devGround Phase 2
With Referendum #783, LimeChain began the development of the devGround platform, focused on the implementation of new developer tools using the Polkadot-API (PAPI). It offers a suite of tools designed to help developers streamline development and debugging, enabling rapid prototyping and exploration of on-chain information seamlessly across the entire Polkadot ecosystem in a more intuitive way. Since then, we have delivered on the treasury proposal, gathered feedback, and published a detailed progress report, available here.
In Phase 2, we aim to enhance the developer experience on Polkadot further. The full proposal document for devGround Phase 2 can be found in the Google Docs document here.
TL;DR
In Phase 2 of devGround, we are turning the JavaScript IDE into a collaborative, shareable coding environment, improving the explorer with deeper on-chain insights, and adding utility pages tailored to real developer workflows. Our focus is on saving developer time, reducing context switching, and making devGround a daily-use tool across Substrate-based chains.
- Console Session Sharing: Enabling developers to share their IDE sessions with collaborators in real time - ideal for pair programming, mentorship, or even solving interview-style challenges together.
- Console Snippet Sharing: Developers will be able to share executable code snippets through a QR code or URL. This removes the friction of copying code, setting up environments, or installing packages - just scan, click, and run.
- More On-chain Data: We’re upgrading the block explorer to deliver deeper insights. Planned improvements include:
- Historical block data in order to access data that’s only available from archive nodes.
- Detailed account views: extrinsics, transfers, and balances.
- Search by Extrinsics and Events to enhance the search capabilities of the explorer.
- State traces and logs to improve debugging and analysis.
- Improved UX and Feature Interoperability: We aim to significantly reduce friction across the app. This includes:
- Streamlining navigation between features
- Improving state persistence across tabs
- Designing flows based on real-world developer use cases
- Debugging State Trie storage values while working on an alternative Polkadot Host implementation.
- Exploring on-chain data while working on a data indexer tooling (Subsquid)
- More Developer Tools: We’re adding new tooling pages and improving the existing ones to increase the number and quality of utilities devGround provides.
Ecosystem Benefits:
By enhancing devGround into a unified, practical hub for runtime, dApp, and parachain developers, we reduce tool fragmentation and shorten the learning curve across parachains. This makes it easier for newcomers to onboard, for teams to collaborate, and for experienced builders to move faster; ultimately helping the entire Polkadot ecosystem scale more efficiently and attract more developers.
The total treasury request for this proposal is 172,210 USDC, distributed across 4 milestones.
Any additional feedback or ideas for the enhancement of the devGround platform are greatly appreciated and welcome.
Comments (6)
Requested
Proposal Failed
Summary
0%
Aye
0%
Nay
Aye (10)0.0 DOT
Support0.0 DOT
Nay (49)0.0 DOT
OG Tracker Rating 3/3
Clear display of deliverables✅
Clear display of a valid direct point of contact ✅
Clear display of proposal’s duration✅
OGT Rating aims to help voters make better informed decisions and direct proposers towards certain common-good practices. We are providing feedback based on 3 simple yet crucial criteria which we believe should be included in every OpenGov referenda.
PolkaWorld votes NAY.
We recommend completing the development first and applying for retroactive funding once the tool has seen real adoption.
Right now, we’re seeing far too many proposals in the Polkadot Treasury claiming to “lower the barrier for developers.” But in reality—have any of these tools actually led to exponential developer growth? Many tool-focused proposals do not treat user growth as a core KPI. Instead, they justify funding based on “what features were built,” “how many features were delivered on time,” or “how many tutorials were written.” As a result, significant resources are spent on feature accumulation rather than on shifting user behavior, improving retention, or integrating meaningfully into the ecosystem. We believe this is a major problem.
This proposal requests $170,000 USDC, yet currently has only 30 monthly active users (with a goal of reaching 90 by year-end). That’s nearly $2,000 per new user. Is that truly necessary?
For proposals like this, we strongly suggest applying via retroactive funding in the future.
You can view the full feedback here.
hey @polkaworld team, thank you for the detailed feedback
We completely agree that adoption is the main challenge and that we need to invest more time in storytelling and showing the true value of devGround to the ecosystem. We also agree with your point that there are many tools claiming to reduce barriers to entry, which focus on feature stacking at the expense of actual adoption.
Phase 1 of devGround was always meant to be a foundation rather than a final product. We didn’t expect wide adoption right out of the gate, rather the focus was on building a solid core toolset first, which would give both new and existing devs a one-stop hub that brings direct access to all the most important tools when starting AND some more advanced ones that enable a shared experience across teams, allowing for a more simplified development experience across Polkadot by saving time and reducing the need to juggle multiple tools.
That said, you are right to point out that the user base is still small. We’ve been transparent about our current MAUs because we believe in being open with the community. To address this, we’ve been reaching out to teams across the ecosystem to share more about devGround, gather feedback, and improve the tool based on real needs. For example, we’ve heard that devGround can be especially useful for early-stage developers and PBA-X students, and we’ve already connected with people involved in PBA to better understand how to meet those needs.
Furthermore, we also want to highlight that part of this proposal explicitly covers adoption work. We have added a Product Owner to focus on ecosystem engagement, onboarding, and growing usage across the board. The proposal is structured to support both product completion and the adoption push together, as we know one without the other won’t deliver lasting value. We’ll also be working on defining more meaningful KPIs that go beyond just features delivered to better reflect impact and user engagement over time, as per your suggestion.
Regarding the budget, we understand how the figure of $170k for the monthly active users might raise questions about cost efficiency. But the proposal isn’t built around MAU-based logic; we built it through the lens of finishing key development milestones and supporting adoption in a focused and intentional way. As usage grows, we believe the value will become clear. That said, we do understand the importance of marketing and adoption, and we currently have team members who are fully committed to promoting devGround’s usage across the ecosystem. While their efforts are ongoing, we have intentionally not included them as “billable” in the proposal, as we believe that responsibility is on us, given this is our product.
On the topic of retroactive funding, we understand the rationale behind it and see why it can be a preferred approach in some cases. That said, it’s not a viable path for our specific company due to our structural and operational model. We believe in the tool’s potential and are personally invested in its success. We will put time and resources beyond what’s requested in this proposal to ensure adoption improves.
Finally, from your Notion, we also saw that you’d like proposals to demonstrate the clear value and long-term contribution of both the product and the team. We’ve been supporting the Polkadot ecosystem since 2020, focusing on research and devtools — areas that align with our core strengths. devGround is a natural extension of that mission. Unless the community calls for specific new features, we don’t anticipate further funding requests beyond this second phase, which is intended to be the final one.
Thanks again for your input. It’s extremely important to us that our work results in tools that are genuinely useful and widely adopted. You’ve raised valid points, and we’ve taken them into account. Should this proposal move forward, we’d be happy to incorporate them into the process.
Best regards,
Rumen
LimeChain