Polkadot News
You may have noticed some changes in the validator selection algorithm, leading to having multiple validators active in the same era. The fix is still being investigated.
Referendum #6 passed, which fixed some migration issues from the v24 upgrade. https://polkadot.subscan.io/referenda/6
In order to prevent such migration issues occurring in future upgrades, more protection will be added to the storage migration code. https://github.com/paritytech/substrate/issues/7210
A page has been added to the Polkadot wiki to help you learn how to protect yourself from scams: https://wiki.polkadot.network/docs/en/learn-scams
The issue with Polkadot-JS reading in JSON files has been fixed. https://github.com/polkadot-js/apps/issues/3765
On Tuesday, W3F's Kirsten Richard interviewed Laminar about their Acala parachain. https://www.crowdcast.io/e/testing-rococo-parachain/
The wiki page on governance has been updated to reflect latest changes to the Polkadot governance system. https://wiki.polkadot.network/docs/en/learn-governance
Join Parity on October 15th for Sub0 Online, a free developer-focused conference on developing on Substrate and the Polkadot ecosystem. https://sub0.parity.io
There is a Council proposal to increase the number of validator slots by one every era for 100 eras (so after 100 days, the number of validators will be 297) https://polkadot.polkassembly.io/motion/25
There is a Council motion currently being voted on to gradually increase the number of validators in the active set, one per era (day), for the next 100 days. This would also require stakeholders to vote on it to pass. https://polkadot.polkassembly.io/motion/25
Patract Labs has issued a Treasury Proposal for 0.2 of Redspot, an IDE for developing smart contracts in the Polkadot ecosystem. Proposal is here: https://polkadot.polkassembly.io/treasury/13 0.1 status update is here: https://polkadot.polkassembly.io/post/78
Supercomputing Systems issued a Treasury Proposal to develop a 2nd layer asynchronous sidechain protocol validated by trusted execution environments. https://polkadot.polkassembly.io/post/111
D5.ai issued a Treasury Proposal for SubstrateETL, which would allow Substrate blockchain data to be converted into formats suitable for ingestion to relational databases. https://polkadot.polkassembly.io/post/90
Due to the latest validator election, some low-balance nominators are no longer nominating. Please double-check your nominations and re-nominate if necessary. On the plus side, stake per nominator is now once again going to fewer validators instead of being split as much.
Council-proposed Referendum 7 is now up for voting. This will increase the size of the optimum active validator set by 1 every era (day) for 100 days. https://polkadot.js.org/apps/#/democracy
You can interact with a Substrate-based node (including Polkadot or Kusama) with Python using Polkascan's Python interface. https://github.com/polkascan/py-substrate-interface
Tips and Tricks
Want to know the total of how much of your account balance is locked and CAN be used for fees, vs how much is locked but CANNOT be used for fees? You can see the total by issuing a system.account(ACCOUNT) query and comparing feeFrozen vs miscFrozen. https://polkadot.js.org/apps/?rpc=wss%3A%2F%2Fcc1-1.polkadot.network#/chainstate
Found a mistake or want something explained more clearly on the wiki? Please file an issue here: https://github.com/w3f/polkadot-wiki/issues
Remember that if you vote (for Council members or Referenda), you have to unlock your votes after the locking period is over. Click on the three dots next to your account and select "Clear expired democracy votes".
If you don't like the little DOT icons used to represent your account, you can change your icon theme in the Polkadot-JS settings page. https://polkadot.js.org/apps/?rpc=wss%3A%2F%2Frpc.polkadot.io#/settings
Having trouble with some aspect of Polkadot? Check out our knowledge base which probably has the answer to your question. https://support.polkadot.network/
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