Sponsorship for active devs and community members during Polkadot Symbiosis in Buenos Aires

[Lynette]

Name: Lynette

Country & Region: Nairobi, Kenya, Africa

Summary of activities (last six months):

For the past six months, I have been thoroughly exploring the Polkadot ecosystem and taken the initiative to empower my local developer community to build on Polkadot:

1. Polkadot Ambassadorship: In January 2025, I joined the Polkadot Ambassador Fellowship as an Associate ambassador (rank 1) and have been using this connection to further empower my community and host meetups.
2. PBA-X Wave 1 2025: I took part in PBA-X wave 1 from Jan-Feb 2025 and got my certification in Feb 2025. Through this program, I got to understand fundamental Polkadot concepts, cryptography, game theory and build mini-projects using Substrate. This foundational understanding was crucial for leading meetups in Nairobi and passing along accurate information.
3. Polkadot Blockchain Academy 7 - Bali with distinction (August - September 2025): I took part in and graduated with distinction from PBA Bali, Protocol (on-chain) track. I had the opportunity to learn from core Polkadot developers about the protocols that make up the foundation of Polkadot like ELVES, erasure coding, SCALE Codec, FRAME, XCM, JAM, among others. During this time, I also got the chance to interact with faculty and students who are heavily interested and involved in developing Polkadot.
4. Polkadot Africa: I am a member of Polkadot Africa and have contributed to their initiatives of onboarding African developers to the Polkadot ecosystem by collaborating with them to host meetups.
5. Polkadot meetups in Kenya: Since January 2025, I have hosted and taken part in numerous Polkadot meetups that have happened across Kenya. I have also led 3 technical meetups in Nairobi (2 funded by Meetups Bounty and 1 by Polkadot Nairobi Roots) where I guided developers to create custom pallets on Substrate, use the Polkadot API and write their first smart contracts in ink!.

Women in Polkadot

Polkadot Meetups

Polkadot Meetups

K 🐦‍⬛

Rust Kisumu

6. Polkadot Nairobi developer study group: I have started a Polkadot Nairobi dev study group, with 15 developers, where we aim to explore Polkadot from the very basics to the advanced topics. I lead the sessions by combining online sessions with physical meetups where we explore various topics like FRAME, ink!, PAPI among others. Each topic is usually followed up with a programming task which keeps the devs engaged and allows them to practice their new skills.

Motivation for the Scholarship:

I would love to attend Polkadot Sub0 so as to gain more connections with the greater Polkadot community and strengthen the networks that I have created through my past activities. By attending this global event, I can learn a lot more that can help me grow my local community so they can eventually start contributing to the Polkadot ecosystem. Also, I would get the chance to highlight the growth of Polkadot in Africa to the global community and invite more focus, collaborations and initiatives to this region.

On a personal level, attending this global event will help me stay up to date on Polkadot’s development, getting updates straight from the core developers. I can also get the chance to find other ways I can contribute to the Polkadot ecosystem meaningfully, especially through the skills I have gained at the Polkadot Blockchain Academy. I believe I have a lot that I can add to the Polkadot ecosystem and this exposure would make a huge difference.

[thewhiterabbitM]

I wouldn’t want to be in the teams’ shoes right now, there are some real ‘must-haves’ among the candidates!

[niklasp]

Name or nickname: Niklas (@niftesty)

Country and region: Berlin, Germany, Europe

Github: niklasp (Niklas P) · GitHub

Motivation

As active community member with several positions and active projects it is always good to network with fellow developers. I especially want to connect with fellow curators and talk about how we can improve grants, UX, DevEx and discuss some RFP ideas. I have no other source of funding available at the moment.

Summary of activities:

1. Currently building polkadot-ui, a react component library of customizable components build on papi/reactive-dot and dedot/typink. With MCP server to quickly allow agents to make use of the components. Funded by UX bounty.
2. UX bounty curator since 6 month where I focus on DevEx and help improving UX on polkadot in different initiatives
3. Received ink!ubator grant for building a smart contract solution for managing treasuries
4. Last week joined the W3F Open Source Grant team as Curator (hi @abhiraj-mengade )
5. PBA #2 Graduate Buenos Aires
6. Successful treasury proposals for a polkadot-nextjs template
7. Several other website projects, e.g. building new website for ink! and currently building for r0gue (see all at https://eedee.net)
8. Regularly posting on X about polkadot @niftesty
9. Applied for a talk at sub0 about “Prompting your way to good UX - How polkadot-ui changes frontend development in Polkadot (and beyond)”
10. Beta tested PDP and helped facilitate https://createdot.app/

Thank you for considering, Niklas

[CoinReference]

hahahaha, doing our best

[Cecilia_Mulandi]

Amazing initiative !
Name: Cecilia Mulandi
Country & Region: Nairobi, Kenya,Africa

Summary of activities from the last six months:

1. Participation in PBA-X Wave 1 (Jan–Feb 2025): I successfully completed the PBA-X Wave 1 program and received certification. During the program, I gained a strong foundation in the Polkadot ecosystem, including key concepts such as cryptography, blockchain economics, and game theory. I also acquired hands-on technical skills through practical exercises: including building a Rust-based state machine, which deepened my understanding of the Polkadot SDK and Substrate development.
2. Polkadot Ambassadorship: In August this year, I joined the Polkadot Ambassador Fellowship as a rank 0 member.
3. Polkadot Africa and Polkadot Kenya Meetups: I am a member of the Polkadot Africa group and I have been active in the community. I have spoken at events like the Polkadot Kisumu meetups(https://x.com/kratist0s/status/1967176090407023007) where I encouraged developers to start their journey in Polkadot. I further, onboarded a few interested developers and have personally offered technical support to them.
4. Graduation from Polkadot Blockchain Academy 7 (Aug–Sept 2025):
   I completed the Protocol Track of PBA7, a deeply technical and transformative experience. I gained advanced knowledge in SCALE, Substrate, FRAME, XCM, and on-chain governance. I had the opportunity to collaborate with core Polkadot engineers, such as Cisco Aguirre during the XCM assignment and Shawn Tabrizi on the pallet assignment, and engaged in insightful discussions around Polkadot’s future, including JAM.

Motivation for the Scholarship
Having just graduated from PBA7 and experienced firsthand the power of in-person collaboration with some of the core engineers, I’m excited about the opportunity to attend Polkadot Sub0 and continue building those technical relationships. The discussions I had during PBA7 about JAM and the future of Polkadot sparked ideas that I’m eager to explore further with the broader community of builders and researchers who will be gathering in Buenos Aires.

As someone who’s been actively onboarding developers in Kenya and speaking at local meetups, I see Sub0 as a chance to bridge the gap between the cutting-edge developments happening at the protocol level and the practical applications we’re building in Africa. The developers I’ve been mentoring are hungry for real-world insights about FRAME development and XCM implementation, and I know that the knowledge and connections I’d gain at Sub0 would directly benefit their learning journey. Plus, I’m genuinely curious to see how other regions are approaching Polkadot adoption and what unique challenges or solutions might emerge from those conversations that we could adapt for the African context.

[Hari-Bombon]

Name/Nickname: Hari Priya (haripriya)
Country/Region: India, Chennai

About me
I’m building with Kanalabs and also an H.E.R. DAO Ambassador, actively contributing to Polkadot projects alongside my teammates - https://github.com/Her-Dao/Incubator .

I’m also leading the upcoming Road to Sub0 India – Builders Meetup in Chennai. Being well connected across India’s Web3 communities like SheFi, The Phoenix Guild, Web3Chennai, TrustWallet and more helps me effectively onboard and guide new builders.

Why sponsorship matters
Polkadot’s presence in India is still growing, and I’m passionate about helping it thrive. Attending Sub0 Buenos Aires would give me the chance to learn directly from Polkadot core developers and bring that knowledge back to my community.

My goal is to grow the Polkadot developer ecosystem in India through workshops, meetups, and collaborative projects creating opportunities for builders to turn their ideas into real world solutions.

Links:
[Twitter/X] -https://x.com/Hari_priyoo

[missygmimi]

Name: Wanjiku Njoroge
Country and Region: East Africa/Nairobi/Africa
I have been exploring Polkadot from 2023, since after Polkadot Safari 2023, https://x.com/TheSafariDAO/status/1640411546470760453.

From 2024, I have contributing to various events and doing design work. Represented and contributed at Eth safari 2024 https://x.com/PolkadotAfrica/status/1833373213163745715?t=J530LNmQpbiXQ8Ubu00DyQ&s=19, Polkadot meetup Nairobi https://x.com/NiwagabaJoab2/status/1808990223562592347

Summary of the last six months:

• I am a PBA-X wave 1 2025 Alumni, Polkadot ambassador and agent, member of women in Polkadot. Gamer here playing pudgy party. Polkadot Africa Agent.

Events:
1.Launched PolkadotKenya(Nairobi hub):https://x.com/kratist0s/status/1880816926487908632, Polkadot Nairobi Meet-Up · Luma .

2.Co-hosted rust workshops in Nairobi: Polkadot Nairobi and Rustaceans Kenya workshop: Rust traits, super traits and trait objects · Luma

3.Co-hosted Dev workshops Nairobi:
I) Polkadot Nairobi Dev Study Group · Luma
II) Polkadot Nairobi Dev Meetup · Luma

4.Hosted and was a speaker at Polkadot for women event. Onboarded women to Women of Polkadot community: https://x.com/PolkadotAfrica/status/1907402318091354114, Polkadot For Women · Luma ,
5.Launched Polkadot in Kisumu: https://x.com/kratist0s/status/1918902157534707737,https://x.com/Odinga_Val/status/1918691036206866864 Polkadot Kisumu · Luma

6.Polkadot Pop-up(hosted ambassadors and core community members to discuss scaling and future plans) - https://x.com/Wanjiku11374431/status/1936150784888226039

Ecosystem building work:

1.Design and artwork for Polkadot Africa: I have been creating designs for posters and banners, as well as art for POAPS and merch for Polkadot Africa since January. Here is the portfolio: My work - Google Sheets

2.I have done community/ecosystem building (Marketing, Communications, partnerships/representation and logistics facilitation) for the Polkadot community in Kenya since 2024.

3.Part of the team representing and coordinating Polkadot sponsorship in Eth Ethiopia which as a result has a budding community in Ethiopia.

4.Was sponsored and attended Kenya blockchain and crypto conference on behalf of Polkadot Africa for future collaborations.

5.Invited to Polkadot Kampala meetup where we had a convo on Polkadot community development in Uganda and got to meet with the Ugandan Community. https://x.com/KamalaImmac/status/1939619253864521828

5.Currently working on road to subzero Nairobi.

6.I have been taking content during Kenyan meetups.

My motivation:
My motivation to attend Sub0 2025 is centered on connecting with the people who are actively shaping the Polkadot ecosystem. I want to engage with developers, ambassadors, and contributors to strengthen bridges between the global community and the hubs we are building in East Africa. By doing so, I can open up opportunities for developers in my region to discover and contribute to new projects, while also identifying areas where our local communities can partner meaningfully with existing initiatives.

I also see Sub0 as a chance to approach key stakeholders and entities that could support our regional growth through collaborations or knowledge exchange. These relationships will not only benefit the Kenyan and East African community but also ensure our voice is present in shaping the broader ecosystem.

On a personal level, I want to expand my understanding of Polkadot’s technical side so I can better evaluate how to design and possibly build my own project on Polkadot.

Sub0 will give me the knowledge, connections, and inspiration to bring back valuable insights, strengthen our community, and position East Africa as an active contributor to Polkadot’s future.

[thewoodfish]

Name or Nickname:
Adedeji (@thewoodfish)

Country and Region:
Nigeria, West Africa

I joined the Polkadot ecosystem in 2022, winning my first hackathon — the Polkadot Hackathon: North America Edition in the Web3 and Tooling category. I then began exploring parachains, which led to another win at the Polkadot Hackathon: Europe Edition for building a property solution fo West Africa on KILT. These early experiences solidified my commitment to contributing to the ecosystem.

Summary of Activities in the Last Six Months:
Over the past six months, I have actively contributed as both a developer and community member by:

• Mentoring and providing technical support during the 1inch <> Polkadot Hackathon.
• Serving as a tutor in the Polkadot Africa ink! Bootcamp.
• Maintaining SwarmNL, an open-source library supported by the Web3 Foundation (GitHub).
• Sharing hackathon strategies as a guest speaker for devs across the ecosystem (reference).
• Presenting SwarmNL at the Web3 Summit in July.

In the past year, I have also:

• Received a Level 3 Web3 Foundation Grant.
• Served as a core developer for SwarmNL, advancing real-time synchronization for decentralized applications.
• Contributed to ecosystem growth through hackathon participation, mentorship, and community knowledge-sharing.

Motivation for Sponsorship:
Polkadot Symbiosis in Buenos Aires represents a key opportunity to strengthen my technical expertise, showcase the progress of ongoing projects like SwarmNL, and engage in meaningful collaboration with other builders shaping the ecosystem. Being there in person will allow me to learn directly from ecosystem leaders, exchange ideas with fellow developers, and bring valuable insights back to Africa — where I am committed to fostering developer growth and ecosystem adoption. Sponsorship will not only accelerate my personal development but also extend the reach and impact of Polkadot across new regions.

[Sirjey]

Name: Sirjey

Country & Region: Nigeria, Africa

Summary of activities (last six months):

• I am Sirjey, a blockchain expert with a focus on community building, BD, and education, with over half a decade of experience in Web3. I currently serve as a Senior Polkadot Ambassador, Meetups Bounty Curator, and a community-building Mentor at Polkadot Africa. I’ve been an active event host and speaker at numerous Polkadot and Web3 gatherings, both online and offline, and have mentored 2,000+ individuals across Northern Nigeria through meetups and workshops.

• Polkadot Ambassadorship (Jan 2025 – Present): I joined the Polkadot Ambassador Fellowship as a Senior Ambassador (Rank III) and have been actively using this role to empower my community in Northern Nigeria through consistent events, mentorship, and educational content.

• PBA-X Wave 2, 2025 (April–May 2025): I successfully completed PBA-X Wave 1 and received certification in February 2025. This experience helped me gain a solid foundation in cryptography, game theory, and Substrate basics, which I’ve used to train and onboard local developers.

• Polkadot Africa Community (Jan 2025 – Present): As the Community Building mentor for Polkadot Africa, I coordinate community engagement across multiple regions through online mentorship, including building an active community and mentoring new contributors. I joined the Polkadot Africa team at Africa Tech Expo Lagos and also at the Web3Lagos Conference, where I helped at the booth to facilitate conversations, talk to people about polkadot, and share valuable connections and resources with participants

• Polkadot Events in Nigeria: Since January 2025, I’ve organized and co-hosted multiple Polkadot meetups across Nigeria, including the Polkadot Networking Eve Kano Q2 and Polkadot Networking Eve Q3, Polkadot meetup Kaduna, and Polkadot Popup Kano, all these events, supported by the Meetups Bounty and the Event Bounty, have introduced developers, students, and blockchain enthusiasts to the Polkadot ecosystem.

• Content and Creativity: I have created content about polkadot and my events on X and actively used the dotmemo to create NFTs for meetups in Northern Nigeria

• OpenGov Contributions: I am an active member of the KusDao, where I participate in OpenGov decision-making, and I am currently contributing as an RFP supervisor.

  Motivation for the Sponsorship:

Attending Sub0 Symbiosis 2025 in Buenos Aires would give me the opportunity to bring Africa’s voice and contributions to a global stage while strengthening my capacity as a Polkadot ambassador and advocate, making valuable connections to foster growth in the African region. By connecting directly with Polkadot core developers and ecosystem teams, I will gain advanced knowledge that I can transfer back into my regional work, empowering African builders to become active contributors to the Polkadot ecosystem.

[charley]

It’s not letting me post more than 2 links here so I’ve put my application into a doc. Thanks for your consideration

Polkadot Symbiosis Application - Charley RIedel

[BabesPapes]

your name or nickname
Saro (@babespapes)

Your country and region
Munich, Germany

A summary of your last six months of activities as an active member of the community

As a Polkadot head ambassador for the German speaking markets I did the following in the last 6 months:

• Participated in the Web3Summit hackathon

• Hosting bi-monthly online calls for the German speaking markets (see Polkadot Discord - Events channel)

• helping DACH community members with treasury proposals and OpenGov in general

A paragraph explaining why you would like to benefit from sponsorship
Attending various Polkadot events, such as Decoded and Web3Summit, has been an incredible opportunity to connect with a diverse and passionate community. These experiences have underscored the importance of building meaningful relationships with fellow ambassadors, team members, node operators, and friends. The engaging and well-organized atmosphere at these events creates the perfect environment for collaborative discussions and innovative exchanges within the Polkadot ecosystem.
I am particularly excited about the upcoming sub0 hackathon, where I hope to build on the project I started during the Web3Summit hackathon. I would be grateful for your support to participate in the hackathon, where I can continue to contribute to and learn from this vibrant community.

Much Love and thanks for this initiative, BsPs!

[clangenb]

Hey dear LATAM Team!

Thanks for this supportive initiative. I would love to apply!

Name: Christian Langenbacher
GitHub: clangenb · GitHub
Location: Zurich, Switzerland

My recent activity

I am an OG Polkadot ecosystem coder who started at Integritee and Encointer, and later also join Ajuna. Nowadays, I mostly do occasional work for these projects and for the Polkadot Fellowship. My GitHub handle shows my activity with respect to that.

My latest Polkadot-SDK work is adding some nice XCM V5 APIs, which facilitates that parachain pallets can manage funds on another chain. A feature that I have based on some a PR that I did for Encointer.

Additionally, I am finally adding some more XCM examples to the cookbook. It is not merged yet.

Lastly, I am currently applying for a Rank II promotion in the Polkadot Fellowship. The application may give some additional information of my recent work if wished.

Reasons for Attending

I intend to prepare a little talk, which explains some XCM fundamentals and dives into my XCM work in general. I have already talked to Ernih about this (not about my application for the sponsorship though.).

As a future Rank II fellowship member, I am eager to learn where the (dev-)community is at now and how I could contribute to help onboarding new devs and help in whatever way possible.

Who knows, if the situation presents itself, I am also willing to start a new project. I have some capacity, but I lack the spark of inspiriation still.

Cheers Chris

[pasho3]

Name: Brandon Aguilar (Pasho)

Country and Region: Mexico / Americas (LATAM)

Summary of activities in the last six months

I’ve been working on Quickjobs, a platform for remote gigs that we integrated with Vara Network over the past year. The platform aims to create a decentralized job marketplace with an oracle service for job reviews and trustless escrow for payments. You can check it out at quickjobs.app and the repo at GitHub - olyvialabs/job-market-oracle-gear: Job Market Salary Range using Vara network .

Besides Quickjobs, I’ve been developing two other projects - Emojipay (using emojis usernames as payment addresses) and SolDrive (decentralized file transfers based on DIDs). While these are currently on other chains, I’m interested in exploring how they could work within the Polkadot ecosystem. My GitHub is @0xpasho where you can see my commits from the past year.

I’ve been in the blockchain space since 2017, working as a Lead Software Engineer. This year I spoke at some Web3 development events sharing experiences about building decentralized applications. I also applied for a W3F grant for the Quickjobs platform, though haven’t received funding yet.

During the past months, I’ve been participating in hackathons and have public repositories from these events where I worked on Vara Network implementations. Also I created a project named MobilX(https://mobilx.ai/), which is a platform to generate mobile applications with just text or images as reference, fully working apps(I’m planning on making an integration on chain to make a marketplace instead of the current implementation which are direct credits that are not incorporated with blockchain).

Why I would like to benefit from this sponsorship

As someone that have built on Vara Network from Mexico, attending Sub0 Symbiosis would help me connect with other developers in the ecosystem and learn from their experiences. I’m particularly interested in understanding better how to optimize our current implementation and meet teams working on similar problems.
Also I want to implement blockchain to the new project I have named MobilX which is a mobile app generator with AI, in which I want to integrate a marketplace on chain based on mobile applications.

I plan to participate in the hackathons during the event and attend the side events happening in Buenos Aires. This would be a great opportunity to learn about the latest developments in Polkadot and bring that knowledge back to the Mexican dev community.

The financial support would make it possible for me to attend, as covering flights and accommodation from Mexico would be challenging otherwise. I’m committed to sharing what I learn through social media during the event and with the local community when I return.

[EmanHerawy]

Name: Eman Herawy
Country and Region: Egypt, MENA (Middle East & North Africa)
Github : EmanHerawy (Eman Herawy) · GitHub

Bio:
I’m a blockchain developer and smart contract security auditor with 6+ years of hands-on experience designing, building, and securing decentralized applications. I began my journey in 2017 specializing in Solidity and EVM-based smart contracts, and over the past two years have expanded into security auditing to help strengthen blockchain protocols and protect user funds.

My technical expertise spans Solidity, Rust, and emerging languages like Move, enabling me to build robust, multi-chain solutions. I’ve won +10 international Web3 hackathons, including three focused on blockchain security tools — demonstrating both technical depth and creative problem-solving.

As a smart contract auditor, I’ve audited 10+ projects during my internship at Nethermind and continue to sharpen my skills through public audit contests on Sherlock, Cantina, and CodeHawks.

As a proud Chainlink Developer Expert, I have hands-on experience integrating CCIP, VRF, Price Feeds, Functions, and Automation to create secure, innovative applications. I’ve also earned the Macro Smart Contract Security Fellowship Badge and the Chainlink Developer Yellow Belt, further validating my commitment to security and excellence.

As a Polkadot Blockchain Academy 7 Alumni (Protocol Track, Bali 2025), I was recognized as the most active student in my cohort, gaining deep expertise in Substrate, FRAME, and Polkadot’s core architecture.

Beyond technical work, I’m passionate about community empowerment. I’m the founder of Arabs in Blockchain, the first and largest Arabic-speaking Web3 community dedicated to educating and connecting Arab developers and builders. I also co-founded NoonDAO, the first Arab women-led DAO empowering Arab women to lead and innovate in blockchain.

I am honored to be a TechWomen Emerging Tech Leader (2022), a Devcon Scholar Alumni, and hold a Master’s degree in Cloud Computing Networks from Cairo University (2020).

Key Highlights:
6+ years of blockchain development (Solidity & EVM)
1–2 years of smart contract security auditing
PBA7 Alumni - Most Active Student Recognition
Chainlink Developer Expert & Macro Security Fellow
10-time international Web3 hackathon winner
Founder empowering Arab talent in Web3
Passionate mentor & community builder

I’m dedicated to building secure, scalable decentralized systems — and empowering the next generation of Web3 innovators.
Summary of Last Six Months Activities:

Polkadot Ecosystem Engagement:

• PBA7 Alumni (Protocol Track, Bali 2025) - recognized as most active student in class

• I’m currently exploring the OGRust bounty, working with some PBA 7 alumni colleagues “ in progress “.

  Broader Web3 Ecosystem Activities:

  Development & Security:

  • GitHub: EmanHerawy (Eman Herawy) · GitHub - active contributions across blockchain projects

  • Smart Contract Auditing: Ongoing participation in Sherlock, Cantina, CodeHawks audit contests

  • Security Achievements: 9 High Severity findings and 1 Low Severity finding in CodeHawks First Flights

  • CodeHawks Author: Created 2 First Flights in Aptos Move, contributing to security education

  • Educational Content: Author of DailyMove educational threads, advancing Move language adoption

  Hackathon Victories (overall +10 international hackathon wins, but for the last 6 months):

  • EthGlobal Taipei 2025 - Finalist and Bounties Winner

  • Project: Ethereum Fighter 2025 - strategy-based competition smart contracts with Zama FHE integration

  • Agentic Ethereum - Bounty Winner

  Community Leadership:

  • Arabs in Blockchain: founder of Arabs in Blockchain, the first and largest Arabic-speaking Web3 community dedicated to educating and connecting Arab developers and builders.

  • NoonDAO: the first Arab women-led DAO empowering Arab women to lead and innovate in blockchain.

  • Chainlink Developer Expert

  Why I Would Like to Benefit from This Sponsorship:

  As a PBA7 Alumni recognized for exceptional engagement, attending Sub0 Symbiosis would enable me to deepen my Polkadot expertise while bridging the global ecosystem with the underrepresented MENA region. The knowledge gained will directly benefit 1,000+ developers in Arabs in Blockchain through workshops and educational programs, creating a multiplier effect. With my security auditing background, I can contribute meaningful insights to Polkadot’s technical discussions. I’ll also participate in H.E.R. DAO Activation @ Sub0, advancing women’s representation in the ecosystem. This sponsorship would enable me to represent both technical excellence and community building potential from emerging markets at Polkadot’s premier technical gathering.

[sneha_1907]

Name: Sneha Gupta
Country/Region: India, Jharkhand

About Me

I’m currently building with DanLabs and am an active member of H.E.R. DAO, where I’ll also be part of the H.E.R. DAO activation at Sub0. Recently, I graduated from the Polkadot Blockchain Academy Wave 7 (Dapps track), which gave me deeper insights into Polkadot’s technology and ecosystem.

With over 2 years of experience in EVM development, I’ve built decentralized applications, contributed to open-source Web3 projects, and won 15+ hackathons across different ecosystems. I’m passionate about creating real-world impact through Web3 and regularly engage with the Indian blockchain community. I will also be attending the Polkadot Sub0 meetup in Delhi, contributing to the grassroots growth of the ecosystem here.

Why Sponsorship Matters

Polkadot’s presence in India is still emerging, and I want to play an active role in accelerating that growth. Attending Sub0 Buenos Aires would give me the chance to learn directly from Polkadot core developers, understand the latest in Substrate and Polkadot, and connect with global builders.

I plan to bring this knowledge back to India by organizing developer workshops, meetups, and hackathons empowering more builders to join Polkadot and turn their ideas into meaningful solutions.

Links

Twitter: https://x.com/sneha_1907

[Arkain]

Name / Nickname:
Amir Keshavarzian = Arkain / Generative Artist, Polkadot Ambassador

Country / Region:
Asia / Iran, Tehran

---

Summary of last 6 months activities

1 – Generative Art & Creative Coding Contributions

• Active as a generative artist and creative coder (JavaScript, p5.js).

• Working under the brand Arkain – Generative Artist and as a Polkadot Ambassador.

• Over one year of collaboration as an Artist and Ambassador with Koda.art and Chaotic, the main marketplaces for art and NFTs in the Polkadot community.

• Expertise in code troubleshooting and Code Checker compliance to support artists in preparing their works for NFT minting on Polkadot.

• All my collections have been fully minted on Polkadot, receiving positive reception from collectors and the community. (Since I can’t post more than 2 links, I suggest you search for Arkain on beta.Chaotic.art to see my collections.)

2 – Community Recognition & Ecosystem Impact

• Recognition from key community leaders:

  • Bill Laboon mentioned and praised my art in an interview. https://x.com/ArkainArt/status/1949571687168508250

  • Dr. Gavin Wood highlighted my tattoo-based collection submitted for the Entropretty contest, calling it worthy.

    

• Participation in a competition organized by NASA and BitBasel in collaboration with Polkadot; my artwork was selected and will soon be sent to the Moon via a rover. I am proud that the image of this artwork was published for the first time by the official Polkadot Twitter page and received great reception. https://x.com/Polkadot/status/1923368683637744117

• Continuous efforts to expand generative art within the Polkadot ecosystem.

• Publishing multiple posts, threads, and educational content about generative art and creative coding for the community and new artists.

3 – Community Involvement & Onboarding

• Supporting and onboarding new artists to prepare their generative art for Chaotic, the largest generative art marketplace in the Polkadot ecosystem.

• Active in different Polkadot groups and recently joined the Polkadot Ambassadors program.

• Dedicated to keeping art alive in the community as a driver of creativity and value.

4 – Innovative Ideas for the Ecosystem

• Developing an idea for a creative social platform specifically for the Polkadot ecosystem, where members can share art, writings, and other creative content. The platform would include features such as likes, comments, sharing, and small rewards, designed to strengthen community engagement and create more opportunities for artists. The idea is inspired by projects like rodeo.club, but adapted specifically for Polkadot.

• Conceptualizing an evolving NFT collection for the Polkadot community, where NFTs go beyond static images and can grow and change based on community participation, voting, and available tools. This approach encourages more engagement and allows influential community members to have unique and evolving NFTs.

---

Why I would like to receive sponsorship

I want to participate in Sub0 Symbiosis to represent the artistic and creative coding side of Polkadot, share my experience as a generative artist and ambassador, and connect with builders and developers to advance ideas that bring more value to the community. Attending this event will allow me to network with experts, find potential collaborators for my proposed platform and evolving NFT concept, and continue onboarding artists into the ecosystem.

---

Future Contribution & Plans at Sub0

• Represent Polkadot Generative Artist and Ambassador.

• Network with builders, artists, and developers to explore collaborations.

• Share content and experiences about Sub0 on X, Warpcast, and community channels.

• Bring back knowledge and insights to support the onboarding and growth of artists in the ecosystem.

[lunaticanto]

Gm community!

Nickname: Luna | @Lunaticanto
Country & Region: France, Europe

In the past 6 months I participated in Medellín Blockchain Week 2025 and later supported the Polkadot America and Space4Build teams in organizing an educational space ahead of the Nerdconf hackathon. Polkadot Symbiosis is my opportunity to take part in my very first global Polkadot event, connect strategically with the community, and bring back all the knowledge and experiences to communities worldwide as a digital nomad.

I want to deepen my understanding of the ecosystem so I can start building within it and attract creators from my community. As a content creator and community builder, I’d love to support the team before, during, and after the event through:

• Participating in Spaces or live events as a host or guest, encouraging the community to join and learn about the experience.

• Creating content in Spanish or English about Polkadot and the event.

• Conducting interviews (in Spanish or English) with key ecosystem personalities.

• Producing a recap video to share highlights and takeaways with the community.

Blockchain gives us the power to create and grow without limits, and Polkadot is a project where I’d love to add value to both the community and new users. That’s why I decided to send my application.

I’m currently based in Europe, but in 2026 I’d love to return to LATAM to build alongside those who are creating solutions, tools, and safe spaces for learning.

Luna🌜

[MariaMatyushina]

Name: Maria Matyushina

Country: Serbia (Europe)

Bio

4+ years in Polkadot ecosystem: Polkadot Ambassador, Director of Engineering at Unique Network (Polkadot parachain), co-creator of NFTMozaic. UX/DX expert in the Polkadot ecosystem: working on builder-friendly experiences and consumer apps. I lead specs and delivery for Web2→Web3 dApps and publish practical playbooks that help teams build faster.

Summary of the Last 6 Months

1) Program Leadership on Polkadot (Unique Network)

• TapNation: Web2→Web3 rewards at scale.
  Shipped a reward-mode funnel for a mobile game publisher—Web2-friendly SDK, deep-link wallet flows, and claim automation so players earn blockchain rewards without prior crypto knowledge.
  Outcome: 700k+ wallets onboarded in under 6 months (Top-3 across Polkadot Parachains); funnel designed for repeatable, low-friction UX and measured against adoption KPIs.

  • Polkadot Newsroom –Unique Network and TapNation: Blockchain rewards for mobile gamers

• Ecosystem metrics (DotLake).
  — 170k avg Monthly Active Accounts over the last 6 months (Top-5 across Polkadot Parachains)
  — 1M+ unique accounts (Rank #5 across Polkadot Parachains)
  — 3M+ NFTs minted (Rank #2 across Polkadot Parachains)

2) Ecosystem Products & Content (NFTMozaic)

• Code example & starter template.

  • Building on-chain gaming experiences with Unique Network EVM

  • Building NFT Applications on Polkadot Virtual Machine with Smart Contracts

  • One-command app template

• Use-case library and Journal #2 (developer playbook hub). Pallets/SDKs, interop patterns, concise decision flows.

3) Ambassador Work

• Polkadot Ambassador Fellowship Polkadot Pop-Up Summer — proof-of-presence app (built from scratch, launched).

• Token 2049 DotNight app — proof-of-presence app (built from scratch, launched).

Why I’m Applying for Sponsorship

At Symbiosis, I want to share what our team at Unique has learned from maintaining our own EVM implementation for 4+ years building compatibility layers with Rust/Substrate. I intend to prepare a talk about the EVM-coder solution we’ve built. I’m also looking to compare notes with builders working on PVM and JAM, gather feedback, and calibrate where we can contribute next (precompiles, tooling, and DX patterns). I don’t have other travel funding and will stay within the Europe cap with receipt‑based reimbursement.

[jpnovochadlo]

Application for Sponsorship – Polkadot sub0 Symbiosis

Name / Nickname
João Pedro Novochadlo – Co-founder of PolkaIdentity
linkedin.com/in/jpnovochadlo - x.com/PolkaIdentity

Country / Region
Brazil – South America

Summary of activities (last 6 months)
I am co-founder of PolkaIdentity, an identity-first registrar service officially recognized in the Polkadot ecosystem. We are an official registrar on both Polkadot (Referendum #1192) and Kusama (Referendum #418). Importantly, PolkaIdentity was created through a referendum with no grant requested—we built it freely for the ecosystem, by and for the community.

Recent highlights include:

• Integrations: listed on with major wallet providers such as Nova, Subwallet, Mimir.

• Ecosystem validation: PolkaIdentity was a finalist at the PBA Pitch Competition in Lucerne 2025, presenting our identity vision to the ecosystem.

• 

• Registrar services: Operating as registrar in Polkadot and Kusama, providing judgements, identity verification, SubIdentities, and “clear identity” flows.

• KYC & adoption: Developing portable, privacy-preserving KYC solutions, within our platform.

• Community engagement: Active participant in Polkadot identity and governance discussions, publishing content and collaborating with builders on onboarding and fraud prevention.

My responsibilities within PolkaIdentity
As co-founder, I:

• Designed user flows, interfaces and experiences for the dApp.

• Lead go-to-market strategy and position PolkaIdentity within the ecosystem.

• Drive marketing and communication, making our work accessible to both technical and non-technical audiences.

• Conduct business development and partnerships with parachain teams and projects.

• Engage with governance and community forums, ensuring visibility and adoption.

• Support my co-founder and tech lead, Leonardo Custodio, aligning technical progress with adoption strategies.

Individual accomplishments
Beyond PolkaIdentity, my professional background includes:

• Former Head of Marketing Brazil at Socios. com / Chiliz, driving global Web3 fan token adoption and partnerships with leading sports organizations.

• Recognized as a BRICS Young Innovator (2021) and a Future Maker (2025), both by the BRICS+ Council, representing Brazil in global innovation forums.

• Awarded with +20 prizes across multiple technological projects.

Objectives at sub0 Symbiosis:

• Represent PolkaIdentity as an official registrar within the ecosystem.

• Collaborate with teams, developers, and community leaders to advance adoption of identity and onboarding solutions.

• Actively contribute to the event through workshops, networking, speeches, and side-events, delivering impact to the ecosystem.

• At the same time, learn and expand my knowledge, bringing back new perspectives and insights to strengthen both PolkaIdentity and the wider Polkadot community.

With sponsorship support, I will be able to fully engage in the event, ensuring PolkaIdentity and my individual expertise bring meaningful impact to the Polkadot ecosystem, while also representing Brazil and Latin America in this global conversation.

Excited to meet you all!

[GustavoJoppert]

• Gustavo Joppert Massena

• Portugal (Living on Portugal, doing Brazil and Portugal)

• 6 months contribution: Many of the achievements are a collective work of Sunsetlabs (Me, John and Gabe). During this period, I actively participated in meetups in Lisbon alongside Soraia Rocha, strengthening collaboration with the European community, and also organized and took part in major events in Brazil, such as Blockchain Rio 2025, contributing to technical discussions, business development initiatives, and community activation. On the educational front, I developed, with Lauro and John, the entire content, scripts, and co-directed more than 100 classes in three languages (over 300 videos) for the upcoming Polkadot.education platform, which will soon be launched publicly. In addition, I act as leader and co-founder of the Substrate / Polkadot SDK course, developed in collaboration with the founder of Polkadart and a professor from PUC PR, together with universities and major enterprises. The course is already underway, with GitHub repositories GitHub - curso-polkadot-sdk/formacao-blockchain-polkadot-sdk being constantly updated with modules, videos, and presentations, bridging academia, corporate adoption, and community learning. On the ecosystem development front, I have led the onboarding of major research and technology institutes in Brazil, such as INATEL and Instituto Eldorado, both with more than 30 years of contribution to national technological development. I have also built strategic connections with banks and fintechs, and consolidated institutional presence as the main partner of the Brazilian Crypto Association, an entity that gathers relevant industry players, including banks, and maintains direct relations with the financial system. In parallel, I developed a direct relationship with the Central Bank of Brazil, where I led the first atomic blockchain transaction in the country. We are currently advancing tests with payment institutions to integrate PIX on Chain, bringing Brazil’s widely adopted instant payments system (PIX) into blockchain infrastructure for secure, transparent, and programmable real-time settlement. Furthermore, I have supported the advancement of research and innovation initiatives, enabling investment benefits and co-grants with science and technology funds in Brazil, ranging from USD 30,000 to USD 500,000 per project. In addition, Sunsetlabs is expanding into Paraguay, introducing tokenization solutions directly at the Notary level. This innovation goes beyond tokenizing company shares, enabling the registration of tokens directly at the notary office, representing a groundbreaking model for ownership transfer and legal recognition. I also contribute as part of TrustlessDAO, a Decentralized Voices collective within the Polkadot ecosystem. Through this role, I actively participate in governance processes — including voting, submitting proposals, supporting teams, and engaging in various activities across OpenGov.

• Why should i have the support: Participating as a Speaker at Sub0 is not only a personal milestone but also a strategic opportunity to showcase Brazil’s contributions to the Polkadot/Substrate ecosystem, strengthen connections, and bring greater visibility to our region. Traveling to Buenos Aires, however, involves significant expenses — flights, accommodation, transportation, and meals — on top of the frequent business development trips I already manage with limited resources.