Polkassembly: The 2025 Guide to Polkadot OpenGov’s Governance Hub
Polkassembly is the community hub for discovering, discussing, and acting on Polkadot OpenGov—covering referenda, treasury, delegation, preimages, and more. This 2025 guide explains what Polkassembly is, how it works, and how to use it efficiently as a voter, delegate, or proposer.
What is Polkassembly (and why it matters)
Polkassembly is a governance forum and dashboard used across Polkadot and Kusama (and many parachains) to bridge on-chain decisions with off-chain discussion. It centralizes referenda, treasury proposals, bounties, preimages, delegation, batch voting and analytics, making OpenGov participation more approachable for everyone.
On polkadot.polkassembly.io, you’ll find top-level sections like Discussions, Delegation, Batch Voting, Preimages, Treasury, Bounties, Referenda, and Community/Analytics, plus a forthcoming Klara AI assistant aimed at streamlining governance research and Q&A.
Polkadot OpenGov itself is Polkadot’s on-chain, transparent governance system. Votes and outcomes are recorded on-chain and auditable in real time; token holders create and vote on referenda, including treasury spending.
ELI5: Polkassembly in one minute
Think of Polkassembly as Polkadot’s town hall:
- See what’s on the ballot (referenda, treasury, bounties).
- Read the debate (comments, updates, and links).
- Delegate your votes to someone aligned with your views—or vote yourself.
- Track preimages (the “exact code/instruction” behind a proposal) to verify what’s really being voted on.
Key features at a glance
- Unified governance hub: Browse referenda, treasury, bounties, and discussions in one place.
- Profiles & wallet login: Create a profile by connecting your wallet and signing a message; monitor your votes and comments.
- Track-level delegation: Delegate by track (e.g., Treasury, Admin) with stats for delegates and totals across DOT supply. As of September 2025, Polkassembly displays ~439.39M DOT delegated across 154 delegates and 565 delegators (figures fluctuate).
- Batch Voting: Vote on multiple items with a defined default and submit once—handy for active voters.
- Preimages explorer: Inspect preimages, deposits, sizes, and status to validate the exact change being proposed.
- AI assistant (Klara): An emerging Polkassembly chat interface designed to help navigate governance (wallet connect UX live, functionality rolling out).
How Polkassembly fits into OpenGov
OpenGov is Polkadot’s governance architecture: on-chain proposals become referenda and can be delegated by track; every vote is recorded on the relay chain. Polkassembly fetches on-chain data and enriches it with discussion and tooling that make participation simpler (e.g., preimages list, batch voting).
When to use Polkassembly vs other tools
- Use Polkassembly when you need the end-to-end governance workflow—discover, discuss, delegate, and vote in one place; verify preimages; and watch treasury/bounty pipelines.
- Use SubSquare if you prefer its dashboards, notifications, or chain coverage; it’s widely deployed across substrate chains and actively maintained.
- Use the Delegation Dashboard when your focus is multi-role delegation UX across OpenGov tracks.
- Use Polkadot-JS UI for low-level control and raw extrinsics (power-user workflows).
Feature comparison: Polkassembly vs SubSquare vs Delegation Dashboard vs Polkadot-JS UI
| Feature / Tool | Polkassembly | SubSquare | Delegation Dashboard | Polkadot-JS UI |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| On-chain data (referenda, treasury, bounties) | ✅ Unified hubs | ✅ Wide chain support | ➖ (delegation-centric) | ✅ Raw views |
| Off-chain discussions & profiles | ✅ Comments & profiles | ✅ Discussions | ➖ | ➖ |
| Track-level delegation | ✅ Built-in | ✅ | ✅ Primary purpose | ⚠️ Manual |
| Batch voting | ✅ Batch Voting page | ➖ | ➖ | ⚠️ Manual multi-tx |
| Preimages explorer | ✅ Dedicated view | ✅ | ➖ | ⚠️ Requires manual lookup |
| Analytics / community features | ✅ (site sections) | ✅ (varies per chain) | ➖ | ➖ |
| AI assistant | 🚧 Klara (rolling out) | ➖ | ➖ | ➖ |
Step-by-step mini-guide
A) Create a Polkassembly profile
- Connect your wallet (e.g., SubWallet, Talisman, Nova, Polkadot-JS).
- Sign a message to prove ownership; Polkassembly sets up a profile so you can comment, track votes, and receive notifications.
B) Delegate your votes by track
- Open Delegation.
- Pick a track (e.g., Treasury, Admin).
- Choose a delegate using their on-page stats; confirm amount/conviction.
- Submit and verify on-chain. (Totals and delegate counts are visible on the page.)
C) Batch vote efficiently
- Open Batch Voting.
- Set default (e.g., AYE/ NAY / ABSTAIN / with conviction).
- Quickly override specific items if needed.
- Sign once to submit a batch.
D) Validate a proposal’s preimage
- Open Preimages.
- Copy the preimage hash and inspect deposit, size, and call arguments.
- Cross-check the referendum referencing that preimage before voting.
Practical checklist
- Wallet connected and profile set.
- Followed delegates you trust; reviewed their track records.
- Set a batch voting default for busy weeks.
- Verified the preimage matches the intent of the proposal.
- Subscribed to updates via your preferred governance app(s).
Common pitfalls & tips
Pitfall: Voting without reading the preimage. Tip: Always skim the call, deposit, and size to be sure the action matches the forum post.
Pitfall: Delegating to a single person for all tracks. Tip: OpenGov supports per-track delegation—spread risk by track.
Pitfall: Transaction fatigue leading to missed votes. Tip: Use Batch Voting with a default stance, then override exceptions.
Pitfall: Confusing off-chain narratives with on-chain reality. Tip: Decisions are enforced on-chain—validate via Polkassembly’s on-chain data and Polkadot support docs.
Pitfall: Ignoring AI helpers. Tip: Try Klara as it rolls out for quicker discovery and context.
FAQs
1) What is Polkassembly? A governance forum and dashboard that aggregates on-chain OpenGov items (referenda, treasury, bounties), with profiles, discussion, delegation, preimages, and more.
2) How do I log in? Connect a wallet and sign a message to create/manage a profile and interact (comment, monitor votes).
3) Can I delegate by track? Yes—Polkassembly’s Delegation page supports track-level delegation with live stats and totals.
4) What’s “batch voting”? A flow that lets you set a default stance and cast many votes in one submission—ideal for active participants.
5) Where can I verify what a proposal actually does? Use Preimages to see the exact call (and deposit/size) tied to a referendum.
6) How is Polkassembly different from SubSquare? Both surface OpenGov data and discussions; SubSquare also covers many substrate chains and has its own UX. Choose whichever suits your workflow.
7) Is there an AI helper? Yes—Klara is being introduced as an AI hub for governance discovery (wallet connect screen live).
8) Is Polkassembly “official”? It’s a widely used governance portal for Polkadot and Kusama, referenced across the Polkadot Wiki and support guides, and has received treasury support via proposals.
Conclusion
Polkassembly is the most complete one-stop governance hub for Polkadot participants. Whether you’re proposing treasury work, delegating by track, or batch-voting across a busy week, mastering Polkassembly will save time and help you vote with confidence.