Polkadot celebrates 4 year anniversary with unanimous JAM upgrade approval

The Polkadot community celebrated the blockchain’s fourth anniversary by ratifying the highly anticipated Join-Accumulate Machine (JAM) upgrade.

The proposal received unanimous support, with backing from over 31 million DOT tokens.

JAM ratification

JAM is a decentralized hybrid system offering secure and scalable smart contract functionalities by merging features from Ethereum within Polkadot’s framework.

This upgrade is widely celebrated within the community as the next phase in Polkadot’s evolution. It replaces the network’s Relay Chain with a more modular, minimalistic design. Gavin Wood, Polkadot’s founder, presented the update’s Graypaper in April at the Token2049 crypto conference.

On May 27, Wood revealed that the community had ratified the proposed upgrade with a near-unanimous governance vote, adding that work was ongoing to finalize the Graypaper to version 1.0.

The ratification doesn’t mean immediate change. Instead, it indicates the community’s readiness to accept and oversee the JAM upgrade under the Technical Fellowship’s supervision.

4 year anniversary

On May 26, the Polkadot network celebrated its fourth anniversary since the launch of its Genesis block in 2020.

Polkadot is a blockchain network designed for speed and scalability. It employs multiple parallel blockchains, known as “parachains,” to distribute processing demands. The network uses a governance token called DOT, which it asserts is not a security because it has evolved into software.

This distinction distinguishes it from competitors that have drawn significant regulatory scrutiny from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Interestingly, DOT remains one of the few digital assets that the SEC has not classified as a security despite numerous regulatory actions against other industry players.

Polkadot has experienced substantial success and adoption in various metrics. Notably, it has excelled in staking compared to other proof-of-stake networks. Staking involves participants locking up digital assets to support network security and operations, earning rewards in return.

Data from DotLake reveals that about 58% of DOT’s total supply, equivalent to 822.5 million tokens (approximately $6 billion), is currently staked on the network. This is significantly higher than Ethereum, which has approximately 27% of its total supply locked, according to Nansen data.

Furthermore, Polkadot’s decentralized governance system, OpenGov, is actively driving initiatives to advance the network’s goals. The community has passed several proposals, including the ratification of the JAM upgrade and other developments.

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