Polkassembly - ParaSpell✨ XCM Tools - 12 Months of Maintenance and Server cost coverage #3284

Dear Polkadot community,

Meet ParaSpell:

A set of powerful XCM Tools ready to elevate your project's cross-chain experience.

What is ParaSpell currently working on full-time:

XCM SDK: The core of ParaSpell - library making making your dApp achieve interoperability within seconds. Simple to use, well-documented, and continuously improved by daily refactors for better performance and efficiency.
XCM API: Everything that XCM SDK offers but without need to install anything or compromise on anything! Getting cross-chain capability in a package-less way was never this easy. Suitable for applications - where space is everything. And when response speed also matters you can deploy XCM API to your own server as well!
XCM Router: Send different asset than you receive. Cross-chain exchanges within one line now possible.
XCM Analyser: Decode complex XCM junctions or entire XCM Calls with ease. A minimalistic library without heavy dependencies.
XCM Visualizator: A stunning 3D Universe-like Visualization of XCM. Browse through XCM history, explore selected Parachains, download selected graphs and data, filter accounts engaging in XCM the most, and much more.

Full tool overview also available on the new ParaSpell landing page.

Other resources:

Let's be more concrete about the individual tools.

The XCM SDK that just works.

Created when there were no other SDKs for XCM in the ecosystem. At the sole beginning of Polkadot. Born from a wild idea to unify the XCM experience in the ecosystem. Meet battle-hardened and well-established XCM SDK.

What the XCM SDK Provides:

🥇 First SDK to support the PAPI package. Supporting both Polkadot API and PolkadotJS. Users can easily choose whether to use PAPI or PJS
API Failsafe mechanisms & Websocket pools (API endpoint doesn't work? No worries, SDK automatically switches to the next working one! Did you use the endpoint already a few moments back? No problem! SDK stores it into the websocket pool for a few minutes for you, and will just reuse it!)
XCM DRY Running (DRY RUN your XCM messages and find out whether they will execute on both origin and destination without wasting resources and potentially risking asset loss!)
Complex XCM Fee queries to help you determine exactly how much and in which currency the XCM call will be paid upon execution
Ability to transfer XCM messages from/to 48 different XCM compatible Parachains & Relay chains (Number of compatible chains fluctuates as some of them are added/removed)
Support for ecosystem bridges such as Polkadot<>Kusama bridge or Polkadot<>Ethereum bridge (Snowbridge)
All three XCM transfer scenarios in one line (UMP - Para to Relay, DMP - Relay to Para, HRMP - Para to Para)
Multiple choices for asset selection - id, symbol, multilocation, multiasset selection
Customizable XCM version (If the preselected version stops working, you can select one that works with just one simple parameter)
Testing on testnet or localhost (You can input a custom WS port parameter or even custom Parachain ID)
Multiple important Asset queries for front-end, such as getExistentialDeposit or getAssetBalance
Other front-end-related data queries, such as XCM Pallet support queries and more (all of these are instant because they are in the SDK map)
XCM Batch transfers (Send multiple XCM messages at once)
Local transfers also available! Send any asset within the same chain

XCM SDK has, since it was introduced 1003 days ago (September 25th. 2022) had a total of 102.465 downloads on NPMJS

Want to go packageless and save space? We got you

Meet the award-winning and 🥇 first XCM API in the ecosystem. XCM API packs every XCM SDK feature and allows you to implement the XCM packagelessly.

Unable to decide? A couple of why XCM API might be the right way for your project:

Built-in Token authentication for DDoS prevention (No authentication required for up to 100 req/min)
Designed for simple private deployment (Need faster responses? Have servers that are faster? Feel free to deploy API yourself! You can also build business models on top of this when there are other projects needing faster responses. Opportunities are limitless.
XCM API Offloads your server from computing required to construct calls (You receive a constructed message already)
You save server costs!
Package-less integration (No need to install anything compared to SDK alternatives)
Simple to implement (Constructed to be as dev-friendly as possible)
Built in compatibility with state-of-the-art Polkadot API - PAPI library
It is free for everyone to request more requests per minute!

XCM API has Served since its launch 650 days ago (September 13th. 2023) a total of 1.140.277 requests and faced 0 downtime

Sending one asset cross-chain and receiving another was never this easy

Behold state-of-the-art technology called XCM-Router. It is easy to implement and has plenty of awesome features like automatic exchange chain selection! Featuring 556 asset exchange pools.

What are some of the highlight capabilities of the XCM Router?

Access 556 asset pools through the largest liquidity bridging tool in the ecosystem
Built in compatibility with state-of-the-art Polkadot API - PAPI library
Automatically selects the best exchange path for maximum payout (manual selection also available)
Built for DEX projects using core components from the XCM SDK and open-source parachain DEX SDKs
Supports Polkadot ↔ Ethereum bridging via Snowbridge
Requires only 2 signatures: one for the XCM to the exchange, and one for the batch of exchange + XCM to the destination
Allows Asset ↔ Asset swaps on AssetHub in one call, even though AssetHub only supports Asset ↔ DOT pools natively

XCM ROUTER has since it was introduced 557 days ago (Dec 15th. 2023) had a total of 51294 downloads on NPMJS

Unable to decode complex XCM? Say no more

Developed in collaboration with PolkadotJS (Now implemented in PolkadotJS Extension-UI) XCM-Analyser lets you decode XCM Multilocations into human-readable format while being lightweight with minimalistic dependency list.

What are the pros of XCM Analyser?

Minimalistic library (No heavy dependencies)
Decoding individual junctions or entire XCM Calls
Support for JSON or Object syntax

XCM Analyser has, since it was introduced 426 days ago (Apr 15th. 2024) had a total of 7862 downloads on NPMJS

Exploring XCM in stunning, universe-like 3D Visualization was never this straightforward

Discover award-winning and first XCM-Visualization oriented tool in the ecosystem - XCM Visualizator. Built to enhance data science around XCM. Scientists can visualise XCM-related information with ease in remarkable 3D and 2D visualisations.

See the Value Behind the Data:

Gain insights into network scalability over time with detailed historical analysis
Identify the most active chains in cross-chain messaging
Monitor the accounts with the highest cross-chain messaging activity
Discover the most frequently used channels
Track the most commonly transferred assets
Access comprehensive details for any selected chain, including simultaneous multi-chain analysis
Download your selected chains graph or its data to directly use them in research articles or next data processing
XCM Visualizator GitHub
XCM Visualizator Web

Implementation made easy with XCM Tools Docs

Explore comprehensive documentation, which covers just about every topic developers will encounter when implementing XCM and XCM Tools into their apps.

Docs had a total of 219 refactors and update deployments on GitHub pages since their launch

Play with XCM Tools in Playground

Get hands-on with XCM tools instantly in an interactive playground. No setup is needed — just experiment, see real-time results and explore the full potential of XCM solutions for your projects.

ParaSpell's Team and history:

By now, we have completed 6 Web 3 Foundation grants meant to fund the development of ParaSpell's common good tools. This goes to show our dedication to the topic and the community. They can be observed here: Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3, Phase 4 and Phase 5. We are also pushing development onwards in other cross-chain topics in the ecosystem. For example, the xcNFT pallet meant to allow users to transfer NFTs through XCM - Link.
We have been granted trust from the Kusama community multiple times in the following maintenance proposals that helped us further perfect XCM Tools: Maintenance 1, Maintenance 2, Maintenance 3, and Maintenance 4. Maintenance 2 is also historically 🥇first maintenance-related referenda to receive 100% AYE support for which we are very thankful!
Some of XCM Tools are partially / fully funded by participation in Hackathons (To maximize self-sufficiency when developing state-of-the-art tools).
- XCM API was co-funded with 🥇first place at the Polkadot Global Series APAC 2023 Hackathon in the XCM Integration track. Here is the final announcement post.
- The XCM Visualizator was fully funded by 🥈second place at the Polkadot Global Series North America 2024 Hackathon in the XCM Integration track. Here is the result announcement
Knowledge and funds are reinvested into professional research articles 👨‍🏫 - Promoting Polkadot and ParaSpell in the long run at international research conferences (We occupy the first page when you search “Polkadot XCM” on Google Scholar). The conferences we choose are with higher standards and higher Z-indexes. We were so far able to publish a total of 8 professional research articles and 2 journals:
- Sharing fungible assets across Polkadot Paraverse: IEEE ICECET 2022 - link
- Enhancing XCMP Interoperability Across Polkadot Paraverse: IEEE ICBC 2023 - link
- ParaSpell XCM SDK: A New Protocol for Interoperability in Polkadot Paraverse: IEEE BCCA 2023 - link
- Cross-Chain Payments on Blockchain Networks: An Apartment Booking Use-Case: ACM SAC 2024 - link
- Interlinked Transactions: Revolutionizing Apartment Bookings through Cross-Chain Payments: IEEE BCCA 2024 - link
- Cross-Chain Non-Fungible Assets Sharing on Polkadot: IEEE Brains 2024 - link
- Protocol for unifying cross-chain liquidity on polkadot: Frontiers in Blockchain Journal 2024 - link
- Decentralized Bridge Between Polkadot and Cosmos: ACM SAC 2025 - link
- UniSpell: Universal Adapter for Interoperability in Polkadot Paraverse: Cluster Computing Journal 2024 - link
- Understanding Cross-Chain Message Passing Delays in Polkadot: An Experimental Perspective - Sent for review into BCCA 2025

The team behind the project has been hacking in the Polkadot ecosystem for a while now.

Consisting of 2 members (About to expand to 3):

Dušan Morháč: PBA 2023 Buenos Aires Alumni, Building in ecosystem since 2021, LINKEDIN, GITHUB.
Michael Absolon: PBA 2025 in Lucerne Alumni Typescript expert with 4 years of professional experience, Building in the ecosystem since 2022, LINKEDIN, GITHUB.

Both team members achieved their Master's degrees recently (June 2024) and are working on ParaSpell full-time. Dušan continues to study for a Doctoral degree (To be able to continue research passion and release more research papers for Polkadot and ParaSpell).

Aim of this proposal:

The ParaSpell team responsible for developing and maintaining the XCM Tools stack seeks 12 months of maintenance funding to cover the costs of three full-time team members, infrastructure, servers, domains, and a contribution reward pool. The tools and miscellaneous sites (Playground, Docs, Landing page, and more) will be fully maintained for the mentioned period starting on 1st August 2025 and ending on 1st August 2026. This proposal allows all tools to remain completely free for the entire Polkadot and Kusama communities. It also allows the ParaSpell team to dedicate time to help other teams that wish to implement XCM Tools.

📦What You Gain by Implementing ParaSpell’s XCM Tools

🚀 Accelerated Integration with Personalised Support
- Gain free, hands-on assistance from the ParaSpell team via a private Telegram group. Our typical response time is within minutes. When your deadlines are tight, we’re also available for live calls. (You can reach out via the form on the ParaSpell landing page.)
🛠️ Reliable Issue Resolution
- Have a problem? Simply open an issue in the relevant GitHub repository, and we’ll help resolve it promptly.
🔄 Continuous Improvements & New Features
- Every tool in the ParaSpell suite receives regular updates, including feature enhancements and monthly maintenance checks for ever-updating parachains and pallets.
📚 Comprehensive Documentation
- Each XCM Tool is backed by thorough, always up-to-date developer-focused documentation to make your integration process easier.
🔐 Production-Ready Reliability
- We test and verify compatibility with parachains and their XCM-related pallets every month and do ad-hoc fixes if any chain updates occur in the meantime to ensure everything stays functional and secure.
💡 100% Open Source & Free
- There are no subscriptions, fees, or hidden costs. ParaSpell is committed to delivering common-good software for the Polkadot ecosystem—forever free and open-source.

The Bottom Line is that ParaSpell’s XCM Tools help you build faster, safer, and more affordable dApps without compromising on quality.

🙌 What’s in it for Non-Developers & dApp Users

⚡ Faster Access to dApps
- XCM Tools drastically reduce development time, meaning your favorite features and cross-chain functionalities arrive much sooner.
🛡️ Confidence in Cross-Chain Safety
- XCM Tools are rigorously tested, regularly updated, and built by ecosystem veterans, helping dApps avoid costly cross-chain asset issues.
🧪 Try it Yourself
- You can try all of the tools yourself without needing to code! Explore and experiment with XCM capabilities directly via our XCM Tools Playground.
💪 Long-Term Commitment to the Ecosystem
- Our tools are maintained out of passion, not profit. Even with limited funding, we’ll continue to support the ecosystem — albeit at a slower pace. You won’t wake up to a broken dApp or a removed feature.
🌱 Community-Driven, Not Commercial
- There is no business model behind XCM Tools. They exist solely to serve the community, making Polkadot-based dApp development and usage more accessible for everyone.

Bottom Line: By supporting ParaSpell, you support faster innovation, safer cross-chain experiences, and a healthier Polkadot ecosystem.

Proposal schedule

Discussion: 24. June. 2025 - 30. June. 2025
Voting: 1. July. 2025 - 28. July. 2025

Proposal ask

The proposal seeks 147.952$ worth of funding for team expansion, contribution pool, 12 months of various maintenance tasks, research, and improvement tasks, as well as assistance to other teams. This is divided into 11500$ per month and 23,95$ per developer work hour. No increase in terms of dev salary from previous proposals at all. 10.000$ from the sum will be allocated for the contribution pool meant to encourage developers to contribute to the open source tool stack on Polkadot more. More information can be found in the full proposal document.

Documents associated with the proposal:

Full proposal (Contains detailed information on how we plan to use funds)

XCM Tools one pager

ParaSpell landing page

Documentation for XCM Tools

Polkadot Forum post prior to proposal