What’s Ahead for Polkadot This Year: From Coretime to JAM

Polkadot is undergoing a radical evolution in 2025 with the phased rollout of Polkadot 2.0—a strategic overhaul aimed at reshaping how developers build and scale on the network.

Polkadot is rolling out its highly anticipated Polkadot 2.0 upgrade in stages throughout 2025, marking a pivotal moment in the protocol’s evolution. This upgrade signifies a departure from the original model of auctioned parachains, unveiling a more flexible system for accessing blockchain resources on demand.

Instead of requiring projects to win community-backed auctions—which can be time-consuming and competitive—developers can now purchase "Coretime" units directly. This computational power can be used to launch dApps, NFT drops, or Web3 games, presenting a lower barrier to entry for a wider range of projects.

Those units are sold in bundles of five, and the first sale occurred on October 6, with one unit going for 69 DOT, according to data from DeepChain. This creates a secondary market for Coretime, which may become a key factor in the long-term value growth of DOT.

The price of DOT has dropped sharply since the start of 2024, sliding from around $80 in January to its current level of around $45. However, the creation of a vibrant secondary market for Coretime could help to boost the value of DOT in the long term.

The move towards a more market-driven and capital-efficient model comes amid broader concerns about the solvency of Web3 protocols. In mid-2024, Tommy Enenkel, Chief Ambassador at Polkadot, raised concerns about the treasury's financial transparency.

"We have about two years of reserves, but with crypto volatility, that's a snapshot in time," Enenkel said in his report. He added that there was potential for better capital efficiency, including more use of bounties and decentralized collectives.

"We could do more to fund small, focused initiatives through tooling and infrastructure grants," he said.

Following that report, the community backed a plan to lower DOT inflation to 8%, which would reduce the sell pressure on DOT and help to preserve the long-term treasury value.

The shift to JAM is also being driven by a desire to create a more modular and developer-friendly infrastructure.

To promote the adoption of JAM and related technologies, the Web3 Foundation launched a 10M DOT + 100K KSM program to encourage community contributions and accelerate the development of JAM-compatible dApps and tooling.

The initiative kicked off with the JAM Tour in Asia, which saw Gavin Wood and other members of the Polkadot team visit universities, startups, and government organizations in China, Korea, and Japan.