[Medium Spender] Referendum #1913 - Continued Integration & Maintenance of Polkadot Asset Hub in the Chainflip Protocol
Continued Integration & Maintenance of Polkadot Asset Hub in the Chainflip Protocol
A Polkadot Treasury proposal to fund the ongoing maintenance and feature development that keeps Polkadot connected to the wider multi-chain economy via a decentralised, non-custodial interoperability layer.
| Proposer (on-chain) | 15DqZ2p9xAZGjkCgcUoEuByL7mVgLnC8SaAQUccYgE9kKZvK |
|---|---|
| Beneficiary address | 15DqZ2p9xAZGjkCgcUoEuByL7mVgLnC8SaAQUccYgE9kKZvK |
| Requested track | Medium Spender |
| Total requested | $375,777 USDC - see Budget; split USDC (Asset Hub) |
| Payment mix | Three deliverable-gated milestones; denominated in USDC on Asset Hub |
| Team / entity | Chainflip Labs GmbH (Berlin, Germany) — VAT-ID DE339783144 |
| Contact | simon@chainflip.io |
| Prior funding | Sept 2024 Asset Hub integration (delivered; see Prior Work) |
| Licence | Open-source (Apache 2.0 / GPLv3), consistent with existing Chainflip repos |
1. Context & Motivation
In September 2024, an initial engagement through Velocity Labs through the DeFi and Infrasturucture Bounty governance funding, and delivered the first full integration of Polkadot Asset Hub into the Chainflip Protocol. That work shipped production support for USDC, USDT, and DOT on Asset Hub, including cross-chain messaging (XCM) integration, a validator witnessing module, monitoring-stack awareness, a testing suite, and mainnet deployment.
Since deployment, the integration has been running in production and has required continuous maintenance for runtime upgrades and infrastructure uptime. The code it runs on is also being phased out of the Chainflip protocol and needs to be reimplemented using the new Elections system to avoid depreciation and delisting. Chainflip is, in practice, the principal decentralised, non-custodial route for moving assets in and out of the Polkadot ecosystem from the wider blockchain economy, and one of the most heavily used Substrate deployments in production today. Its reliability, liquidity, and native Bitcoin support has earned integrations with widely used wallets and aggregators across the industry.
Maintaining and extending this connection is a public good for Polkadot: it is shared infrastructure that any user, wallet, parachain, or application can rely on, and the code is open-source. This proposal asks the Treasury to fund (a) the ongoing maintenance required to keep the integration healthy through Polkadot's runtime evolution, and (b) a defined set of feature-development milestones that deepen what users and developers can do across the Polkadot ↔ multi-chain boundary.
Note on scope and neutrality. This proposal funds open-source software maintenance and development that benefits the Polkadot ecosystem broadly. It is not a request to promote any specific token or product, and all deliverables are usable by the whole ecosystem.
2. Why this is worth funding
- Keeps a critical bridge for Polkadot alive. Without ongoing maintenance, the integration degrades against each runtime upgrade and risks falling out of production, removing one of the few decentralised on/off ramps for Polkadot assets.
- Public-good, open-source. All code produced is open-sourced under a permissive licence and can be reviewed, reused, and built upon by anyone.
- Strengthens Polkadot's connectivity. New cross-chain messaging features let users and developers compose actions on Polkadot Hub and other parachains from across the wider ecosystem in a single transaction.
- Proven team, proven prior delivery. The same team delivered the original 2024 integration to mainnet and operates the validator and witnessing infrastructure today.
- Testable by the community. Everything is exercised on public testnets (Paseo, Perseverance) and observable in production.
3. Prior Work
The September 2024 engagement delivered:
- Full support for USDC, USDT, and DOT on Polkadot Asset Hub
- XCM cross-chain messaging integration
- A validator witnessing module for Substrate/Asset Hub
- Monitoring-stack awareness and alerting
- A testing suite and supporting CI
- Mainnet deployment and ongoing operation
The Chainflip protocol has processed over $7.5bn in swaps since launching into production over 2 years ago. It is one of the highest volume native bitcoin cross-chain exchanges in the space.
GitHub / repositories: https://github.com/chainflip-io/chainflip-backend
Team GitHub profiles: https://github.com/dandanlen https://github.com/marcellorigotti https://github.com/msgmaxim https://github.com/MxmUrw https://github.com/j4m1ef0rd https://github.com/nmammeri https://github.com/albert-llimos https://github.com/ramizhasan111
4. Scope of Work
This proposal is structured as four discrete, deliverable-tied milestones. Each milestone bundles its development deliverables with the ongoing maintenance and operations work performed during that period, every Treasury spend is tied to accepted deliverables and a reported block of maintenance work.
All engineering time is costed at a base rate of EUR 100/hour (cost-plus). EUR figures below are the costing basis; the actual Treasury spend is denominated in USDC on Asset Hub (with an optional DOT component), converted at spot around the time each milestone spend is claimed.
Recurring maintenance & operations (delivered within every milestone)
The following work is performed continuously and reported as part of each milestone below. It is costed at EUR 30,000 per month and apportioned across the four milestones (see Budget). This pricing is based on the amount of on-call work that we have to allocate, infrastructure costs, as well as engineering time that we need to budget for to keep the lights for this integration on to a high standard. No maintenance spend is claimable except on delivery and acceptance of the milestone it is bundled with, accompanied by the public maintenance report for that period.
We are aware that there will be some overlap and parallelisation of work which may accelerate or delay milestone delivery, but due to the limitations of the governance process, we hope that the community will accept this wonky structure on the basis that this proposal will cover 6 months of maintenance regardless, in addition to the deliverables in each milestone.
- Monitoring and adapting the Polkadot integration for each runtime upgrade — testing, code changes, redeployment
- Maintenance of the validator network, monitoring infrastructure, and validator witnessing modules
- Continuous security monitoring and incident response for cross-chain settlement involving Polkadot assets
- Written status report, coordination calls, and liaison with Parity Technologies on upstream changes
- Maintenance and updates to Polkadot-specific developer documentation and reasonable third-party integrator support
Reporting: Each milestone delivery includes a public maintenance report (work performed, incidents, upstream changes handled) covering the time it bundles, mirroring the standard treasury milestone-reporting cadence, accounting for changes in actual delivery.
Milestone 1: Elections witnessing migration + maintenance (months 1–2)
| Development cost basis | EUR 26,000 (2 engineers × 80h @ EUR 100/h, plus release team time of 10,000) |
| Maintenance cost basis | EUR 60,000 (2 months @ EUR 30,000) |
| Milestone total | EUR 86,000 |
| Target | ~July 2026 |
Development deliverables:
- An elections-based witnessing implementation for Substrate chains
- Deprecation and removal of the older witnessing system
- Staged deployment: local → Sisyphos → Perseverance → Berghain
- Management of the entire release and testing process to enact and coordinate the upgrade across the protocol and entire chainflip ecosystem of partners
- Written documentation describing the new witnessing design and how to verify it
Maintenance deliverable: Public maintenance report for months 1–2 (runtime upgrades handled, validator/witnessing/monitoring upkeep, incidents, hours, cost).
Milestone 2: Paseo Asset Hub testnet integration + Closeout + maintenance (months 3-4)
| Development cost basis | EUR 16,000 (2 engineers × 80h @ EUR 100/h) |
| Maintenance cost basis | EUR 30,000 (2 month @ EUR 30,000) |
| Milestone total | EUR 76,000 |
| Target | ~September 2026 |
Development deliverables:
- Integration of the Paseo testnet into the Chainflip Perseverance testnet as the canonical Polkadot testing environment
- Adaptation of the Bouncer testing suite and CI/CD pipelines to run against Paseo
- Decommissioning of the existing custom relay-chain test infrastructure
- Updated developer documentation referencing Paseo for all Polkadot-related integration testingFinal month of maintenance and operations (runtime upgrades, validator/witnessing/monitoring upkeep, incident response)
- Consolidated public report covering the full 6 month engagement and the state of the integration
- Updated developer documentation reflecting all changes shipped across Milestones 1–3 and any changes to those features since launch.
Maintenance deliverable: Public maintenance report for months 3/4.
Milestone 3: CCM for pallet-revive & extended extrinsics + maintenance (months 5–6)
| Development cost basis | EUR 55,000 (3 engineers × 150h @ EUR 100/h, plus release team time of 10,000) |
| Maintenance cost basis | EUR 60,000 (2 months @ EUR 30,000) |
| Milestone total | EUR 115,000 |
| Target | ~November 2026 |
Development deliverables:
- CCM support for
pallet-revivecalls, enabling cross-chain swap recipients to interact with smart contracts on Polkadot Hub in a single transaction - CCM
Transactsupport formap_accountand other key extrinsics, allowing users onboarding via Chainflip to establish their on-chain identity - Extended XCM support enabling CCM-triggered actions on other parachains, using Asset Hub as a routing layer
- Security testing to ensure funds are not put at risk by the new features
- Management of the entire release and testing process to enact and coordinate the upgrade across the protocol and entire chainflip ecosystem of partners
- Documentation and SDK updates so any developer can compose cross-chain workflows using these CCM capabilities
Maintenance deliverable: Public maintenance report for months 5/6.
5. Budget Summary
| Milestone | Development (EUR) | Maintenance (EUR) | Milestone total (EUR) | Milestone Total + VAT (EUR) | Milestone Total USDC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M1 — Elections witnessing + maint. (mo 1–2) | 26,000 | 60,000 | 86,000 | 102,340 | $116,667 |
| M2 — Paseo testnet + maint. (mo 3-4) | 16,000 | 60,000 | 76,000 | 90,440 | $103,101 |
| M3 — CCM revive & extrinsics + maint. (mo 5–6) | 55,000 | 60,000 | 115,000 | 136,850 | $156,009 |
| Total | 97,000 | 180,000 | 277,000 | 329,630 | $375,777 |
Payment structure. Funds are requested in USDC on Asset Hub for cost predictability, with a USD EUR conversion rate of 1:1.14. Each milestone amount development and bundled maintenance together is released only on delivery and acceptance of that milestone and its public maintenance report. Final on-chain USDC amounts have been converted based on the EUR/USDC exchange rate at the time of proposal, and Chainflip Labs will take the price risk on the forex rates over the expected 6 month period.
VAT. As there is no billable entity involved, we will have to also add 19% German VAT in order to cover the end user VAT that we will have to pay.
6. Timeline
| Milestone | Months (from enactment) | Deliverables Target |
|---|---|---|
| M1 — Elections witnessing + maintenance | 1–2 | ~July 2026 |
| M2 — CCM revive & extrinsics + maintenance | 3–4 | ~Sept 2026 |
| M3 — Paseo testnet + maintenance | 5-6 | ~November 2026 |
Targets are best estimates; any material delay will be flagged promptly in the public discussion thread, consistent with treasury reporting norms. Because maintenance is bundled into deliverable-gated milestones, a delay in any development milestone defers its associated maintenance spend rather than accruing a standing cost.
It is very likely we will complete the milestones much faster than these timelines would suggest, but we will delay requesting payment until the maintenance period associated with these have also been concluded.
7. Maintenance & Sustainability after the grant
Chainflip operates as a live protocol with an existing user base, integrations, and revenue from protocol usage; the Polkadot integration is part of that ongoing operation rather than a one-off deliverable. The team intends to keep the integration maintained beyond this funding period as part of normal protocol operations, and will assess any future maintenance request against actual upstream demands at that time.
8. Open-Source & IP
All software developed under this proposal is open-sourced (Apache 2.0, matching existing Chainflip repositories) so that anyone can review, reproduce, and build on it. Any narrowly proprietary operational tooling (e.g. internal updates to the team's own operated web-stack) is out of scope and not funded here; it is not required for the open-source deliverables to function, although we will also have to make changes to the propriety software to keep it in line with the new protocol functions.
9. Team
Chainflip Labs GmbH — Berlin, Germany. The team built and shipped the original 2024 Polkadot Asset Hub integration to mainnet and operates the validator, witnessing, and monitoring infrastructure today.
We are 23 people in total and have been working on this protocol and within the substrate ecosystem since 2021.
Comments (6)
Requested
Proposal Passed
Voting NAY ,
From my point of view if Polkadot Treasury going to fund this maintenance for such an High amount but the Chainflip itself projecting connect wallet option only EVM, Solana And Tron.. The Polkadot network is being sidelined from the UI point of view , because of this there is no option to go from polkadot assethub to another network - this is also huge problem from User Experience another point for sidelining polkadot.
Hero Banner (** polkadot logo is small relative **to other and still using older polkadot logo)
Look at how small is polkadot size relative to other network, this is marketing for us and this is subconsciously projecting other network is better.
Another Point, is if Chainflip protocol is not able to sustain itself , it means they are not doing that good of business justification . They are charging fees for the service.
Also share how much was requested from other network (BTC,ETH,SOL,TRON,ARB) for the maintenance, because I don't like only if polkadot is the one paying for maintenance and tolerate such sideline treatment .
@DW niraivettu
Hi there,
Just to respond to your points, Chainflip supports going from any wallet to any wallet WITHOUT having to connect any wallet - this is one of the major advantages of the protocol. All you have to do is put in a refund address and the protocol will generate a unique deposit address on the source chain which will trigger the swap, meaning Chainflip supports every Polkadot wallet by default, both now and into the future.
Furthermore, Polkadot is integrated into many third party aggregators through its support on Chainflip - not just through the Chainflip UI. It is currently possible to swap Polkadot assets in Trust Wallet for example, only possible through this integration.
The reason you can't go from DOT to another asset right now is because of a lack of liquidity, largely triggered by the news that we had originally planned to depreciate the chain due to high costs and low volume. Once ongoing support is secured, we expect liquidity to return, although there is still liquidity for USDC and USDT on Asset Hub
You may not like that Polkadot has not received as much volume and revenue for the protocol as the other chains have so far, but from our standpoint we could not continue to subsidise the ongoing maintenance and further development of this chain without some sort of support. Our belief is that this funding will help improve the support for the Polkadot on the protocol, and with new advances in the Polkadot ecosystem and app, expect to see more volume over the coming months.
I hope that this addresses your concerns.
We are integrated with Talisman and SubWallet. They are our main Polkadot flow through the protocol.
On why there is no SubWallet or Talisman connect option in our swapping app: feedback from users of both showed they would rather swap within the SubWallet app, or use the no-wallet-connection option on our front end. So we phased it out there.
You can still connect SubWallet in our liquidity provision app (and polka.js).
We have been active supporters of everyone building on Polkadot since 2022 when we made the descision to make Polkadot the very first chain we integrated into the protocol after Ethereum - even before Bitcoin.
We did all this with no previous support from the Polkadot ecosystem up until 2024, where a small grant helped cover some of the development costs of the upgrade, but not all. We have carried the investment costs of supporting Polkadot for years, and is now its ONLY fully-functional cross-chain swapping solution that Polkadot has left, without which all Polkadot users (and new users) lose their only practical link between to and from different assets on other chains quickly and easily. The only other option I'm aware of is Snowbridge, which is slow and only allows for 1:1 bridging.
If anything, this support from the Polkadot treasury finally gives us the backing and support we have needed for years to make this integration as sucessful for all involved as possible.
You are right, there are definitely still some gaps where we could improve the integration of Polkadot, and some of those are included in the development work in this proposal (particuilarly the XCM calls), but we need support to make it happen.
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