Polkadot Alliance Goes Live to Establish Code of Ethics

A new community-driven self-governance board will develop and impose ethical standards for all start-ups in the Polkadot (DOT) ecosystem. It will also track misbehaving teams offering solutions on Polkadot (DOT).

Polkadot Alliance launches to enforce ethical standards for DOT community

According to the official announcement made by Polkadot (DOT) community activists, The Polkadot Alliance, a novel community body, has been commissioned. Mainly, it will focus on creating and imposing ethical standards for all Web3 teams in the Polkadot (DOT) ecosystem.

We are excited to support the launch of the @Polkadot Alliance as a Founding Fellow!

This is an on-chain collective of teams seeking to protect the Polkadot brand, recognize ecosystem contributors, and uphold a community code of ethics.https://t.co/GEys6nzoup

More below 🧵

— Acala (@AcalaNetwork) November 29, 2022

The Polkadot Alliance Founding Fellows board features the most influential teams building on Polkadot (DOT), including the likes of  Acala, Astar, Interlay, KILT Protocol, Moonbeam, Subscan and Phala.

Technically, the new venture will be backed by Collective Common Good Parachain. The proposal for this parachain's activation was published on Polkassembly forum in October. Then, it was approved and went live on Nov. 21, 2022.

The Polkadot Alliance idea was first announced by Joe Petrowski of the Web3 Foundation:

The Alliance is already deployed on the Westend test parachain and will likely be the first one on Polkadot. Several community teams banded together about two years ago and came up with the idea for the Alliance, primarily to fight misuse of the Polkadot brand and unattributed code. The Alliance would be an on-chain industry collective that sets a code of ethics regarding brand use, scam activities, and harmful behavior, but also provides recognition to teams who do make positive contributions to the growth and success of the Polkadot network.

The Alliance launches to address the growing number of scam teams that "pollute" the Polkadot (DOT) brand by stealing code, launching fundraising campaigns on Ethereum (ETH), activating "rival" relay chains and so on. The Alliance will identify such projects and publish its findings about unscrupulous websites.

How to become Fellow and Ally of Polkadot Alliance

The Polkadot Alliance membership consists of two tiers, Fellow and Ally. Fellows will be responsible for the key operations of the Alliance, including curation of an "Unscrupulous List" of problematic URLs and accounts.

Unlike Fellows, Allies will not have on-chain voting rights. To become an Ally, a Polkadot (DOT) project shoud either deposit 1,000 DOT tokens or be recommended by another Fellow. Any team can join The Polkadot Alliance as an Ally (with a deposit), but Fellows promote Allies to Fellows.

Seven Founding Fellows will be working together as a subset within the Fellows board.