Polkadot Weekly｜The largest licensed crypto platform in the Philippines will launch a nationwide “stablecoin education program” through Polkadot! Latest updates on JAM!

Polkadot

The largest licensed crypto platform in the Philippines, Coins.ph, will launch a nationwide "Stablecoin Education Program," with core technology supported by Polkadot!

Coins.ph has successfully integrated Polkadot Asset Hub, and now users can send and receive USDT/USDC on the Polkadot network in a faster and cheaper way! For millions of Filipino families relying on remittances, this is a real reduction in cost and increase in speed.

Next, from Q4 2025 to Q2 2026:

• Nationwide promotion of stablecoin remittance education
• First-time users can receive a one-time incentive
• Focus on areas with the highest density of OFWs (Greater Manila, CALABARZON, Central Luzon)

The CEO of Coins.ph stated: "Through Polkadot, we make cross-border stablecoin remittances faster and cheaper, allowing more families to keep more of their hard-earned money."

Nico Arevalo, CEO of Velocity Labs, said: "This is the best example of Polkadot Web3 infrastructure being implemented in the real world."

Polkadot is becoming the key infrastructure for stablecoin cross-border remittances in Asia!

The Polkadot Builder Party hackathon has officially concluded! So far:

• Over 230 projects were showcased online
• More than 2,750 developers from dozens of countries around the world participated

You can now visit the hackathon website to view all participating projects and vote for your favorites!

Parity also tweeted that this might be the clearest opportunity yet for everyone to see what developers are building in the second era of Polkadot!

View all projects here:

Latest news on JAM! Gavin Wood shared at the University of Buenos Aires that JAM CoreVM is equipped with virtual audio and video driver capabilities!

Gavin said, "You can even run a radio station on JAM, and people can stake tokens to reserve specific time slots for program broadcasting."

Additionally, Alice und Bob stated that there are already two radio stations running 24/7 on the JAM testnet!

PolkaWorld released Gavin's latest speech at Sub0—Polkadot is officially moving from the "Decade of Technology" to the "Decade of Product"!

In his opening remarks at Sub0, Gavin reviewed the origins of Polkadot and Sub0: from the initial 2016 discussion of "what if Parity designed Eth2," to proposing WebAssembly heterogeneous multi-chain, and then to the maturity and implementation of parachains—the first generation of Polkadot's core technology is now fully formed.

Now, he emphasizes that Polkadot has reached a critical turning point: the underlying technology is strong enough for the first time to support millions of users, and Parity must move from building protocols → building platforms → ultimately building products.

Gavin's proposed future roadmap includes:

• Polkadot Portal / Polkadot App prototype will soon be released: a next-generation Web3 gateway for "Intentional Agents."
• Project Individuality (Polkadot People Initiative) will be integrated into the entire platform: providing Proof of Personhood without ID or phone number, becoming the infrastructure for future large-scale growth.

At the same time, Gavin announced that Polkadot and Parity are entering the "Second Era":

• The past 10 years: building core blockchain technology
• The next 10 years: building products and platforms that can truly bring in millions of users

Gavin made it clear: Polkadot is no longer just a protocol; it is becoming a "social protocol"—providing a truly personal digital space for future sovereign individuals and users of the information age. Read more

Nico Arevalo, CEO of Velocity Labs, shared the current DeFi market landscape at the Sub0 conference. He believes today's difficulties stem from imbalances in the underlying architecture: fragmented liquidity, multiple versions of assets, applications struggling to acquire users, and developers constantly reinventing the wheel. Polkadot's multi-chain specialization architecture and native interoperability precisely solve these fundamental problems, and Polkadot is entering an era truly its own. Read more

The Web3 Foundation has intervened for the first time in an OpenGov treasury proposal! They propose to close the Marketing Bounty and return all unused budgets to the treasury!

Over the past year, while the Marketing Bounty has promoted some community marketing efforts, its "high consumption + hard-to-quantify results" structural issues have sparked ongoing discussion. W3F points out that in the OpenGov era, treasury spending must be more transparent, measurable, and results-oriented, so it is no longer reasonable to maintain this bounty.

The proposal emphasizes:

• Closure does not mean denying marketing
• Rather, it is to redesign more effective and assessable growth mechanisms
• This will also become the starting point for reviewing all long-term bounty programs in the future

W3F expressed willingness to work with the community to explore more mature and responsible Polkadot marketing and growth models.

This is the first statement since the Web3 Foundation announced its intention to participate in OpenGov treasury proposals! The proposal currently has 100% support!

Parity plans to complete Polkadot Hub before Christmas, after which it will enter a true Q1 explosion—more prototypes, more applications, more platform capabilities!

• All applications will share the same "authentication/wallet connection" standard
• The more universal components, the faster the development speed
• By 2026, new applications are expected to launch every quarter

Polkadot is entering a brand new "era of exponential application growth"!

Learn more

This week, Bill Laboon, VP of Ecosystem at Web3 Foundation, issued a warning: the EU's ProtectEU proposal will require all applications to scan user devices "before encryption," which means:

• Your phone becomes a surveillance device
• Strong encryption is only effective for the government, while ordinary people are exposed 
• Society is hard-coded into "encrypted aristocrats, transparent commoners" 
• Privacy turns from a right into a privilege 

Bill's view goes straight to the core: this is not a security issue, but a power issue. In an era of AI, nation-state hackers, and intensified global surveillance—weakening encryption is not only unsafe, but a systemic threat to the entire digital society.

Bill emphasizes:

• Strong encryption is the foundation of the digital world 
• A backdoor is not a "special channel," but destroys the structure of the entire house 
• Security is not a local variable: either everyone has it, or no one does

The mission of Web3 is not to "trust authority," but to "verify the truth with cryptography." Zero-knowledge proofs, decentralized identity (PoP), and verification logic without disclosing privacy—these technologies are proving: we do not have to choose between security and freedom.

"Strong encryption is not because we have something to hide, but because we all have something worth protecting." —Bill Laboon

Learn more:

Decentralized Nodes Cohort 4 is now open for applications!

• Up to 2 nodes can be applied for on Polkadot, and up to 4 nodes on Kusama
• Term extended to 5 months
• All nodes adopt the minimum self-bond: Polkadot 10,000 DOT, Kusama 250 KSM 
• Reward addresses can freely choose Stash/Staked, without affecting self-bond 
• Applicants not selected in the past will receive additional bonus points
• The "Preferred Setups" page has been updated to emphasize operational diversity 
• A simplified "How to Submit an Excellent Application" guide is now online, strongly recommended to read before applying 

The application deadline is November 23 (CET 23:59)! Want to join Polkadot's decentralized node network? Don't miss the application window!

Ecological Projects

Koni Finance, from the Subwallet team, has joined the DeFi Builders Program initiated by Velocity Labs, Parity, and others! Koni Finance is building an all-in-one DeFi ecosystem for Polkadot Hub, integrating trading, token issuance, and launchpad functions. They are creating a unified platform natively supporting PolkaVM, enabling seamless connectivity between Ethereum, Arbitrum, Bitcoin, and Polkadot networks—completely simplifying the full lifecycle of digital assets from issuance, trading, to management!

Hydration announced two major upgrades at the Sub0 conference: perpetual contracts are coming soon, and the Rains wallet will be fully launched in Q2 2026!

bbBNC locked volume hits a new high!

Currently, the number of BNC locked in bbBNC has exceeded 8 million, accounting for 10.3% of the total BNC supply and 19.25% of the total circulating supply! This shows the Bifrost community's stronger confidence in the long-term value, stable returns, and protocol development of BNC. As the scale of locked assets continues to break records, it also drives the security and activity of the entire Bifrost DeFi module to new heights.

bbBNC is a BNC locking certificate launched by Bifrost, used to obtain ecosystem rewards, participate in governance, and at the same time maintain both liquidity and security. It is currently one of the core value capture methods in the Bifrost ecosystem.

Cross-chain infrastructure rankings are out! Hyperbridge has surged into the TOP 3!

In the cross-chain transfer volume rankings for the past 30 days:

🥇 Across: $1 billion

🥈 deBridge: $596 million

🥉 Hyperbridge: $61.2 million (ranked 3rd)

More importantly, users are actively choosing "trustless cross-chain infrastructure"! Hyperbridge, relying on chain-level cryptographic security + a less trust, more proofs model, has become one of the fastest-growing new cross-chain networks.

This chart once again shows: the future of cross-chain is not multi-signature or custody, but trustless protocols supported by Polkadot security. Hyperbridge is bringing Polkadot's security to the multi-chain world.

Polkadot published an article sharing that Pudgy Penguins and Mythical Games' "Pudgy Party" surpassed 900,000 downloads and a 4.9 iOS rating within 6 weeks of launch, making it one of the highest-rated blockchain mobile games. More importantly, most players have no idea they are using blockchain.

Why is it successful?

• The game itself is fun: fast-paced brawls, strategic character abilities, and easy-to-pick-up gameplay.
• Blockchain is "invisible": automatic creation of custodial wallets, no gas, no seed phrases, no Web3 interference.
• NFTs are completely optional: only players who want to trade interact with Web3, no coercion, no pay-to-win.

Technical stack highlights (all based on Polkadot)

• Built on the Mythos Chain supported by Polkadot.
• Polkadot provides a high-performance, low-cost, scalable architecture, allowing millions of on-chain operations to be completed seamlessly.
• Mythical focuses on "invisible Web3" and custodial wallets, perfectly integrating the gaming experience.

"Pudgy Party" demonstrates the future paradigm of Web3 gaming: make a great game first → then let blockchain become an "invisible power-up." This may be the first replicable blueprint for Web3 games to truly go mainstream.

At last week's sub0 Symbiosis conference, Sig.Network announced a milestone integration: enabling non-parachain blockchains such as Ethereum, Solana, and Bitcoin to be natively called like Polkadot parachains. Through a distributed signature layer and message conversion system, Sig.Network allows Polkadot accounts and smart contracts to directly execute operations on external chains (such as trading on Uniswap, depositing on Aave, transferring on Solana), without wrapping assets, without intermediary bridges, and while maintaining the caller's native identity.

The first integration scenario will be implemented on Hydration. In the future, users will be able to deposit BTC/ETH/SOL with one click like on a CEX, use native external assets directly for trading, lending, and LP on Hydration, and access external liquidity such as Raydium and Aave within Hydration.

This upgrade extends Polkadot's composability from "within parachains" to the entire multi-chain ecosystem, laying the foundation for true cross-chain execution and redefining the meaning of "multi-chain."