Introducing Square One: Your Starting Point to Building on Substrate, Polkadot, and Kusama

Square One is a new initiative from Parity offering ecosystem direction and a customized support route across Substrate resources for new and early-stage builders. There are many ways to build on Substrate, and the ecosystem comprises numerous toolkits and resources for education, development, and funding. The program guides teams down the most appropriate path of tools and support resources, enabling them to accomplish their goals and launch new products with minimum friction along the way.

Substrate is the leading framework for limitless blockchain development, and serves as the primary development kit for parachain builders on Polkadot and Kusama. The versatility and breadth of the technology stack acts as the foundation for the ongoing innovation seen across Polkadot's multichain ecosystem, and paves the way for future growth amongst the growing Web3 movement.

Many have started down the path of exploring the extensive Substrate documentation and tutorials available, and perhaps even launched a developer testnet. The question many developers, project managers, and founders then reach is: 'Where do we go from here?'

Introducing Square One

Square One is a Parity initiative helping builders navigate the ecosystem's wide range of resources and ways to build. Guidance is tailored to development teams' needs to help them accomplish their goals and successfully launch their products.

Since no two projects built using Substrate are the same, it's important to create a bespoke roadmap that fits the priorities of each member of the Substrate community. Square One exists to help steer ambitious individuals and teams towards the resources needed to make projects soar.

Absolutely anyone involved in Substrate can get value out of Square One. For developers, there is educational material and community-powered bootcamps, while project-managers and team leaders can benefit from growth support resources.

What can Square One offer me?

Square One's resources span the entirety of the Substrate ecosystem, including from organizations beyond Parity. This extensive scope of recommended tools and initiatives ensures that the Substrate community has access to the right support whenever it is needed.

The resources available through Square One can be grouped into various categories:

Funding
Apply for grants, including access to education and support on how to access funding through the Polkadot Treasury.

Education
Gain recognized certifications, join hackathons, and expand your programming expertise to develop your project's PoC.

Tech mentoring
Access mentorship groups to help make your development market-fit.

Product development
Get directed towards external parties interested in Substrate development projects.

Development support
Completely bespoke development resources are available to aid project development and growth.

Give Square One a try

Square One is designed to give steering recommendations to teams at every stage of the building process. Whether you're an early-stage team with a vision, looking to deploy a project from another protocol, or simply exploring options on which platform to build, the right assistance is available in just a few clicks.

Visit the Square One page to browse the full list of resources available and to get in touch with Parity for hands-on support.

Stay up to date on what's happening with Substrate

Find out more about building on Substrate at substrate.dev, join the developer community on the Substrate StackExchange, and sign up for the Substrate Developer Newsletter.

You can also follow Substrate on Twitter.

Interested in building on Polkadot or Kusama? Get in touch!