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Overview

Polkadot Live is a cross-platform desktop application designed to bring decentralized notifications and seamless chain interaction to your desktop. Funded by the Polkadot OpenGov treasury, Polkadot Live supports a wide range of use cases across Polkadot and Substrate-based networks—from monitoring on-chain activity to signing and submitting extrinsics.

Built with flexibility and user control in mind, Polkadot Live is fully open source and available for macOS, Windows, and Linux. Users can download prebuilt binaries or compile the application directly from source via the GitHub repository. It provides a secure, non-custodial interface to interact with the blockchain while ensuring your private keys remain on your chosen hardware or software wallet.

Key features

Polkadot Live enables users to monitor activity across multiple accounts and networks through a powerful, subscription-based notification system. In addition to focused account-level subscriptions, the app also supports chain event subscriptions—allowing users to subscribe to specific on-chain events in real time, scoped to the entire chain, a single account, or individual OpenGov referenda.

Subscriptions can track balance changes, staking activity, governance milestones, and more. Notifications are delivered as detailed event items within the app and native desktop alerts, often accompanied by links to tools like Subscan or the Staking Dashboard.

Accounts can be imported via Ledger hardware wallets, the Polkadot Vault app, WalletConnect-compatible wallets, or as read-only addresses. Full-access accounts enable secure transaction signing, while read-only imports are ideal for monitoring on-chain activity without requiring private key access. Imported accounts are automatically available across supported networks, making it easy to subscribe to events and track activity wherever it occurs.

Polkadot Live also includes built-in transaction handling. Users can create, review, and sign extrinsics—such as transferring tokens or managing staking rewards—entirely within the app. Each transaction is clearly summarized before submission, with real-time status updates and support for multiple signing flows.

Why use Polkadot Live?

  • Decentralized, real-time notifications
    Subscribe to chain, account, and referenda events and receive alerts the moment activity occurs on-chain—delivered via detailed in-app event items or native OS notifications.

  • Secure, non-custodial setup
    Your keys stay on your device. Polkadot Live integrates with trusted signing tools like Ledger, WalletConnect, and Polkadot Vault.

  • Multi-network support
    Monitor and act across multiple Substrate-based networks, including the Polkadot and Kusama Asset Hub chains, from a single unified interface.

  • Actionable insights
    Inspect rich, structured event data, and deep-link into external tools and dApps to turn raw blockchain activity into clear, actionable information.

As the ecosystem evolves, Polkadot Live grows with it—expanding subscriptions, network support, and transaction capabilities to serve the Polkadot community.