The Web3 Foundation has launched a 10 million DOT token prize pool, worth about $65 million, to support the implementation of the highly anticipated Join-Accumulate Machine (JAM) upgrade in the Polkadot ecosystem.

On May 27, Gavin Wood, founder of Polkadot, announced that the project's community had approved the proposed upgrade through a nearly unanimous governance vote.

Dubbed the JAM Implementers’ Prize, the initiative aims to foster innovation and bolster the Polkadot ecosystem by encouraging diverse implementations of the JAM protocol, thereby enhancing network resilience. Participants are encouraged to develop JAM implementations using various programming languages such as OCaml, Go, and Zig.

To qualify for the prize, participants must achieve specific milestones including importing and producing blocks, meeting performance benchmarks on Kusama and Polkadot, and passing security audits. The initiative aims to ensure the development of a decentralized network capable of handling diverse computational tasks.

According to the Web3 Foundation, JAM is an evolutionary blockchain protocol designed to improve data management and interoperability within the Polkadot network. It aims to set a high standard for security, flexibility, and scalability of blockspace.

The upgrade also introduces revolutionary scalability to the consensus layer, previously achievable only through rollups, eliminating the need for developers to choose between appchains and smart contracts. The foundation highlighted that JAM supports Layer 2 (L2) scalability independently of roll-up solutions, catering to the varied requirements of any application. The strong community support for JAM indicates readiness to embrace decentralized innovation while upholding rigorous standards.

Although the timeline for the upgrade remains uncertain, the implementation will proceed through five stages, including importation, authoring, speed checks, and security audits.