As someone who has accompanied the Polkadot community for over five years as a long-term DOT holder, I once believed DOT could become a great investment in my life. That’s why I kept holding it. But judging from its price chart, it’s clear that this expectation has failed.
So, does DOT’s price matter to Polkadot? The answer seems to be no—or more bluntly, DOT has no real value. There is no demand, no market, and the system is far from truly decentralized. Instead, it feels like a Web3 experiment controlled by a tiny group of elites. Over the years, many community members proposed valuable ideas that could have benefited Polkadot’s development, but unfortunately, most were rejected.
For a long time, Polkadot was criticized for its lack of marketing. The community eventually listened and invested heavily in marketing, yet the returns were minimal. Large amounts of DOT were spent—ironically becoming another force suppressing the price. The bigger issue, however, is the absence of demand. Without a killer application, users simply cannot see Polkadot’s value.
There are also severe concerns about corruption in marketing spending, but the community’s leadership seems to look the other way while the treasury continues to be drained. This makes me feel deeply pessimistic about Polkadot’s future, even though it is now pushing its ecosystem strategy. A flawed governance system naturally leads to flawed outcomes.
Polkadot’s focus on technology is not wrong—technology is its foundation and its soil. But when such “fertile soil” fails to produce meaningful fruit, one can’t help but question whether the technology is truly as advanced as advertised.
Some people say: “You can’t judge Polkadot only by its token price. Look at the tech and the ecosystem.” Fair enough—its technology and ecosystem have indeed made progress. But it has taken five years and enormous spending. We should reflect: is this level of efficiency acceptable?
For investors and users, Polkadot’s technology and ecosystem have not delivered tangible benefits. Meanwhile, DOT’s price keeps dropping, and the treasury continues to operate at a loss. By the time the treasury burns through its last DOT, the token’s price may already be close to zero. Perhaps the Polkadot community never cared about the price in the first place.
What they care about seems to be giving grand, detached speeches in academic circles—or figuring out how to drain the treasury of its remaining funds.
In the end, price doesn’t matter—because the value of a “shitcoin” has always been zero.