Hello Polkadot community,

Before asking again, I chose to deliver first. While ref #1466 missed approval by a tiny margin, the vision behind Polkadot Cloud moved forward anyway. Nearly 500 unpaid hours later, the new Polkadot Cloud website is live, brand guidelines and official logo assets are available to the public, and the network now has an early-stage web3 cloud platform to rally around.

View full proposal | Original announcement

1. Overview

Proponent: Flez (Project Manager/Designer)
Beneficiary Address: 152pohRM3dqGoTayV62H8HuojeJnWZdns9hgMnbDSKSa6qYc
Requested Amount: $42,330 USDT
Funding Period: Retroactive work from Feb-Jul, 2025
Track: Small Spender

This proposal isn’t speculative or to cover future work. It’s a request for fair, retroactive compensation for public-facing work already delivered.

2. What Was Delivered

2.1 Beta Launch for New Cloud Website

The Polkadot Cloud website was officially soft-launched on July 22, 2025, accessible to the public via polkadot.cloud.

Website launch announcement: https://x.com/TheWeb3Cloud/status/1947661786817433649

Each webpage and/or component is fully responsive, cross-browser tested, and designed to deliver a seamless, polished user experience across devices:

1. Polkadot Cloud Homepage
2. Polkadot Cloud Brand Guidelines
3. About Polkadot Cloud
4. Cloud Staking Dashboard Landing Page (see official @Polkadot announcement)
5. New Apps Explorer
6. App Submission Form + Landing Page
7. Intro to Data Availability Service Portal
8. Blog Portal + 3 Blog Articles
9. Blog Article Template View
10. Interactive Case Studies Module
11. Animated network comparison charts (3)
12. Privacy Policy
13. Disclaimer
14. Custom 404 Page
15. Animated Splash Teaser

2.2 New Polkadot Cloud Brand Kit and Guidelines

On July 29, 2025, the Polkadot Cloud branding guidelines were released at polkadot.cloud/branding.

The Polkadot Cloud logo incorporates both the official Cloud icon from the Polkadot icon pack and the official Polkadot symbol, ensuring immediate brand recognition and visual consistency across the ecosystem.

The guidelines provide ecosystem teams, contributors, and the press with all resources needed to represent Polkadot Cloud — including assets, color palettes, design examples, and narrative guidance.

A key goal for this phase is to align Polkadot Cloud’s visual identity with the official Polkadot branding assets at polkadot.com/community/brand-hub/. Integrating Cloud’s visuals into the broader brand framework will create a cohesive, credible presence, reinforce Cloud’s role as an ecosystem resource, and ensure all public-facing materials remain polished, professional, and consistent with Polkadot’s long-term vision. Distractive should reference and/or add these media assets to the existing Brand Hub.

Brand Assets announcement: https://x.com/TheWeb3Cloud/status/1950160202944204989

3. Smashing the Fragmentation Myth: Decentralization Is Polkadot’s Core

3.1 It’s Decentralization, Not Fragmentation

Polkadot is, at its heart, a decentralized, permissionless ecosystem.

In fact, the network’s growth depends on enabling more teams to build dedicated resources for different audiences and use cases. This is not “splitting” the ecosystem … it’s strengthening it.

Multiple, specialized entry points reduce bottlenecks, foster innovation, and expand the network’s reach. They distribute influence beyond a single domain or team, staying true to Polkadot’s founding principles of openness and shared responsibility.

3.2 Proof in Action

This decentralized approach is already recognized and supported. Respected community voices, such as Tommi and Jeeper of OpenGov.Watch, have expressed positive views (source).

There are also direct references to the Polkadot Cloud project (with links to the polkadot.cloud website) already on Polkadot.com, including the press release for the Polkadot Cloud Staking upgrade announcement: https://polkadot.com/newsroom/press-releases/page/1/ and https://polkadot.com/newsroom/press-releases/polkadot-staking-dashboard-relaunches/

This further reinforces that Polkadot Cloud is already recognized as an official and integral part of the ecosystem, making it all the more important to keep the momentum going.

3.3 Connecting the Dots: Unifying Polkadot.com and Polkadot.cloud

To avoid confusion, a navigation link can be added to .com (see above), and there will continue to be a clear distinction between Polkadot.com and Polkadot.cloud as time goes on:

Polkadot.com: The primary HUB for general ecosystem activity, governance, and community with mostly static content catering to all types of users and DOT usage

Polkadot.cloud: The dedicated CLOUD platform for web3 infrastructure, featuring:

• Coretime reservations and blockspace purchases
• Enterprise chain deployment tools and resources
• RPC/API infrastructure and health monitoring
• App hosting and discovery platform

A dedicated Cloud platform works in full alignment with the Hub, creating a complementary ecosystem that strengthens Polkadot’s decentralization, boosts SEO visibility, and delivers clear advantages for enterprise users. This structure empowers business development teams, ambassadors, and community advocates to operate more effectively — benefits that far outweigh any misplaced concerns about “fragmentation.”

This approach distributes responsibility, fosters innovation, and reinforces the core purpose of Polkadot: to provide a decentralized, open foundation without gatekeepers.

4. The Foundation for the Next Generation of Builders

As centralized platforms increase control through regulation, censorship, and vendor lock-in, builders everywhere need open infrastructure they can depend on. Polkadot Cloud delivers a secure, elastic, multi-core foundation for launching unstoppable Web3 applications. It empowers any team to deploy, scale, and interoperate freely without permission or reliance on Big Tech. What starts as a sleek, public-facing website will quickly evolve into a full catalog of Web3 cloud services, offering a true alternative cloud provider for the next generation of builders.

5. Why Now?

• JAM is in motion, and strong positioning now ensures we’re ready as adoption grows
• This work turns Polkadot Cloud from concept → real, actionable product to build upon
• No Polkadot Cloud related content or tangible way to contribute on polkadot.com
• Teams like Parity and Distractive are mostly focused on Hub and PDP, this fills the gap
• Competitors are moving fast on the Web3 cloud narrative, without including Polkadot

6. Retroactive Payment: Flez (Feb–July 2025)

Compensation for unpaid work on early strategy, website design, project coordination, social/brand assets, and stakeholder engagement:

*Rate reduced to $85/hr from my standard $125/hr to support this passion project until it reaches broader adoption and drives significant usage.

**July saw higher hours driven by launch preparations and extensive community coordination, far exceeding the scope of standard website design services.

7. FAQs

1. What is Polkadot Cloud?
   A decentralized infrastructure platform for permissionless, scalable Web3 services powered by Polkadot. Learn more about Polkadot Cloud here.

2. Why does Polkadot Cloud need its own domain?
   Despite a WFC passing in 2024 to fully opensource polkadot.com, there’s still no clear path for community contribution, and with its teams focused solely on the Hub for the foreseeable future, Cloud really needs its own space to grow without centralized bottlenecks or conflicting priorities. Other community-driven initiatives use Polkadot-themed domains, including Polkadot.Africa, Polkadot.Law, Polkadot.Study and LearnPolkadot.com, each with its own focus.

3. Will this fragment the ecosystem?
   No, absolutely not. There is currently zero strategic Cloud coverage on polkadot.com, so this only adds clarity, not confusion, and waiting would risk losing critical momentum. Plans to create links from the .com website to the new .cloud platform have already been proposed to Distractive (see section 2.3 above), and multiple references to polkadot.cloud are already live on the polkadot.com website and socials, reinforcing its role as the official home for the Polkadot Cloud initiative.

4. Why build Cloud now if JAM is still being developed?
   Polkadot Cloud is not a new concept. The network has been working toward this vision from the very beginning (see history here). A handful of cloud services are already live and fill a clear need. Early positioning is critical as JAM develops and web3 cloud competitors advance. Waiting for other ecos to catch up would risk losing our lead to faster movers and slow adoption.

5. How will developers interact differently with Hub vs Cloud?
   New developers will use Polkadot Hub to draft smart contracts, prototype quickly, and run rapid experiments. Polkadot Cloud will serve experienced developers and enterprises focused on more advanced infrastructure narratives such as elastic scaling and core services.

6. How many funding requests will there be in the future?
   You should expect future requests only when meaningful work is delivered or clearly scoped in advance. This isn’t a blank check initiative, it’s an effort to build something valuable for the community, step by step, with full transparency, for a fraction of what other similar projects cost.

7. Is there a plan to open-source the website in the future?
   Yes. The site is still in active BETA, and open-sourcing too early would slow rapid iteration and add unnecessary overhead. Before fully exiting BETA, the Cloud website will be open-sourced under the upcoming Cloud DAO to enable broader community contribution.

8. How can others contribute to the Polkadot Cloud website development project?
   A new Cloud DAO is in development to open up contribution pathways for ecosystem builders. Until then, contributors can reach out directly by emailing hello@polkadot.cloud or by DMing on X @TheWeb3Cloud to collaborate on design, content, service offerings, or app integrations.

9. What’s next on the roadmap beyond more cloud-focused landing pages and content?
   With the Staking Dashboard already hosted on polkadot.cloud (see staking.polkadot.cloud), the next phase focuses on integrating more apps to create a more unified, end-to-end experience for infrastructure builders, from discovery to chain launch to service integration and token utility.

10. Why is the Beneficiary Address for Artico Design?
    The beneficiary address is set to my design agency’s corporate wallet for tax purposes.

8. Final Words

Thank you for taking the time to review this request. Polkadot Cloud is no longer just an idea. The platform is live, public-facing, and adds value to the ecosystem by providing clarity and a dedicated home for Web3 cloud infrastructure. This work was delivered independently, without upfront funding, because it was needed.

While this proposal covers retroactive work, your support will directly motivate me to continue building, expanding, and improving Polkadot Cloud so it can reach its full potential as the network’s leading cloud platform.

Thank you,
Flez @iamflez