Recently, community friends have privately messaged us asking how to contribute to Polkadot. PolkaWorld today shares an article about the Polkadot ambassador program, hoping to help you understand the vision behind this program, what kind of people are involved, how to join, and whether there will be compensation for these questions!
Establishing a long-lasting ambassador program for the Polkadot community
We should have a mechanism that allows people to accumulate reputation based on contributions and gain higher levels.
The Polkadot ambassador system was the first to give me an identity and a salary.
Goal of the ambassador program: host 10,000 meetups per month?
How Polkadot core developers influenced the ambassador program
Phragmen funding system: providing ambassadors with a funding channel to avoid various complexities and FUD of OpenGov
Which ambassador proposals received funding from the Phragmèn system?
Next steps for the ambassador program
Keep reading to see the full content!
Alice and Bob: Welcome to the introduction of the Polkadot ambassador program. Today we have Lucy, the global project lead of the Polkadot ambassador program, and Don Diego Sanchez, as well as members from the technical Fellowship and ambassador Fellowship, including Shawn. Lucy, can you briefly introduce what this ambassador program is?
Lucy: The birth of the ambassador Fellowship is based on the ambassador program that Polkadot has been running for the past five years. Although I was not involved in all of those five years, I have been active on the front lines of the community for the past three years, serving as a senior ambassador in the recent year of the ambassador program. The Fellowship project is actually an integration and reflection on past experiences — what we did right, what we did wrong. Shawn organized everything during the summer and shared his thoughts, and then Don Diego and I compiled this feedback and ideas into a manifesto. We are trying to build a scalable and resilient system that can carry forward the experiences accumulated in the past and serve a Polkadot community that can truly develop sustainably, as well as the entire Web3 world.
Alice and Bob: Thank you, Lucy. Don Diego, can you add a bit more? For instance, what is the current progress? What is the state of affairs at this stage?
Don Diego: This is actually quite a special process because we are 'learning by doing.' Frankly, no one in the Web3 world has done what we are trying to do. We are building a reputation system based on an 'ancient logic' aimed at forming a proposal structure that empowers agents. It sounds like a high-level and cool definition, but honestly, I don’t understand what it exactly means either (laughs). So I think this reflects the current state of our Fellowship.
Currently, we have already welcomed 160 ambassadors into this Fellowship. In parallel, there’s also a Phragmèn funding system that provides these ambassadors with a monthly support amount, relieving the pressure they must face to secure support through OpenGov proposals, allowing them to focus more efficiently on contributing to the ecosystem.
So the two main things we are currently advancing are: this Fellowship structure and the Phragmèn rewards system. Moving forward, our focus is to keep progressing, listen to community voices, make reasonable choices, and continuously execute the vision we outlined in the manifesto.
From left to right: Alice and Bob, Lucy, Don Diego, Shawn
We should have a mechanism that allows people to accumulate reputation based on contributions and gain higher levels.
Alice and Bob: Alright, thank you. Shawn, you are one of the very interesting guests in this conversation because the ambassador program sparked a lot of discussion when it launched, and many people are thinking about how to build a new system, and you contributed many key ideas. Can you share with us what ideas you proposed at that time? How did you influence this project and participate in shaping it through your thoughts?
Shawn: The most interesting point for me is that if you had asked me to design this ambassador program from scratch, I might not have come up with any of these ideas. Many of the points I later thought of were actually because I saw practices that made me feel 'something is off'. Sometimes you don’t know what you don’t like until you see it and then realize, 'Ah, so that's what I dislike.'
One thing I dislike is that this program starts operating from the 'top down.' It set a default salary from the beginning without any real prerequisites. And you must be at the top tier to receive that money. This logic feels unreasonable to me.
My view on how to build reputation and how to construct decentralized systems is that everything should start from the ground up. What we want to see are those who start from the grassroots and prove themselves through action eventually becoming part of the upper tiers, rather than someone just posting on the forum, getting voted up by whale users or anonymous accounts — even those accounts might not be real users. We need to ensure that a person must prove over time and through effort that they deserve respect and their title, right?
Some of us have been in this field for a long time, and of course, we can use past contributions to 'kickstart' our reputation. But I’m also thinking, why must only the 'top-tier people' be eligible for compensation?
As a developer, I might never have time to become a full-time ambassador, but I still believe I deserve a higher level. However, under the old mechanism, if I wasn’t paid, I wouldn’t reach that level; and if I didn’t reach that level, I wouldn’t receive compensation. This mechanism is flawed.
We should have a mechanism that allows people to accumulate reputation based on contributions and gain higher levels. If they want to continue participating, they can earn compensation based on the value they create. I hope to view these two things separately: because even if you are at a lower level, you can create value, right? You could be someone who just joined Polkadot, or you could be the CEO of Microsoft.
So, it’s perfectly acceptable for someone to do something of great value, bringing substantial benefits to Polkadot, and they receive good compensation, but we also clearly know they are a newly joined ambassador. So, I’m putting these ideas forward because I'm observing things I dislike and that don’t align with my expectations, and then stringing these thoughts together, and they gradually take shape.
The Polkadot ambassador system was the first to give me an identity and a salary.
Alice and Bob: Awesome, thank you Shawn. Let’s dive deeper into this, first a question — what is an 'ambassador'? What does an ambassador need to possess? Can I become an ambassador? Can anyone become an ambassador?
Lucy: Yes, anyone can become an ambassador. This is actually one of the core visions and missions we wrote in the manifesto. As Diego just mentioned, we are still in the process of learning by doing. We officially launched on January 13, and prior to that, we passed the funding from the Root Referendum and then launched the entire plan.
So we are still exploring what standards each level should have, but the philosophy we have always adhered to is: anyone can become an ambassador. The threshold is very low — you just need to open a wallet, complete identity verification, and lock up 1 DOT to join. Our focus is not just 'to let more people in,' but 'how to keep them engaged and genuinely want to contribute to Polkadot.' It’s more like a 'membership club that everyone can join,' but those who truly come in are those who sincerely believe in this club and identify with our mission.
This is also why our 'levels' and 'salaries' are uncoupled. We will grant some titles that can also be used in real life and provide a kind of 'legitimacy' endorsement. For example, I joked in a previous Space Monkeys livestream that I used to be a 'Polkadot floater,' just someone who wandered around the ecosystem all day, meeting people but having no title — that year I had no salary and no position. This system was the first to give me an identity and a salary. More importantly, it allows people to receive compensation for working on the Polkadot ecosystem, rather than working for a Parachain, Web3 Foundation, or Parity. This is a breakthrough.
And regardless of what happens in your life, you can be an ambassador. For instance, if you just had a baby, or switched jobs and don’t have time to contribute, as long as you still identify with this community and are willing to continue pushing its vision forward, you will always have a place here.
Goal of the ambassador program: host 10,000 meetups per month?
Alice and Bob: Thank you! I want to ask further: what exactly do ambassadors do every day after becoming one? What will their daily work and contributions look like?
Don Diego: I want to throw this question back. Because that’s what makes Polkadot interesting. Polkadot relies on a group of people called 'Agents,' who are independent individuals or groups driving ecological governance through OpenGov.
This system is complex, involving a whole set of cryptographic logic; in fact, OpenGov has only existed for two years. So we rely on a 'collective intelligence,' and these agents must understand their positioning and role to truly make meaningful contributions to Polkadot.
I think this is actually a very 'personalized' journey. Everyone's path to becoming an actor is different; it’s a very subjective growth process. But that doesn’t prevent us from providing support to these people.
So, what is an 'ambassador'? I think they are the ones who want to participate, believe in Polkadot, and want to contribute to it. The mission of the ambassador Fellowship is to support these people — whether you are willing to spend just 5 hours a week or can dedicate 10 hours a day, both are worthy of support.
The reality is that many people in this ecosystem are fighting alone. One of our tasks is to build a sense of 'belonging' and 'community,' and to identify the real challenges these people face and then help them solve them. These people are the future of Polkadot. If we don’t take care of them, we lose the human capital needed to build Polkadot.
So, when you ask 'what does it mean to be an ambassador'? There’s no single answer. What we need to do is: provide as much support as possible for a diverse range of agents, so that they can all make meaningful contributions to the Polkadot ecosystem in their own way.
Lucy: I think Don Diego's answer actually addresses another question: what role each of us plays in this program. Shawn proposed the initial idea for this ambassador program and brought everyone's voices to the table. Don Diego and I are the ones pushing these ideas forward. Don Diego is very skilled at thinking about the macro-level strategy, and he has a grand vision for Polkadot and its participants.
I, on the other hand, lean more towards practical operations and organizational execution. So I can tell you more specifically what different levels of ambassadors can actually do. Especially for the lower-level ambassadors, our current system is roughly divided into three tiers: the primary goal of Rank 1 and Rank 2 is to listen, learn, and understand. Our expectations for ambassadors at these levels are essentially just that. Some people may also just want to stay at Rank 1 or Rank 2.
And Rank 3 and Rank 4 mean 'active participation.' You really have to step into the community, whether it’s business development, development, or other directions, you need to find your position. What we are doing now is to advance the overall strategic vision during this three-month trial period, while taking everyone along on this journey, especially the higher-level ambassadors.
Don Diego has a viewpoint I strongly resonate with called 'asymmetry of information,' and we are now working to address this issue. For example, if you are working on a project and discover that three or four other people are doing the same thing, but none of you are aware of each other, it can be very frustrating.
And for lower-level ambassadors, they often just want to find a sense of belonging and to know 'what can I do.' So we initiated the slogan '10,000 meetups per month' (Jay always reminds me to look at the camera when saying this 😄) — this is a super ambitious goal, but we want to try it out. Even if it's just a small gathering, getting 10 people together, spending $5 each to buy some chicken wings, can also work. Let’s get people talking and back to the Polkadot community.
We will also launch a PBA-X course (a simplified version of the Polkadot Blockchain Academy) to provide a pathway for all new members to get started. We have incentive and reward mechanisms to ensure that everyone can go through a complete onboarding process: you can find mentors, know where to receive education, where to apply for funding, and how to use OpenGov.
We are indeed trying to 'do it all,' although it’s difficult, but that’s the direction we are striving for: on one hand, there are specific actions you can participate in immediately, and on the other hand, we want to lead everyone towards a broader vision and journey.
How Polkadot core developers influenced the ambassador program
Alice and Bob: Great, these examples are very helpful. Now let’s ask Shawn, you consider yourself an ambassador. So what work are you doing? Can you tell us about your current level, and what expectations or responsibilities you think this level entails? How are you contributing to this system?
Shawn: I think we should start from the origin of this idea. Why do we need ambassadors? Because we want Polkadot to succeed, and we want to bring value to Polkadot. If I had to summarize what ambassadors do in one sentence, it would be: they bring value to Polkadot. And how to bring this value can vary from person to person — because everyone has their own skills, which is also the most exciting part of this program. Polkadot indeed has many different needs.
I indeed consider myself an ambassador. One of the main things I've been doing recently is trying to build a clear vision and mission statement for Polkadot. In today’s blockchain era, it’s really hard to distinguish genuinely valuable signals from the noise. I believe many have deviated from the original vision of Web3. What I want to ensure is that when I say 'Web3,' you can understand my interpretation and definition of that term.
Of course, one of my responsibilities at Parity and Polkadot is to design pallets (modules) for different runtime systems. Essentially, what I get paid for is designing various interesting game theory mechanisms. So much of the feedback I provide on the treasury system, ambassador Fellowship, etc., is about 'how to design this game to achieve the right outcomes.'
Because when you design a game system, you must assume that participants are self-interested, each pursuing their own benefits. So you have to set up a set of rules that allows 'self-interested behavior' to also yield positive overall ecological benefits.
For example, setting up a reward mechanism for reporting misuse of funds — the whistleblower is indeed 'earning money' but this action also makes the ecosystem healthier. In traditional systems, reporting might just be 'out of justice,' but with incentives added, this mechanism becomes more resilient because you’re no longer relying on the assumption that participants in the system are all acting 'in good faith.'
I think the ambassador mechanism is the same. We are not asking you to spend time and money to participate for free; rather, we hope you can invest energy and then show us what value you have created. As long as you provide evidence, we will reward your contributions. Ideally, we can succeed together with you.
So as an ambassador, what I do is share my thoughts, create value, make suggestions, and participate in discussions.
In the process of building the ambassador Fellowship, I didn’t personally participate in the specific structural design, but I did spend a lot of time expressing my views. It seems that many of these views resonated and were adjusted in practice to better fit this system. So I hope this has been valuable for everyone.
Don Diego: I want to talk about my view of Shawn's influence on this project. As you said, he initially identified the cracks in the old system, which were indeed obvious, but this helped our selected group of ambassadors realize — yes, the original mechanism indeed had some problems. In my view, this is the first important thing he did as an ambassador, trying to point towards a new direction.
Later, during the conceptual phase, he played a significant role in helping us establish the right values and understanding what we should do from a technical perspective. I think we are further advancing on this foundation, beginning to think: what kind of social interaction mechanisms should we build on top of these on-chain logics? This is also one of our main tasks now.
This also explains why Lucy and I are not developers — because the Fellowship we are building is a system oriented towards people. We need to understand how people interact on top of the principles that Shawn has constructed.
I think this is what we Polkadot users are doing, 'taking over' the developers' work and turning it into practical forms that genuinely apply to the participant ecosystem. This is exactly a missing link that Polkadot has lacked in the past, and I hope we can fill this part and bring this missing piece to the entire Agents system.
Phragmèn funding system: providing ambassadors with a funding channel to avoid various complexities and FUD of OpenGov
Alice and Bob: Exactly, I also very much agree. The idea of 'creating value for the entire system' is very critical — typically when someone is guided by this, they naturally find truly useful and worthwhile things to do within the system.
Now that we've started talking about rewards and incentives, let’s formally enter the topic of Phragmèn.
Don Diego, please start by introducing what Phragmèn is, and then we can talk about the projects currently being advanced.
Don Diego: Okay, when we were in the conceptual stage, we quickly realized one thing: directly linking levels and salaries is not something the community could accept. I agree with this — it’s too early now; we still need to transform trust into real trust.
But we also recognize that providing participants with the necessary resources to make a real impact is one of the key goals of the entire coordination and empowerment system.
So Shawn proposed: we can adopt the Phragmèn election mechanism, which is the mechanism originally used by Gov 1 to elect the council, and it’s somewhat similar to the validator selection mechanism.
The idea behind Phragmèn is to provide token holders with a new way to support specific proposals, individuals, agent groups, or even certain communities. This mechanism is completely open and aims to attract more creativity and originality, especially those who may have previously been deterred because OpenGov was too complex or demanding.
In the past, if your ideas were relatively unique or you were afraid of facing public skepticism like 'this proposal is nonsense,' Phragmèn has opened a door for you.
The goal of Phragmèn is to design a system that enables truly impactful proposals to be efficiently supported by token holders.
It has several key principles:
Anyone holding DOT can support a proposal;
Each DOT can only support one proposal;
In Phragmèn, there is no 'opposition' option; you can only 'support' what you find most valuable.
We believe that this approach can generate new governance dynamics within OpenGov, attracting those who previously dared not or were unwilling to participate.
So now we have two systems:
On one hand, there’s the reputation system of the Fellowship to coordinate leadership, identity, and structure;
On the other hand, there's Phragmèn, a more accessible funding mechanism that allows everyone to start working and making an impact more quickly.
This is the overall concept of Phragmèn. Next, we can talk about the current proposals or projects in progress.
Shawn: Yes, I want to add something about Phragmèn. The most basic mechanism of Polkadot is — anyone with an address can receive funding support.
It doesn’t matter whether you are a member of the Fellowship or what kind of organization you run; as long as you do something valuable for Polkadot, you can directly request compensation from the Treasury. This is a key feature of Polkadot.
The Phragmèn system is just to make this process more standardized and simpler. For example, if you’re doing similar valuable work every month, this system works like an employee, providing a fixed salary, allowing you to skip the emotionally charged and controversial OpenGov processes and receive money directly.
But I want to emphasize: you can be an ambassador and completely not participate in Phragmèn, and still receive rewards through OpenGov — as long as you can submit clear outcomes and evidence.
Which ambassador proposals received funding from the Phragmèn system?
Lucy: Yes, anyone who does work for Polkadot can receive compensation. As I mentioned earlier, Phragmèn is a core mechanism we are promoting, and Don Diego has explained it very clearly; although it is quite technical, it is indeed very groundbreaking — it allows for 'prepayment', meaning you can receive some funding support before you start doing the work.
So we are also very proud to say that some Phragmèn proposals have first realized: ecological contributors work directly for Polkadot and get paid.
We funded James Slusher, a Polkadot ambassador working in Florida on business development and event promotion; Strin Bergman is also engaged in business development and receiving funding; and Josiah from Australia is doing the same.
We received a total of 44 applications in this round, each person can apply for a grant of up to $10,000 for a period of 3 months, and currently we have accepted 13 of these proposals. Some are individual, while others are community projects.
For instance, we funded community projects in Africa, Latin America, and Brazil; there’s also a very cool regional cooperation project — communities from Poland, Czech Republic, and Hungary coming together to initiate a 'political system raid,' which is a very interesting attempt.
We have also funded development-related projects, including a project from Hong Kong — which is actually a cross-chain collaboration between Cardano and Polkadot, which is also very cool!
There’s also an outstanding Filipina named Shelley May, who is a gaming streamer. She had never participated in any Polkadot projects before, but after seeing our promotions on Twitter and within the Fellowship, she proactively joined us. Now she is collaborating with DotPlay and contributing to Polkadot, which is really cool!
We also have a participant named Connor, who works on multiple Polkadot projects and is very passionate about education. He comes from London and grew up in South London. He said if he had been exposed to projects like 'Fart Coin' or 'Shit Coin' when he was a kid, he would have thought 'Wow, how cool,' then lost all his money — this is clearly not how we want people to understand the crypto world. So he designed a curriculum for teenagers aged 14-18 in London and has already established partnerships with 10 schools, and will be conducting educational work in these schools over the next six weeks. This could really make a big impact; it’s genuinely 'super cool'!
It’s also worth mentioning that Chrissie Hill, the Chief Legal Officer of Parity (who is also one of our rank 4 ambassadors) and Pauline, have just designed a set of PBA (Polkadot Blockchain Academy) courses for politicians and policymakers.
One is a crypto course designed for middle school students, and the other is a Web3 education system designed for policymakers — if these two can be combined, it would be an explosive combination!
These are just a small part of what’s currently happening. I’m speaking now as if I were giving a speech at a wedding or an awards ceremony, and there are definitely many excellent projects that haven't been mentioned. But it can be said: everyone is doing great!
Do you want to add anything?
Don Diego: Lastly, we received a total of 44 applications, and we — the organization behind the Fellowship (not just us personally) — selected 13 of them. So I think you might have forgotten to mention Polkadot Italia and Polkadot Hungary DAO, which also made the cut.
Actually, I want to specifically mention the Hungarian DAO because this case is really cool. They replicated the cooperation model of the 'Visegrád Four' — as an Austrian, you might be more familiar with that region? (laughs) Although I’m not sure if my pronunciation is accurate, it’s really interesting.
Back then, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland, and Slovakia formed a regional alliance that is still active today. And now, these four Polkadot communities (representing the four countries) have formed a similar alliance, collaborating locally and establishing a community alliance to share knowledge and collaborate. This is really amazing!
And all of this is made possible through the Phragmèn proposal funding. The Hungarian DAO also invited communities from other countries to join. Although it’s still early, and we cannot fully assess the final impact of these proposals yet, I am very impressed by the breadth and energy they have shown.
Oh right, we missed a proposal!
Who was it again? Tommy and Leemo.
Wait, did we send them money? Did Leemo get a share too? Looks like we have a problem with our project! Just kidding — I actually forgot about Leemo.
Yes, this is also one of the benefits of the Phragmèn system: Leemo finally received the compensation he deserved for his years of contributions in the OpenGov field!
Tommy proposed a very creative idea: he intends to create a 'fictional documentary' about how an ordinary person slowly 'fell down the OpenGov rabbit hole.'
At least that’s how I understand it, and I’m really looking forward to seeing how this project develops!
Next steps for the ambassador program
Alice and Bob: Indeed, it’s a good direction. And even better — this funding will be used for video producers, shooting site arrangements, B-roll footage, etc. So once you receive the funding, you can use it in various creative expressions, which is the charm of Phragmèn proposals.
So in our final round, please talk about what the next steps for the ambassador Fellowship are? What is your ideal vision? Where do you hope this project will head in the future?
Lucy: We previously received an initial phase of funding, and this phase will end at the end of the first quarter. So next, we will evaluate what resources we need to continue advancing this project.
For example, you need the most basic support tools: social media, user guidance systems, rewards and recognition mechanisms, etc. And 'rewards and recognition' is a very critical part — although we are not directly paying everyone a salary, we still want every participant to feel valued and that their contributions are recognized. We want to publicly celebrate the achievements of everyone in the community, even customizing peripheral products can be a way of expressing recognition.
This is from a 'practical level.' From a 'community building' perspective, we hope to open the doors to everyone by the end of this year, welcoming anyone to join. Although this is a massive task, we must ensure its robustness and resilience, which will take time to refine. But in the process, we will closely collaborate with existing seed-level ambassadors, helping them find their place, their sub-community of belonging, and truly understand 'what it means to be a Polkadot ambassador' — just like the question you just mentioned; we are still continuously understanding the significance of our identity as ambassadors.
In the future, once we have built these frameworks, we will gradually 'delegate power.' Although we currently encourage everyone to participate, we hope to gradually hand over more management tasks to Rank 4 and higher members rather than always relying on an advisory committee. Just as we wrote in the manifesto — that was the voice of the entire Polkadot community, and we want to continue this spirit of collective participation.
Don Diego: Lastly, I want to add that we will be releasing an updated proposal because the last round was a 'testing phase,' and we have some new optimization suggestions that need to be incorporated. So soon, we will use this new proposal as a starting point to launch the next phase of community collaboration.
Thank you all for your participation and support along the way; it has truly been an exciting adventure!