Polkadot, the Web3 interoperability platform, has seen new releases since the start of the week. In a Twitter announcement, Gavin Wood, Polkadot’s creator, says that after exactly 15 months in development, Polkadot XCM version 3 has emerged. This enables bridges, cross-chain locking, exchanges, NFTs, conditionals and context-tracking. It also aims to enhance interoperability across chains, smart contracts and NFTs.
Likewise, the Polkadot 0.9.37 release, which contains changes from v0.9.36 to v0.9.37, has been launched. Ink 4.0.0-beta has been released to build contracts that use ink.
Polkadot takes lead in development activity
Last year, in 2022, Polkadot had the second largest developer community. Polkadot’s developer activity remains one of the strongest in the crypto industry, according to an annual report by Electric Capital.
According to the report, Polkadot added full-time developers more quickly than any other blockchain at a comparable point in its existence.
Polkadot grew to more than 200 full-time developers in just two years and two months, although it generally takes an ecosystem four or more years to reach that point. Additionally, Polkadot was the first to surpass 1,000 developers.
Since January 2018, Polkadot has seen an exponential increase in the number of full-time developers; today, the network has more than 16 times as many as it did five years ago. Additionally, the overall number of Polkadot developers — including those who contribute on a part-time basis — is 10 times higher than the benchmark set at the beginning of 2018.
