Polkadot Fellowship: Developer-Driven Governance Structure Takes Shape

The Polkadot Technical Fellowship is a self-governing group of protocol experts and core developers for the Polkadot and Kusama networks. Established in 2022, it replaced the earlier Technical Committee governance model.

Its primary function is to judge the quality of proposed technical changes, rather than their popularity among token holders. Members evaluate code, protocol design, and upgrades based on their expertise, not their token holdings.

The Fellowship operates on a defined mix of on-chain rules and off-chain collaboration, with members ranging from newcomers with a few genuine code contributions to long-time developers who've shaped major parts of the protocol.