This thought has been on my mind for a while, and I would like to understand why there is no official slogan for Polkadot and Kusama.
For Kusama, the slogan “expect chaos” seemed like a phrase that organically or accidentally became an unofficial slogan, but it has slowly faded away and is now somewhat forgotten. Which is a shame, in my opinion, since it’s a cool and catchy slogan - so why not keep it and make it official?
For Polkadot, as far as I know, there has never been a slogan or a “one-liner” that briefly describes what Polkadot stands for. If you check the Polkadot website, there is a title on the front page that says “Defy what’s possible”, and in my opinion, this could be considered a catchy slogan that would raise curiosity.
Actually, I’m not aware of any blockchain that has an official slogan. How come? What’s the downside, or what’s to lose?
The Polkadot logo is now showcased in mainstream media on banners in Inter Miami’s stadium and on Conor Daly’s Indy racing car, for example, but it doesn’t come with a message or slogan that explains in a few words what it stands for. Nor does it provide an “eye-brow-raising moment” that would make viewers curious.
Imagine having the Polkadot logo accompanied by a slogan like “the people’s chain” or “DOT of the chain” for example. Would it hurt the brand? Would it spark curiosity among viewers?
I’d love to get feedback on this thought from YOU!
I thought it was “Less trust more truth”, but probably it should be modified to
“Less trust more truth unless you interacted with Parallel Finance, Acala or Equilibrium (I am sure the list is longer)”
We’ve had a few - “secured by Polkadot”, “Defy what’s possible”, “Unstoppable”, etc., but nothing has really stayed permanent. Maybe Distractive could weigh in here?
You can check it out here (disclaimer: pretty much a work in progress): https://dotrollups.com/
I think something hinting at the flexibility it gives builders and what it enables could be a good starting point. “Security for everyone” is much easier to understand than “Resilience for everyone”, although I prefer the latter much more.
I know that RESILIENCE is a big thing for Polkadot and Parity, but I am not a fan of shoving it down people’s throats in slogans. I think people expect a functioning network stack to be resilient. Freedom for builders, security for everyone actually works on a number of levels for me. One of the problems we have here is Distractive keep on trialing a slogan and then dropping it. Defy What’s Possible suddenly became Unlock Tomorrow in Denver and I have seen a draft of a new thing for a booth somewhere else (forgotten the wording already so it can’t have been memorable).
I really liked the page of @Karim - even if it is a working in progress and some parts are clear mock-ups, but it shows a clear direction I have not seen for long time. It is also clearly targeted to developers, which helps the messaging ( and for me, Polkadot is an infrastructure project and it should be targeted for builders*).
Regarding the messaging, when I saw it, this clearly come into my mind, as time to time, I have the unhealthy habit of checking how others do:
No offense, maybe it was on the back of the mind, maybe was a indirect inspiration or maybe was direct. But when I read this Solana slogan - first thing you do when you enter their page, i have clear which is the primary focus ( builders ), and which is the benefit and/or mayor selling point of it for the rest.
For me the slogan of works partially ( I found Freedom vague ), but I admit that is a advance compared current slogans that are too generic than they don’t mean anything (Unlock tomorrow could be used for pensions funds advertising and so on). More bravery is needed.
The key here maybe is not “how we define Polkadot” but “how we want to define Polkadot” - in few words. Imagination, audacity, purpose is need to find these 6-8 words. @Karim goes into the right direction.
*I am of the opinion of focusing messaging and communication in builders and developer communities, as Polkadot is an infrastructure mainly. Later on, the dapps and rollups will need to go the hunt of the end user, not us. And about the generic messaging of polkadot as a cryptocurrency, I would like not even to start …
This is precisely what the landing page for Polkadot should be, clear, concise and relevant. One thing that would be useful is to have an onboarding flow for builders when they click “get started” dividing them into the following categories:
Doesn’t know rust → redirect to relevant Rust resources - i.e. rust book if they prefer reading and a video series if they’re visual learners, maybe add the rust state machine tutorial as well if they wanna jump straight in with little knowledge of rust.
Knows rust but not necessarily about blockchains → rust state machine + PBA videos
Knows rust and blockchains → tutorials to get up and running + deployed + developer community support discord channel
Another improvement imo would be to divide the page to cater to users/non technical community and developers alike. Maybe something like:
It is polkadot “a place” ? A technology, a community, a network and an economy, maybe.
In the other hand, I would suggest to avoid “subjective” marketing gimmicks like “best” - why makes it the best? The slogan needs to give me info about the technology in a nutshell - it should be definitory. Best is a categorization that doesn’t mean anything except for us, as we said “it is the best”.
here is a multiple choice questionary including all the suggestions provided in this forum thread, plus the option to submit your own unique Polkadot slogan.
