The Polkadot Network ($DOT) says it finished 2022 on a high, reporting multiple key developments that took place in the fourth quarter, as well as strong developer momentum.

Polkadot, which is a multi-chain blockchain ecosystem that aims to serve as the foundation of Web3, took a key step in terms of pushing the decentralization and security of its network with the launch of its long-awaited nomination pools feature.

It’s an important development because it reduced the minimum amount of tokens needed to staking natively on their platform to just 1 DOT, instead of 200 DOT. The move means native staking is now accessible to a much broader audience than ever before, and it made an immediate impact with over 2,475 pool members actively tying 854,495 DOTs by the end of the year.

The implementation of nomination groups was one of the headlines in the Polkadot ecosystem during the last three months of the year. In other news, Polkadot’s smart contract platform Astar Network announced in October that it had entered into a key partnership with Japanese mobile network provider NTT Docomo. Astar said that from now on it will work with NTT Docomo on a series of initiatives aimed at boosting Web3 adoption.

One of the association’s initial goals is to create a project that solves social problems by using a decentralized autonomous organization, which provides an alternative to centralized decision-making and is a key feature of Web3.

In addition, the two companies said that they aim to create solutions based on Web3 technology for various problems facing modern society, such as environmental problems and regional development.

As part of the initiative, NTT Docomo has also promised to invest up to $4 billion to finance these projects.

That same month also saw a major milestone for Polkadot, as its parachain KILT Protocol achieved what was the first full migration of Kusama to the main Polkadot broadcast chain. Kusama is a “canary network” that serves as a sort of test bed for both Polkadot and the many parachains that one day intend to launch on the Polkadot broadcast network.

KILT, a blockchain identity protocol for issuing self-sovereign, verifiable credentials and decentralized identifiers, said the landmark migration was made possible by Polkadot’s unique technology stack, which is based on the XCM cross-chain interoperability standard.

The migration went smoothly, proving the feasibility of both the technology and the canary model, where projects perform a sort of test run in a live environment before being officially released on the Polkadot mainnet.

There was also good news for DOT investors, who may have been gratified to learn that the US Securities and Exchange Commission no longer considers the token a “security” but rather a “non-security.”

The new definition means that the SEC acknowledges that the Web3 Foundation has taken steps on its business processes and communication guidelines that ensure greater security for DOT investors, as well as compliance with US regulations.

Development activity gains pace

As Polkadot and its parachute ecosystem continue to reach new milestones, its developer community continues to grow. Data from Electric Capital shows that Polkadot and its 334 ecosystem teams have 1,128 weekly active developers working on various parachains and decentralized apps, generating a combined total of 13,934 confirmations per week.

Developer commitments can be thought of as updates, and with nearly 14,000 per week, Polkadot tops the list of all Web3 projects in terms of developer activity, Electric Capital data revealed. Additionally, some of the individual projects within the Polkadot ecosystem ranked high on the overall list.

Manta Network, a privacy protocol, and Kusama, the canary network, ranked third and fifth, respectively, on Electric Capital’s list. Manta also achieved a notable milestone of his own, setting a new record by setting the biggest ever “Trusted Configuration” for a zero-knowledge network with more than 13,000 participants.

As for Polkadot, its huge developer community caters to what is now the largest ecosystem of decentralized applications and use-case specific Layer 1 networks. A total of 74 parachains have now won auctions on either Polkadot or Kusama, and these projects support a total of over 300 dApps and just over 550 projects that are either live or in development and set to launch in the new year.

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