What Is Polkadot and Where Is It Headed?

DOT Coin Review

DOT is an exciting cryptocurrency that could become one of the most important tokens on the emerging Web3. DOT is at the core of Polkadot, a project that is building the foundations of the new decentralized and interoperable internet. But, should you buy DOT now? Let’s take a look at what Polkadot is all about and see whether it’s a good investment — or whether you should consider comparing DOT vs CAKE or other similar coins before investing.

All About the DOT

Polkadot was founded by one of the Ethereum co-founders, Gavin Wood. It’s a blockchain built to connect and support other blockchains, aiming to unite many of these “parachains” in a new global decentralized ecosystem. It does this by providing the digital infrastructure to allow blockchains to securely share information and form consensus together.

The core features of the project are the following:

Relay Chain: The central chain of the Polkadot project that allows other blockchains to interoperate. It has minimal functionality other than connecting other blockchains. DOT is used by validators to stake on the Relay Chain.
Parachains: Independent blockchains that can be built and optimized for a specific purpose. They also have their own token. Each is connected to others through the Relay Chain
Parathreads: The pay-as-you-go version of parachains. These are designed to be easier to quickly spin up and shut down and don’t need to be constantly connected to the broader network.
Bridges: These allow Polkadot parachains and parathreads to connect with other blockchain networks outside the project, such as Ethereum.

These features combine to connect all blockchains in the Polkadot ecosystem with every other blockchain. This is an impressive technological achievement for Web3, and DOT is at the heart of it all.

Polkadot Price Prediction Round-up: 2022, 2025, 2030

Expert opinions are invaluable when trying to figure out if a cryptocurrency is a good investment. Here are the predictions of a range of experts on DOT up to 2030. They use a range of prediction techniques, from manual analysis to machine learning technology.

	2022	2025	2030
PricePrediction.Net	$6.93	$22.31	$138.93
AMB Crypto	$10	$15.82	$218.02
Coin Price forecast	$6.50	$11.47	$18.19
Average Prediction	$7.81	$16.50	$125.04

Expert predictions vary significantly from 2025 through to 2030, with the maximum 2030 prediction being more than ten times the value of the minimum 2030 prediction. This reflects the uncertainty for DOT and the crypto market as a whole over the next eight years.

Is Polkadot a Good Investment?

The price predictions above show DOT may be an excellent addition to a crypto investment portfolio. While much of the crypto market slumped in 2022, Polkadot has hit an all-time high in development activity. There were 500 developer contributions in September and 26,258 messages sent between parachains. This proves that project development can hold strong, even during tough times. However, this Polkadot development activity hasn’t yet translated into price gains for DOT. The price has remained around the $6-7 dollar mark for the past five months.

Polkadot is a promising crypto investment, but you should still think of it as a risky asset, with high upside potential over the next three to eight years.

Polkadot Potential Summed Up

Polkadot is trying to carve out a unique place in the new decentralized web. Rather than competing with ETH and BTC, like many crypto projects, it wants to work with them. The plan is to connect all blockchains through a Relay Chain, parachains, and bridges. If successful, it could become as core to the infrastructure of the new internet as Ethereum and Bitcoin. But, technological breakthroughs are yet to carry through into DOT price performance.
You can also consider another notable project proving multi-chain tools for Web3 — Ankr. Its ANKR token is a decent investment that is also highly liquid, which means you can always convert ANKR to BNB or BTC if things turn sour for the project.