JAM Prize invites you to build Polkadot's next-generation infrastructure with a 10 million DOT reward!

The Web3 Foundation has launched the JAM Prize, offering a 10 million DOT and 100,000 KSM reward pool to developers contributing to Polkadot's next-generation infrastructure. JAM (Join-Accumulate Machine) is a new protocol replacing Polkadot's relay chain, featuring enhanced smart contract execution and modular architecture.

Competition Goals: Fund multilingual JAM client implementations to strengthen decentralization and resilience.
Three Entry Paths:
- Full Validator Node (Self-Developed PVM): Max reward of 500,000 DOT + 5,000 KSM.
- Non-Self-Developed PVM Validator: Max reward of 350,000 DOT + 3,500 KSM.
- Light Node Implementation: Max reward of 250,000 DOT + 2,500 KSM.
Milestones: Each path has phased rewards for achieving benchmarks like block import, performance targets, and security audits.
Judging: Submissions reviewed by the Polkadot Fellowship, with rewards tied to milestones.
Additional Funding: The Polkadot ecosystem offers other grants, including Open Source Bounties, W3F Grants, and the Pioneers Prize.

The initiative aims to accelerate JAM's development, fostering a more scalable and flexible Web3 future. Developers are encouraged to participate transparently while avoiding code-sharing pitfalls.

If you're a blockchain developer in the Polkadot ecosystem looking for a high-value, landmark project and incentive mechanism, you can't miss the JAM Prize.

This major initiative, initiated by the Web3 Foundation, offers a reward pool of up to 10 million DOTs and 100,000 KSM, open to all technology pioneers willing to contribute to the next generation of the Polkadot protocol.

As Polkadot's next-generation core protocol, JAM represents a future network architecture with higher performance and greater flexibility. The JAM Prize is one of the Web3 Foundation's key initiatives, aimed at accelerating the development and implementation of the JAM protocol.

Through the JAM Prize, the Web3 Foundation hopes to encourage more developers to contribute to the development of Polkadot's next-generation protocol, and together build a more open, secure, and autonomous Web3 infrastructure!

JAM Prize Basic Information

What is JAM?

JAM (Join-Accumulate Machine) is a new protocol designed to succeed Polkadot's relay chain, featuring enhanced smart contract execution capabilities and a simpler, modular architecture. Its goal is to enable Polkadot to move beyond specialized functions and support general-purpose "services"—smart contract logic that can run on its core.

Within JAM, developers can still build and deploy chains using Substrate, which will be accessible as parachains.

JAM introduces a series of technical innovations, including replacing WebAssembly with the Polkadot Virtual Machine (PVM), built on the RISC-V instruction set architecture, and adopting SAFROLE, a zero-knowledge proof-based block generation algorithm. Together, these designs create a new paradigm for Polkadot that is more scalable and flexible.

Competition Objectives

The Web3 Foundation aims to fund multilingual JAM client implementations, strengthening the protocol's decentralization, diversity, and resilience, and mitigating the risks associated with single points of failure.

This prize program will be implemented in conjunction with numerous existing Polkadot ecosystem funding programs, such as Grants and on-chain treasury funding.

Judging Process

Submissions will be reviewed by members of the Polkadot Fellowship. The Web3 Foundation will coordinate support and incentives based on the review results.

Three Entry Paths

Participating teams can choose from three different development paths, all with the same Phase 1 milestone. All paths allow the use of low-level third-party libraries not specific to the JAM protocol, including but not limited to:

Cryptographic primitives (e.g., erasure codes, Bandersnatch, Ed25519)
Binary encoding libraries
Database systems
Networking protocol stacks (e.g., QUIC)

After completing each stage, developers can earn technical advancement in the Polkadot Fellowship based on their code and protocol contributions, without the usual timeframe. Promotions up to level III Dan (Fellow Level 3) are possible.

Path 1: Full Validator Node (Including Self-Developed PVM)

🎯 Development Goal: Implement a complete JAM validator node with block production capabilities and a high-performance self-developed PVM (Polkadot Virtual Machine).

🏆Maximum Reward: 500,000 DOT + 5,000 KSM

💻 Performance Requirements: PVM execution, trie/database, signature verification, and availability (EC/DB) testing will be run on standard hardware.

📊Milestones:

1️⃣ M1 IMPORTER: Passed state transition consistency testing and can import blocks

→ Reward: 100,000 DOT + 1,000 KSM

2️⃣ M2 AUTHORER: Fully compatible, can generate blocks (including network communication and off-chain processing)

→ Reward: 100,000 DOT + 1,000 KSM

3️⃣ M3 HALF-SPEED: Meets standards, performance reaches 50% of the target (including PVM implementation)

→ Reward: 100,000 DOT + 1,000 KSM

4️⃣ M4 FULL-SPEED: Meets standards and achieves 100% performance (including PVM implementation) → Reward: 100,000 DOT + 1,000 KSM 5️⃣ M5 SECURE: Passes a third-party professional audit → Reward: 100,000 DOT + 1,000 KSM Path 2: Non-self-developed PVM Validator 🎯 Development Goal: Build a full JAM validator node, but third-party PVM implementations may be used to meet performance requirements.

🏆Maximum Reward: 350,000 DOT + 3,500 KSM

📊Milestones:

1️⃣ MN1 IMPORTER: Passed state transition consistency testing and can import blocks

→ Reward: 100,000 DOT + 1,000 KSM

2️⃣ MN2 AUTHORER: Fully compatible and can generate blocks

→ Reward: 100,000 DOT + 1,000 KSM

3️⃣ MN3 HALF-SPEED: Meets standards, performance reaches 50% of the target (excluding PVM implementation)

→ Reward: 50,000 DOT + 500 KSM
4️⃣ MN4 FULL-SPEED: Meets standards, 100% performance (excluding PVM implementation)
→ Reward: 50,000 DOT + 500 KSM
5️⃣ MN5 SECURE: Passes audit
→ Reward: 50,000 DOT + 500 KSM
🔄Additional Reward: Teams that complete a high-performance PVM and pass performance testing and audits will receive an additional 100,000 DOT + 1,000 KSM in the MN6 phase.

Path 3: Light Node Implementation

🎯Development Goal: Implement a low-resource JAM node. While not capable of producing blocks, it can handle network requests and is suitable for embedding in tools or web pages.

🏆Maximum Reward: 250,000 DOT + 2,500 KSM

💻 Resource Requirements: The node must complete standard tasks on standard hardware with minimal CPU, memory, storage, and network usage. Performance should be roughly comparable to smoldot.

📊 Milestones:

1️⃣ ML1 IMPORTER: Passed consistency testing and can import blocks

→ Reward: 100,000 DOT + 1,000 KSM

2️⃣ ML2 FULL-SPEED: Performance reaches 100%

→ Reward: 50,000 DOT + 500 KSM

3️⃣ ML3 SECURE: Passed audit

→ Reward: 100,000 DOT + 1,000 KSM

💡Additional Rules:

Each development language group can be issued up to 4 ML2 Rewards
Each language group is limited to two ML3 audit award slots, and they must be from different language implementations
After reaching ML2, teams can reserve ML3 audit eligibility for 6 months. If no ML3 is submitted during this period, the slot will be taken over by the next qualified team, in the order of application.

Advice for Development Teams

The more milestones you complete, the more competitive your submission will be. If you're still unsure where to start, the Web3 Foundation recommends developing in the following order:

Block/Block Header Data Structure and Serialization
State Data Structure and Serialization
In-Memory Database and Merklization (Merkle Tree Processing)
Non-PVM Block Execution/State Transition
PVM Instantiation, Execution, and Host Functions
Block Import Testing

Notes

To ensure fairness and protocol security, participating teams are advised to avoid referencing specific implementation details from other teams, and in particular, avoid directly sharing code.

You may discuss high-level design ideas or optimization directions with other teams, but you may not review or borrow their specific implementations. The Polkadot Fellowship will focus on undeclared collaboration, such as highly similar code structures or the simultaneous occurrence of the same bug in two implementations. This will be considered a potential red flag.

This does not prohibit all forms of collaboration. If you collaborate with other teams during debugging, simply honestly document the relevant content and findings and submit them to the GP repository via a GitHub issue, or provide a note when submitting your work. This will ensure compliance. Transparent documentation helps ensure ownership of your team's work and technical contributions.

More Polkadot Ecosystem Funding

In addition to the JAM Prize, the Polkadot ecosystem offers a variety of long-term and dedicated funding channels to support developers, researchers, and startups at different stages of their innovative projects.

Polkadot Open Source Grant Bounty Program

This program offers grants of up to $30,000 USD to individuals or small teams interested in building open-source software for the Polkadot ecosystem. It is expected to support approximately 15 teams or individuals. Applicants must have solid open-source development experience. Grants may include prototype development, general tool libraries, or complete DApps. Funding will be distributed based on project milestones and will be disbursed after successful review.

👉https://github.com/PolkadotOpenSourceGrants

Web3 Foundation Grants Program (W3F Grants Program)

This long-term grant program, launched in 2019, supports development and research efforts focused on strengthening the Polkadot ecosystem through quarterly selection. The program provides phased funding and supports projects with resources for ecosystem collaboration, publicity, and promotion.

👉https://grants.web3.foundation/

Polkadot Ecosystem Fund

Led by renowned digital asset management company Scytale, the fund focuses on supporting early-stage projects building on Polkadot and its Rollup blockchains. The fund has funded several core projects, including Astar and Centrifuge.

👉https://www.scytale.digital/apply-for-funding

Polkadot Ecosystem Fund II

Initiated by Harbour Industrial Capital, the fund focuses on venture capital and liquidity investment strategies for growth-stage companies. The fund provides pre-seed and seed stage support through equity or tokens, and collaborates with other VCs on strategic investments. Its portfolio includes projects like Peaq, Mythical, and Mandala.

👉https://www.harbourindustrial.com/

Polkadot Pioneers Prize

A bounty-based grant program funded by an on-chain treasury and governed by DOT holders, with a total prize pool of nearly 1 million DOT, rewards innovators who solve core Polkadot challenges. It has already supported several technological breakthroughs, including the zero-knowledge cryptography project ZPrize.

👉https://pioneersprize.polkadot.network/

Conclusion

The JAM Protocol is not only the next-generation core protocol for Polkadot, but also a critical step in determining the future of the entire ecosystem. The JAM Prize is gathering the world's most visionary developers to build a stronger and more open Web3 infrastructure.

Visit the Web3 Foundation website or read the Gray Paper for more details on the competition. Let's build a stronger and more open decentralized future together!