A round up of what’s new in the Polkadot universe, September 21 - 27, 2020
Polkadot News
There are currently several scams occurring. Please be careful. There is no DOT giveaway, admins will never DM you first, don't trust any URLs that people send you.
The Ledger issue of incompatibility with the latest Polkadot runtime has been fixed and a new version is in Ledger Live. Please be sure to update your application in Ledger Live.
A very interesting chart - despite much-increased usage of the network (measured by transactions) since Polkadot's launch on 25 May, block time has remained remarkably consistent at ~ 6 seconds. https://polkascan.io/polkadot/analytics/chart/utcday-blocktime-avg-line-0
Motion 20, which would issue a referendum to upgrade the runtime to v24, is currently being voted by the Council. Among other things, this would bump the max number of nominators per validator to 256. https://github.com/paritytech/polkadot/releases/tag/v0.8.24
Moonbase Alpha, the testnet for Moonbeam, has launched. Moonbeam is an Ethereum-compatible smart contract chain which intends to be a parachain on Polkadot and Kusama. https://www.purestake.com/blog/introducing-moonbeam-public-testnet/
There is currently a referendum to upgrade the network to runtime v24. https://polkadot.polkassembly.io/referendum/5
You can now have your Kusama or Polkadot address registered with Ethereum Name Service. Instructions here: https://wiki.polkadot.network/docs/en/ens
If you prefer video instructions for adding your address to ENS, see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKjZk-5_mQc&feature=youtu.be
Want to make your voice heard on Polkadot or Kusama? See our new walkthrough video on how to vote on referenda is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkbhhlsezGA&list=PLOyWqupZ-WGuAuS00rK-pebTMAOxW41W8&index=31
If you're interested in voting for the Polkadot or Kusama Council, there is a new walkthrough video on that as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=837Vv3gdRzI&list=PLOyWqupZ-WGuAuS00rK-pebTMAOxW41W8&index=32
The vote for the runtime upgrade to v24 is almost over and is passing. https://polkadot.js.org/apps/#/democracy
With the runtime upgrade to v24, elections are taking place on-chain. This also means that your stake will be spread among more validators than normal. This should revert back to the previous behavior with the next runtime upgrade.
Additionally, the max number of nominators per validator has been increased to 256.
Referendum 6, fixing some proxy-related storage from the v24 runtime migration, was passed and executed. https://polkadot.subscan.io/referenda/6
Tips and Tricks
Have an idea for a project which could help the Polkadot ecosystem that might be too substantial for a Treasury proposal? Submit a request to the Open Grants Program. https://github.com/w3f/Open-Grants-Program/
Can't find some information you expected on the Polkadot Wiki? Please file an issue! https://github.com/w3f/polkadot-wiki/issues
If you want to send ALL funds from an account, when sending, turn off the Transfer (Keep Alive) toggle and then turn on the "Transfer the full account balance, reap the sender" toggle before sending.
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