Blockchain platform Polkadot faces criticism from users after spending $87M in H1 2024, doubling its H2 2023 spend, including $36M+ on marketing and outreach
The blockchain spent $87 million in the first six months this year, with marketing activities accounting for the majority of expenses.
The reported emphasis on marketing and outreach matters because it puts a large share of spending in an area whose results users can challenge more readily than core operating costs.
First-order effects
Polkadot users and other stakeholders gain a concrete basis to scrutinize whether the network’s spending priorities match its stated needs.
Marketing and outreach become the focal point of that scrutiny, given their large share of the reported first-half outlay.
Second-order effects
Polkadot’s budget decision-makers may face pressure to show what outreach spending delivered or to redirect future allocations toward other network priorities.
Other blockchain networks competing for users, developers, and attention may face similar demands to justify promotional spending rather than treating it as an unexamined growth cost.
Third-order effects
If such disclosures repeatedly trigger user pushback, treasury-funded blockchain ecosystems could develop stronger norms around budget transparency and outcome-based spending reviews.
The episode points to a broader tension in crypto: decentralized governance can make spending more contestable, but it can also make costly growth campaigns harder to sustain without demonstrable support.
The trend: Blockchain networks are moving from raising and deploying capital to being judged more directly on the governance and measurable returns of that deployment.
As the founder of the previous largest (non-DOT) TVL and market cap/FDV project in the Polkadot ecosystem, I have to say that we do not want to engage with the Polkadot ecosystem and team at all. It is a highly toxic ecosystem that lacks any real value for web3, and it does not
Polkadot spent $37m USD in outreach during the first half of 2024, targeting new users, developers, and businesses • $10m on ads/sponsorships • $4.4m on influencers • $4m on digital ads Yet Polkadot still seems invisible on X and elsewhere. [image]
It's worth saying a few things here: 1) This is not @Web3foundation spending but on-chain treasury spending voted on by the community. The foundation has a >>5 year runway without selling a single DOT. 2) The whole notion of a “runway” for the on-chain treasury is misleading.
@gavofyork A concrete example is the Polkadot Academy event held in Hong Kong this February, where less than a quarter of the participants were Asian, even though this was an event in Asia (costing over a million dollars). It was at this event that I first encountered Gavin Wood,…
Spending big money on marketing is okay - if the target audience & intended outcomes are well defined. I was curious what up to US$25k/month per influencer can get you in terms of content. Is @Polkadot getting a bang for their buck? (spoiler: they're not) [image]
@TaikiMaeda2 That's so funny, we saw the animated logo a while back and thought to ourselves, “why did they do this? Is this the only hope they have to pump the coin?” Now we see this. Hilarious.
Polkadot also paid $200k to put the $DOT logo on a fleet of Europe-based private jets to “generate awareness among an elite target group.” They're literally looking for exit liquidity 💀 [image]
The Polkadot team is incapable and not truly decentralized. If they (@gavofyork and their team) were to spend any meaningful effort supporting the builders on their stack, we would not be as disappointed as we are. Many community members have asked us about the roadmap for our
@decryptmedia It's a misleading and incorrect coverage by @decryptmedia even without checking the facts on why mr. @victorJi15 is so salty about @Polkadot right after his proposal for extra funding got rejected by the community a couple of months ago. https://polkadot.polkassembl…
❤️💛💚💙 Polkadot leaked their Influencer shill list. They were paying $487,000 USD per month, split across all these influencers. 🤡 There are a few scum on here who you'll recognise as being subhuman filth... And they totally never told you they got paid by $DOT treasury [image]
Yes! Polkadot branded private jets was exactly what the Polkadot community needs. Hopefully the CMO reached the mile high club with this community contribution. [image]