What's best for POLKADOT
Polkadot
This is a Discussion on how efficiently we can use our Treasury for Business Development.
My Introduction:
My name is Hashaam and this my First post. I am not a Tech Savvy Person and work as an Accounting Consultant for my work.
I have been following Polkadot for quite some time now and have always been a fan of technology which is why I am here today sharing my 2 cents.
Note: NOT A PROPOSAL, NOT A GRIFTER.
Just want us to discuss as a community for the collective good.
PROBLEMS WE FACE TODAY:
1: Low Market Cap
2: Less Investor interest
3: No hype
and many others like UI and UX that we all know.
WHAT IS WRONG WITH WHAT WE DO?
MARKETING
Different Than Advertising
We Need to Market the complete product (sales, advertising, Research, Branding)
By coming up with fancy names we are losing a big Marketing opportunity.
If we want non-crypto user or even crypto users to get to know Polka dot better, we need them to remember the name POLKADOT.
Branding
With Branding, have we considered on how anti Polkadot it is to use just random names for products we offer?
Why can't it just be Polkadot?
Why can't snow bridge be Polka Dot Snow Bridge?
Or hyper bridge be Polka dot hyper bridge?
Or maybe Asset hub be Polkadot Hub?
Who knows Polkadot?
A lot of people out there don't even know that all these products come under Polkadot.
Example:
Grey Paper:
We came up with a fancy Grey paper and had JAM written on top of it.
Why?
Why was it JAM and not POLKADOT JAM?
It should be POLKADOT JAM. No one knows what the logo says in the Background on grey paper.
it created a confusion among community and other people that there is a possibility of a new token to be released in the Market.
I know we here at this platform are not confused and I am not talking about us, I am talking about the new investors who know nothing of the Technology and just want to invest in good projects.
OpenGOV
I would like to discuss the possibility to Bring in Tender System to Polkadot Treasury Proposal, Specifically for Medium and Big spenders.
How will Tender System Work?
For Tender System to work, we need to set up our short to medium Term Goals.
Bargain or let other Bargain for our benefit
How?
Publish a tender and let others fight for a better offering.
Example of Short Term Goal:
Need athletes to wear our Jersey for Brand awareness:
Publish a Big spender Tender on Open Gov and then have Teams compete on who can offer the best Price suitable for Polkadot and for them as well.
Measure QUALITY, QUANTITY and COST
We need Win- Win situation and nothing like the Proposer win and we lose.
NOTE: Third party proposals can never be in the best interest of POLKADOT.
Example: Chainalysis
** We don't need to let people quote their price for a service we don't need.**
We need to put a tender out that we want XYZ on POLKADOT and the team who put the best price will get a deal.
REMEMBER: QUALITY, QUANTITY and COST
MILESTONES AND GRIFTERS
Every proposal should have milestones, Specially the BIG SPENDERS (exceptions for small spenders)
Every proposal should be paid on instalments.
Once a proposal is passed, the amount should be moved into reserves for spending which should then be paid in instalments after when teams have completed their milestones.
If we find a GRIFTER, then maybe we can save like 80% of the funding.
Requesting Teams to Market their Product (Big NAY)
Other teams will never market our Product, even if they are building on Polkadot.
Why should they do it? (They have sold their product to us and earned reward.) It’s not their pain.
It means they were good enough to sell their service to us and once we own that product, we cannot sell it further even though it has added value to our ecosystem.
Example:
You are a Baker who wants to open a shop in a big plaza at a fancy place.
You presented your proposal and the landlord has agreed to sign a contract with you for next 5 years.
Once you have got the contract and your shop is now opened.
Will you market that Plaza or your shop to increase your sales?
For POLKADOT, if we have a third party team who is willing to enhance a product for us, we accept and we pay them to do it. Why should they market it?
What they'll do it to find other companies or propose something else to increase their sales for the services they are offering.
NO BENEFIT TO POLKADOT.
Where should we spend?
Big question is where should we spend?
Some examples which will benefit our ecosystem
1: Better sales team:
We need better Sales team who can not only bring projects from other ecosystems to polkadot but sell our products to new users willing to join the ecosystem.
2: Commission agents (get us a deal and get your commission) instead to just paying teams and hoping we'll get DEVs to build on Polkadot.
WIN-WIN situation and we would know that our money spent is working.
3: People with better PR within the ecosystem who can attract new Teams and investors. (they can work like commission agents)
Feedback
Feedback from retail investors.
We need to get more feedback more retail investors on UI and UX.
Example: When you ask a non-crypto user who has maybe invested 100 or a 1000$ on crypto on what exchange they use?
Binance is the answer
Reason: Better experience
What we need on polkadot?
Better experience from them and update our products according to their needs, not like we provide them something and ask them to get used to it.
Short term GOAL:
User experience so simple that even a non-crypto user can use Polkadot
(Assethub experience or I should say Polkadot Hub)
How to know if we have achieved it?
Don’t build and say it’s simple
Build and do a Survey and let others say that it’s easy to use. (critics)
Of course it’s easy to people who know the technology.
Apologies for any typos or errors as I just drafted it at my Job Break.
I am not too sure if I'll be able to join AAG to discuss but I'll try my best to Join and discuss further with other Team members.
I reside in AU and am a very early sleeper. Apologies.
Looking forward to a good and productive Discussion.
Comments (4)
I am writing you a thesis. Please know that I spent a lot of time reflecting on this post. I am grateful you shared your thoughts!
Hi Hashaam,
I want to start out by saying that I am in alignment with some of your feedback. I will do my best to express and elaborate on my Point of View (POV) since our 1st interaction, as this is from my experience at this time. I would like to share my position; I believe in the promise of WEB3. I believe in Bitcoin, I believe in the technology outside of currency which is DOT and other chains. I do not see Crypto Protocols as singular, I see this as the movement we’re trying to create for generations after us. It is bigger than myself, yet I have a deep desire to help shape it, but this is not a singular effort, it will take many dedicated hands!
**Marketing- **I agree we need buckets (my translation to your feedback), this also requires data and analysis of the data.
Developer’s/Engineers/Architect’s for onboarding, in addition to retention (this includes innovation, gaming transition from WEB2 to WEB3, JAM and so on).
Polkadot Branding (rules and stipulations for the benefit of Polkadot should come as the process of this bucket, whatever the treasury funds should have Polkadot branding as part of the messaging).
Polkadot (what is Polkadot’s Mission? Current rollout of function upgrades and innovation, JAM & Plaza the future of Polkadot).
The above are some suggestions, I believe there are others to discuss.
My feedback is we have gotten caught up in the weeds over DOT vs Parachains. My POV; It’s a BIG red flag to create exclusions if the product will gain awareness and users for Polkadot (if they’re part of the Polkadot eco). Stipulation is to connect branding for the advertisement thus creating connection and awareness of Polkadot as a Software Protocol (a true Layer 0 if you will indulge my reference).
Marketing is phycological and repetitive, it has strategies and requires data and analysis to be effective.
**Branding & Who knows Polkadot? – **I agree with your feedback on associating Polkadot with the Entrepreneurial Team Builders, particularly if Polkadot Treasury, or Web3 Foundation (W3F) are funding these initiatives. Additionally, 100% agree on your point about JAM, that it should be Polkadot JAM or $DOT JAM. The new inverted Polkadot logo is unrecognizable to people who are unaware of the Polkadot Brand.
Bargain or Let Bargain for your Benefit- This is a sticky topic, lots of POV’s on this throughout the eco. Since this post is my POV, I will provide that LOL.
Different tracks should have different strategies, everything is not one size fits all!
Regarding Negotiations - You need a group of people (sometimes with experience in a field and sometimes drive and work ethic are equally as efficient) to negotiate Incoming offers in OpenGov in addition to Seek Offers/Vendors/Contractor’s for Needed Items whether Marketing, or Technical Development on Polkadot.
I have concerns with the same people not having enough bandwidth to actively participate in these initiatives, in addition to not having processes for strategy execution. We don’t need crazy levels of structure; however, we need direction to execute and report on workflow, along with evaluations of what is working and what is not working and being flexible to adjust (weekly, monthly or quarterly), just like we do when we find bugs in code.
To your point on Big Spender Track (NON EVENTS), yes, I agree this is one of the areas we require milestone reaching. Due to some concerns raised, this is where a dedicated team can track progress. This situation is a sticky one, this must have an appropriate process in place and active members to release funds for the next milestones. Or another suggestion I have brainstormed with others would be to have a daily drip system, however a portion (maybe 1/4th) of the funds are given up front to get off the ground. If the monitoring of the project goes bad, the monitoring team has to put a halt on the $ drip, or a pause. Concerns raised about losing team members to other projects if payments are not made on-time, is a legitimate concern, the drip system maybe a good way to combat that concern?
We have seen in the past with such examples as Events Bounty (I experienced this on Games Bounty), that the operations team of that bounty missed key execution points. I believe we need to look at curators in a different way, maybe we should consider seeing them as teams who carry out process tasks. If they do not participate, there should be a way to fire them quickly and swiftly for the good of the bounty. This cannot be a 30+ day track with a group of names on a list, this needs to be a fast track of single names, so the bounty doesn’t lose momentum. There is a difference between voting and not voting at all, unless you have stated you must abstain from voting, communication is crucial IMO.
Requesting Teams to Market (Big Nay) – “Other teams will never market our product, even if they’re building on Polkadot” (responding to this quote). If I were to share one criticism, we need to have some standards of initial questions like some in the eco suggested. Please see what I stated above in Marketing and how this can be supported.
I do not believe that everything should seek funds from OpenGov or Marketing Bounty to be paid for by treasury. I believe there are specific times of driving traffic or awareness to Polkadot that is appropriate. Please understand this is a breakthrough product, understanding and translation of that is needed. Everything should require some form of appropriate metrics. Decisions will need to be made as part of reviews to evaluate if this was an appropriate use of funds.
-If I were to share additional changes; We need to change marketing messaging. Not marketing the presentations at Decoded 2024 is a miss-step and should become a standard practice as part of treasury funds of the Marketing bucket IMO.
Where Should we Spend? – I have some concerns over all for your feedback here and part of this is Polkadot’s lack of appropriate messaging, because some of these understandings lack the overall goals of what I see as Polkadot’s mission, as a truly Decentralized Layer 0. That aside, I understand where you’re coming from!
My POV is that commission is not the answer. People need to be able to support themselves. I do believe it should be incentivized and have a processed pay structure! Getting the sale is not the only directive to me. We are highly criticized for onboarding, what I’m hearing regarding reputation, which can affect lack of sales. When getting into a contract with anyone it becomes a partnership. Partnerships take work to be successful endeavors. So, in this area improvements are needed. For this to occur a budget bucket is needed to create teams and have influential trainers/teachers (these people rise for one reason and another. They become trusted sources, as I think the HA group was intended to be).
To conclude I mentioned additional items on AAG. My belief system for Polkadot is Build, Inform and Innovate. These things happen in constant flow and aren’t singular. I understand we only touched some aspects of items within the ecosystem as I see it, if you have any additional questions of me, feel free to ask.
Nothing I say is financial advice LOL,
Hope
Hi Hashaam, thank you for a great effort to summarise everything wrong with DOT.
I agree with all of it and I see no point nit picking or arguing details to make myself look clever. That happens way too much in this eco, Ego is rampant.
DOT really lacks forward movement. DOT is a software platform that makes decisions through voting from all its members. But there is no forward business vision for Polkadot just random decisions and development goals. It runs like a developers scrum and the Dev's think whats wrong with that?
Yes, there is a vision for software and technical development so that is what DOT remains, a piece of cool software. Sure, big companies will use it because its great software but for investors DOT is a very poor choice. Staking is all it offers for investors.
Business decisions are universally poor in this ecosystem because there is no business plan or strategy. Open Gov doesn't allow for any real business decisions. that benefit investors. Everything is always abut the software. Hence there are people voting for so called marketing initiatives without any experience in marketing, with no accountability and maximum waste. Random people are allowed to present proposals to the treasury and receive 100% up front with zero accountability. Its ridiculous. A CEO would not allow this waste.
DOT's price action is tragic and to argue otherwise means you are just a software guy. But DOT presents itself as an ecosystem for people to invest in but is without a doubt one of the worst performing assets in the crypto space. Great Software but zero business sense or vision. History is littered with fantastic inventions that go no where. Its because the inventors are not business people, developers are not business people. Although Wozniak could build a great PC it was Steve Jobs who made the company what it became. Ditto Tesla with Musk, the cars were there, the tech was there but would have gone no where without a visionary business guy. This is where DOT is at the moment. Full of genius developers that get excited with every new development. A few Enterprise businesses that feed of its technology but dont give a crap about the token, a token that is going into the toilet and absolutely no business idea of where to go next. Open Gov is a high school experiment it is NOT a viable way to run a profitable company. There are systems that could mnaintain the decentralised ethos by voting in a decisions amking board or some such with CEO btu made FULLY accountable tghrough voting.
At this stage any business vision is better than nothing, mistakes can be made but fixed quickly, most importantly the ecosystem can progress properly with a proper business vision. At the moment DOT is merely an SDK and a treasury to be raided by grifters who suffer no accountability. As an investment, staking is saving it, barely. But It cannot sustain this forever with its price consistently falling.
I really hope someone with vision picks DOT up and literally saves it, helps it make business sense and improves the tokens worth. A business making sound decisions will make money and become a good investment.
I live in hope and if you are that guy Hashaam I will support you.