Polkadot founder Gavin Wood released the initial Jam specification in a gray paper, discussing the content of future proposals for Polkadot. The gray paper defines Jam, which integrates Polkadot and Ethereum elements, provides a globally permissionless object environment, combines secure off-chain computing, and can run in parallel on a scalable node network. Jam introduces a decentralized hybrid system, builds smart contract functionality, and is mainly driven by the underlying architecture of Polkadot. Jam is permissionless, allowing anyone to deploy code as a service and pay for resources by purchasing and allocating core-time to guide code execution.

Blockchain technology has ushered in a new era of innovative governance mechanisms for decision-making. It shifts power from small, centralized groups to a broader community, democratizing and monetizing voting power. This transformation significantly boosts participation, enhances transparency, and secures the decision-making process within the community.

It was announced that the cross-chain bridge between Polkadot and Kusama has gone live. The GRANDPA light client running on BridgeHub for both Polkadot and Kusama has been initialized, and is currently being synchronised in real-time by an unlicensed relay operated by Parity. The consensus proof logic (light client), parallel chain header proof logic, and message proof logic all run on the in-chain when BridgeHub is running, and are exclusively controlled by Polkadot/Kusama governance.

According to DotLake data, as of the end of March, Polkadot has accumulated over 600,000 active addresses on the chain. Out of 605,000 addresses, more than 41% (i.e. 248,000) are attributed to the cross-chain smart contract platform Moonbeam, while 191,000 addresses are created directly on Polkadot. The number of independent accounts with non-zero balances is also increasing, from 5.53 million at the end of February to 5.59 million at the end of March.

Polkadot ecological network Darwinia Network stated in a post on X platform that the community is currently voting on the 9th referendum "PINK Airdrop Plan". There is 1 day and 13 hours left until the end of the vote, and the current approval rate is 100%.

The Kusama network of Polkadot announced the activation of a new consensus protocol called Beefy. The protocol aims to achieve "seamless verification of blockchain on Ethereum and other EVM-compatible networks". The team stated that a key feature is the introduction of two innovative bridges: Snowbridge, a public goods bridge that directly connects Kusama and Ethereum to enhance information and transaction flow, and Hyperbridge, which provides secure interoperability with Ethereum L2 networks and emerging chains.

Messari released the Polkadot 2023 Q4 status report. Among them: the monthly active addresses of parallel chains increased by 93% compared to the previous month, from 104,000 to 200,000. The XCM transfer volume increased by 150% compared to the previous month, reaching a historical high of 133,000 transactions. As of the end of the year, the total number of active XCM channels reached 203, and it will nearly double by 2023. As of December, Polkadot has 800 full-time developers and a total of 2,100 developers. According to Electric Capital's data, Polkadot ranks among the top three cryptocurrency ecosystems in terms of developer rankings. In addition, the circulating market value of DOT increased by 111% compared to the previous month to US$8.38 billion. The growth in the fourth quarter led to a year-on-year increase of 94%, making it one of the top 15 cryptocurrency projects in terms of market value.

Polkadot (DOT) is a distributed blockchain computing platform that acts as a base layer for other sovereign blockchains, called parachains, for validation and shared security. Polkadot was built using Substrate, a blockchain developmental framework. Furthermore, Polkadot’s base layer is known as the Relay Chain, which utilizes a Nominated Proof-of-Stake (NPoS) consensus mechanism, and its state machine is compiled to WebAssembly (Wasm).

Polkadot officially stated on social media that according to the 2023 Developer Report released by Electric Capital, Polkadot developers submitted a total of 22,232,604 lines of original code throughout 2023. Developer contributions accounted for 10.5% of all submitted code in the Web3 field, with the second highest number of full-time developers, only after Ethereum, reaching 792.

As the (northern hemisphere) nights have drawn in and soma.fm’s Christmas Lounge finds its rightful place on my household radio, we once again find ourselves at the time of the year where I write my annual diary entry on behalf of Polkadot. With Covid now largely consigned to the collective memory of a generation, we see a global return to normalcy and resurgence of (in-person) events with it. Conflict and AI present some of the most prominent themes of the news cycle this year with some of the more inquisitive wondering how, along with blockchain, the world might be changed with them. This year it is also a special anniversary for me; as I write this, exactly 10 years ago I wrote the first lines of crypto-economic code in my life. So, what did 2023 bring?