regional and community approaches.
These lessons will help guide our strategy as we continue to grow this initiative and support even more Web2 developers in joining the Polkadot ecosystem with confidence.
Notes
- GitHub - w3b3d3v/web3-bootcamp-platform
- GitHub - w3b3d3v/rust-state-machine: A Polkadot SDK-like state machine written from scratch in Rust.
- GitHub - w3b3d3v/rust-grupo-estudo
- GitHub - w3b3d3v/blockchain-from-scratch: A tutorial to build your own blockchain in Rust from the ground up
- GitHub - w3b3d3v/rust-benckmark