Rococo-V1 is live!

Rococo is a public testnet aimed towards testing both the parachains consensus process as well as parachains built by the community and their interactions with each other. Earlier this year, we launched Rococo V0, which was based off of our prototype parachains code. Now, we’re introducing Rococo-V1, based on the latest version of parachain consensus — the same code that will run on Polkadot and Kusama.
https://bit.ly/3nDfV70

On Wednesday the v0.9.0 client was released which contains the parachain runtime modules for Westend and yours truly.

ₑₓₚₑcₜ cₕₐₒₛ.

https://github.com/paritytech/polkadot/releases/tag/v0.9.0

1. Upgrade yours truly to version 0.9. ✔
2. Deploy Shell parachain. ✔
3. Governance votes to upgrade Shell to Statemine 24 hours after Shell is deployed.
4. Begin auctions.
5. ₑₓₚₑcₜ cₕₐₒₛ.

Read more from Gavin Wood:
https://medium.com/polkadot-network/the-launch-of-parachains-78188fcf024f

Runtime upgrade 9030 passed and was enacted, adding some necessary changes for parachains on Kusama.

ₑₓₚₑcₜ cₕₐₒₛ.

Motion 304 has passed council, has been fast tracked by the Technical Committee, and is now up for vote as Referendum 115. This will upgrade the Shell parachain on Kusama to Statemine. Three hours left to vote on upgrading the first parachain to Kusama.
https://kusama.polkassembly.io/referendum/115

After two referenda passed by the Kusama community to upgrade Shell, Statemine is now producing blocks as the first featureful parachain on Kusama.

https://twitter.com/joepetrowski/status/1400488601717198851?s=20

The first real-world functional parachain Statemine, began processing permissionless transactions after an on-chain upgrade last week. After some smooth running over the weekend, the time has come to move to the next stage: slot auctions.

See when the first 5 auctions will happen: https://bit.ly/2T6kPz2

Each auction has an open bidding period of approximately 1 week and assigns a total slot duration of 48 weeks (divided into 8 lease periods of 6 weeks each). Auctions will start with an initial batch of 5 auctions, with a new auction taking place approximately every week. After this, auctions will switch to taking place approximately every two weeks.

Each auction has an ending period that begins approximately 1 day and 21 hours after the start of the auction and lasts until the end of the 1-week bidding period. The auction’s end point can be any time within the ending period, and is automatically and randomly chosen by the VRF at the close of the 1-week bidding period.

Learn more about auctions on Kusama, and check out the schedule: https://bit.ly/3zbaJxy

Karura network has officially won the very first parachain slot on Kusama. Make sure to tune into Kusama’s Twitter Space tomorrow at 9:30pm CEST to hear from the team.

Comment your burning questions on the tweet: https://twitter.com/kusamanetwork/status/1407272549311041537?s=21

With the launch of Statemine and the completion of the first parachain auction, the first parachains have successfully connected to Kusama. Bringing us one step closer to the interoperable multichain vision outlined in the Polkadot whitepaper.

https://bit.ly/3vMM0fV

As nominations on Kusama continue to increase, there have been some limitations with the current staking parameters. To prevent issues from occurring, some restrictions are being added to the staking system:
• Max. 20,000 nominators; min. stake .1 KSM.

https://bit.ly/3d5JdYW

After winning the second parachain auction, Moonriver is now being onboarded as Kusama‘s third parachain. Roughly 6,000 network stakeholders locked up KSM in favor of Moonriver being added to Kusama.

https://polkadot.js.org/apps/?rpc=wss%3A%2F%2Fkusama-rpc.polkadot.io#/parachains/crowdloan

Parachain auctions are a central feature of both Kusama and Polkadot. Their outcome determines who gets which parachain slots and the amount of tokens locked. For the health of the ecosystem, it is important that the scarce slots are allocated to those projects that can make most use of them.

Learn why are auctions better run on-chain than off-chain and why a candle auction is used from Web3 Foundation's Research Team:
https://bit.ly/2Ub3je3

Until now Statemine has been running with limited functionality. After a performance review and audit, the Kusama Council proposed an upgrade to remove the restrictions. Today the referendum passed authorizing an upgrade to make Statemine permissionless.
https://bit.ly/3zHcfqD

Since successfully adding Statemine, Karura, Moonriver, Shiden, Khala, and Bifrost to Kusama, it's been closely monitored for candidate production stability, approval voting statistics, and network connectivity load.
Overall Kusama is running smoothly, and paving the way for parachains on Polkadot - after a little more soɐɥɔ.

Read the full report from Polkadot founder, Robert Habermeier: https://bit.ly/3xWU1jv

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's 5 more auctions!

This KuSummer, Kusama made history with the launch of 6 parachains, made possible by the tech developed for Polkadot. Those parachains, in order, were Statemine, Karura, Moonriver, Shiden, Khala, and Bifrost.

The following is Parity's recommendation to the Kusama Council for the next parachain auctions:
𓅌 Auction 6 - Sept. 1, 2021
𓅌 Auction 7 - Sept. 8, 2021
𓅌 Auction 8 - Sept. 15, 2021
𓅌 Auction 9 - Sept. 22, 2021
𓅌 Auction 10 - Sept. 29, 2021
https://bit.ly/2WbY5PX

Motion 346 has passed council to open Kusama‘s 6th parachain auction! This auction will run until Sept. 8 at approx. 10am CEST. So far 16 teams are participating, who will be Kusama‘s lucky number 7 parachain?

To follow along, or take part, check out Polkadot.js: https://polkadot.js.org/apps/?rpc=wss%3A%2F%2Fkusama-rpc.polkadot.io#/parachains/crowdloan

In Part 2 of Gavin Wood's XCM blog series learn about its versioning system & how it can keep a network of sovereign chains communicating as the language evolves at different rates between networks - without significant ops overhead on those maintaining it.
https://bit.ly/3CctwJk

Motion 362 has passed the Kusama council to open an 11th parachain auction immediately after the 10th auction ends next week. The 11th auction is scheduled to kick off next Wednesday, October 6th at 11:30am CEST.

.ꙅoɒʜɔ ƚɔɘqxɘ
https://kusama.polkassembly.io/motion/362

Who doesn’t love gifts?!

Sending DOT or KSM to friends & family just got easier than ever! With Polkadot and Kusama Gifts you can send gifts to anyone, regardless of their blockchain knowledge, or if they don't have an address yet. Eager to try?
https://bit.ly/3oX7hDN

Rococo, the parachain testnet that laid the groundwork for parachains on Kusama and Polkadot, now evolves into a community-maintained parachain testbed. Learn about the upcoming Rococo revamp and what it means for parachain teams: https://bit.ly/3FSA6Y3