The Current Status and Future Development Strategy of Polkadot

Introduction

As a team that has been focused on researching Polkadot for nearly five years, we are hearing more and more voices from the community expressing frustration with Polkadot. With the launch of OpenGov, governance rights are increasingly being handed over to the community, and we can become a driving force for the development of Polkadot. This article is a strategic planning report that we believe outlines how Polkadot should grow, directly addressing the most pressing issues and proposing ideas and suggestions for improvement.

The Current Status of Polkadot

Technical Update Status

Polkadot has implemented two important technical updates:

• OpenGov: A new governance model that achieves decentralization through community voting and checks and balances.
• XCM V3: The latest version of the cross-consensus message format, supporting external network bridging, NFT transfers, and other features.

Polkadot 1.0 has been fully delivered and will enter the new phase of 2.0. Polkadot 2.0 introduces several new concepts and technologies:

• Accord( Agreement): A voluntary treaty across multiple chains
• SPREE Technology: Ensures secure transmission of information and value between different parallel chains.
• Project CAPI: A middleware project promoting the development of DApps based on Polkadot.

On-chain situation

• Development activities continue to rise, with a stable number of core developers.
• The number of daily active accounts has declined.
• The total locked value of the parallel chain (TVL) is showing a downward trend.
• The DOT staking rate is 46%, with a return rate of approximately 9%.

Developer Situation

• Polkadot has 645 full-time developers, ranking second.
• The total number of developers is 1923, rising to second place.
• Full-time developers account for 33.54% of the total.

Ecological Situation

• There are 580 ecological applications, including DeFi, infrastructure, NFTs, etc.
• The launch of XCM V3 has attracted widespread attention.
• The TVL of parallel chains such as Moonbeam and Acala remains at a high level.
• Slot auctions are ongoing, attracting projects to join the ecosystem.

Market Capitalization Status

• Current market value is approximately $3.375 billion, ranked 14th.
• In recent months, the price has shown a downward trend, decreasing by 31.87%

social media situation

Polkadot's official social media includes:

• Official website, Twitter, Reddit, YouTube, etc.
• Polkadot forums, GitHub and other technical communities
• Support tutorial assistance provided by the knowledge base

Treasury Governance Situation

OpenGov is facing some challenges:

• The voting rate varies significantly across different tracks, with a lower voting rate for treasury expenditure tracks.
• The treasury balance decreases, and the expenditure rate increases.
• The referendum approval rate is relatively low.

Issues Faced by Polkadot

economic model issues

• The inflation rate is relatively high, around 7.38%
• The use cases for DOT tokens are relatively few.
• Users have concerns about the value of tokens.

operational issues

• On-chain data is performing poorly, user activity is relatively low
• Social media data is performing poorly, with low engagement.
• Lack of a comprehensive data website showcasing the ecosystem

User threshold issue

• It is relatively difficult for ordinary users to use Polkadot features and tools.
• The ecosystem is relatively complex, and the learning cost is high.
• Technical documentation is too specialized

SWOT Analysis of Polkadot

优势(Strengths)

• Technological Innovation: OpenGov, XCM V3, etc.
• Strong developer base
• Rich multi-chain ecosystem

劣势(Weaknesses)

• Token price did not meet expectations
• The user threshold is too high
• The DeFi ecosystem is not mature.

机会(Opportunities)

• Increase user engagement
• Innovative concepts and technologies
• Sufficient available deposited funds

威胁(Threats)

• Treasury Governance Challenges
• Competitive pressure
• The market outlook is not optimistic.

Solutions and Ideas

Polkadot's "governance framework"

Treat Polkadot treasury governance as national governance, establishing different government departments:

• Technical Department
• Publicity Department
• Investment Department
• Governance Department
• Activity Department

10 Strategic Goals for Polkadot Treasury Governance

1. Introduce policies to support the development of DeFi projects such as LSDFi
2. Timely launch of public chain incentive program
3. Encourage the development of RWA, Web2.5, DePIN
4. Continuously build public goods
5. Build a Citizen System
6. Design of Polkadot's Odyssey Long-term Plan
7. Let Polkadot become a technological evergreen.
8. Let Polkadot be the core of the entire chain.
9. Mobilize all ecosystem participants to promote together.
10. Establish a feedback iteration mechanism

Three areas for improvement

1. Improve inflation: dynamically adjust the inflation rate
2. Improve operations and lower the threshold
3. Improve governance functions

Possible doubts in the plan

1. How to ensure that treasury support does not affect the DOT price?
2. Does the strategy contradict the purpose of decentralization?
3. How to avoid利益输送?

Postscript

The development of Polkadot is much more difficult than imagined, but we do not want to be bystanders; instead, we hope to immerse ourselves in it, starting from the spirit of Web3, to explore new possibilities. Although this is a path less traveled, we are still moving forward, advancing and retreating together with that small number of people.