Source: @crypto-guides
A Co-Founder of Ethereum Founded Polkadot
Gavin Wood, a co-founder of Ethereum with Vitalik Buterin, went on to become founder of Polkadot. This makes Gavin Wood one of the most famous people in cryptocurrency on the development and management side. Just as no one doubts the ability of Vitalik Buterin to keep Ethereum successful, there is little reason to doubt that Gavin Wood can bring much success to Polkadot. As always, DYOR is a must in researching management teams, but Gavin Wood's record can be validated.
There is a section in the "What is Polkadot coin (DOT)? - Polkadot Guide" titled "Should I buy Polkadot (DOT) in 2021?"; with this post I hope to contribute an item or two we don't usually hear about from both legacy media and even cryptocurrency-oriented media. For @crypto-guides -- Feel free to adjust as needed for Guide purposes.
Polkadot Is a Great Relationship Partner
While Polkadot has done well for itself, it has also helped partners teaming up with it to perform better as well. Successful projects which teamed up with Polkadot include Celer Network (CELR), REN. and OCEAN Protocol. These projects were promising in their own right, but below is a table showing USD price performance for each project since Day One of their partnerships with Polkadot:
| Partner | Day One[a] | Day 1 Open (Close)[b] | ATH @ Date[c] | 7 September 2021[d] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CELR | 20 February 2020 | 0.004129 (0.003879) | 0.10271 @ 28 March 2021 | 0.05735 (0.04461) |
| OCEAN | 26 January 2021 | 0.6082 (0.5992) | 1.9300 @ 10 April 2021 | 0.9661 (0.7624) |
| REN | 22 July 2020 | 0.1622 (0.1696) | 1.8000 @ 20 February 2021 | 0.8041 (0.6719) |
[a] Day 1 comes from Trading-Education.com article dated 23 July 2021
[b] Day 1 Open (Close) comes from CoinMarketCap
[c] ATH comes from athcoinindex.com
[d] 7 September 2021 data comes from CoinMarketCap
In each case, the current ATH was achieved after the partnership with Polkadot was established. Also in each case-- even after dramatic drops from ATHs-- the current price (7 September 2021) is multiples of the Day One price.
Polkadot Scales Well, Achieves Massive Transactional Throughput
As of mid-July 2021 Polkadot handles roughly 1,000 transactions per second (TX/s). The following table compiled from data provided by Trading Education shows how Polkadot's throughput compares with a few other cryptocurrencies:
| Cryptocurrency Network | Throughput (TX/s) |
|---|---|
| Polkadot (DOT) | 1,000 |
| Ethereum 2.0 (PoS) (ETH) | 100K |
| Ethereum 1.0 (PoW) (ETH) | 15 to 30 |
| Tron (TRON) | 2,000 |
| Cardano (ADA) | 1,000 |
| Binance Coin (BNB) | 300 |
| Bitcoin Cash (BCH) | 116 |
| Litecoin (LTC) | 56 |
| Bitcoin (BTC) | 4.6 |
While 1,000K TX/s is fast compared to many of the cryptos noted in the table above, that figure is for "vanilla" Polkadot without the bells and whistles. Gavin Wood himself (founder of Polkadot and co-founder of Ethereum) added more context to that when he posted this Tweet dated 30 April 2020:
Factoring in parachains and multithreading, Gavin York noted that Polkadot has the potential to process 1 million TX/s.
Polkadot Is a Facilitator, Not a Terminator
Interoperability is the ability for two or more separate resources to communicate with each other well enough to transmit in each direction. Different e-mail clients are interoperable because they are built on a fundamental layer of technology. Networks are interoperable because of their underlying technologies, from a personal home network to a corporate LAN all the way up to the networks which make up the Worldwide Web.
When it comes to cryptocurrencies, especially the programmable money blockchain networks led by Ethereum, most work in isolation from each other. Others can communicate with each other using older techniques such as coin wrapping (especially for Ethereum's ETH and Binance Coin's BNB). If THORChian (RUNE) aims to be an oracle-free bridge between blockchains, and Polygon (MATIC) strives to be Ethereum's Internet of Blockchains, then Polkadot's goal is to be the United Nations of Blockchains.
Due to Ethereum's traffic congestion as a result of its dApp domminance as well its notorious gas fees (which the switch from Proof of Work to Proof of Stake with Ethereum 2.0 should alleviate), more scaleable platforms with high throughput will be chosen over Ethereum for devveloping new blockchains and cryptocurrencies. Like THORChain (RUNE) and Polygon (MATIC), Polkadot (DOT)is meant to offload burdens from Ethereum so that Ethereum can function smoother and faster.
Certain Factors Drive Polkadot's Price Upward
Bull Market 3.0
A bull market is expected to begin in 2021Q4. Bitcoin (BTC) is rebounding from its 2021 lows. Ethereum (ETH)is poised for another ATH after reaching the current milestone on 12 May 2021. Dogecoin (DOGE) went from sub-cent to three-quarters of a dollar over the first half of 2021. Even Hive (HIVE) cryptocurrency reached an ATH in September 2021. Polkadot is expected to perform well during this period.
Thumbs Up to Crypto
Part of a bull market is an increase in retail investing and speculating. It's the same in crypto bull markets. For this bull market, an unprecedented number of people are aware of cryptocurrency, and more people are discovering crypto each day. Even President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador gave Bitcoin his blessing when he signed into law legislating Bitcoin as legal tender crypto in parallel with legal tender fiat currency USD. As of 8 September 2021, Ukraine follwed El Salvador in declaring Bitcoin legal tender crypto.
Despite the expected increase in Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt coverage from the corporate legacy gatekeeper media-- FUD-- concerning cryptocurrency, crypto is reaching more people every day. More importantly, these people are receptive to its uses for transactions, investments, and speculation. As a result, Polkadot will experience gains for the rest of 2021 and throughout 2022.
A Leaner and Quicker Ethereum
Ethereum's switch from Proof of Work to Proof of Stake will bring down the time used to add blocks to the chain, and this will in turn bring down gas fees used for transacting on the blockchain. A change this major to a leading cryptocurrency is bound to have its hiccups and speed bumps, but after the kinks are ironed out in Ethereum 2.0 everyone will notice the gains in performance. This will be reflected in Ethereum's price performance, and that will reflect positively on Polkadot and other smart contract-based cryptocurrencies.
Increased Regulation, Decreased Decentralization
As a market matures, it goes through its initial wild phase before it settles into a more mature phase. Crypto's extreme volatility-- especially by Bitcoin-- will give way to the more modulated movements familiar to the Foreign Exchange market. Along the way governments will attempt to regulate cryptocurrency. Many new holders of cryptocurrencies are familiar with the highly regulated securities markets (stocks, options, derivatives, bonds, etc.), so they will expect more regulation to be made for the crypto market. Those who prefer decentralized cryptocurrency will be able to use decentralized ways of using crypto, but they will be outnumbered by those more comfortable with a centralizing influence.
More Use Cases, More Reasons To Use Polkadot
As smart contract cryptocurrencies and programmable money, Polkadot (DOT) is often compared with Cardano (ADA). Trading Education notes that Cardano has yet to register a use case, while Polkadot benefits from the Kusama blockchain technology which runs ont Polkadot network. On top of that, Polkadot sponsired in April 2021 an event known as Polkadot Buildathon: India where Indian software developers were recruited to support development of the Polkadot ecosystem in the thriving Asian markets. Just from a population perspective. This bodes well for Polkadot.
In Conclusion
Founded by Gavin Wood, a co-founder of Ethereum, Polkadot has earned a solid reputation for its performance and for its management.
Polkadot has proven to be a good partner to projects which team up with it. These projects would have down well on their own, but their partnership with Polkadot accelerated the performance of their respective cryptocurrencies, resulting in ATH milstones some time after entering the partnetship.
While Cardano was positioned to be an "Ethereum Killer" (similar to Shiba Inu (SHIB) declaring itself to be a Dogecoin Killer), Polkadot positioned itself to be the United Nations of Blockchains. Interoperability among blockchains is going to be a vital part of the evolution of cryptocurrency, and Polkadot will be a leader in achieving interoperability.
Plain Polkadot (with no consideration of enhancements such as parachains and multithreading) can process 1,000 transactions per second. Polkadot founder Gavin Wood stated in a tweet that when the enhancements are included Polkadot will have the potential to handle 1 million TX/s. As the Polkadot network grows, it will scale very well.
A number of factors will affect Polkadot's price, among them the newest bull market coming into focus, greater positive acceptance of cryptocurrency even in the face of increasing FUD, Ethereum 2.0 after it settles down from the switch to Proof of Stake from Proof of Work, more government-imposed regulations to control cryptocurrency, and a burgeoning ecosystem of dApps.
When Ethereum succeeds, Polkadot succeeds, and Polkadot is well-positioned to succeed.