The co-founder of Manta Network, a project in the Polkadot ecosystem, publicly denounced the ecosystem. The co-founder expressed frustration with its alleged toxicity and lack of meaningful support for builders, particularly Asian founders.
He stated that as the founder of the previous largest (non-DOT) TVL and market cap/FDV project in the Polkadot ecosystem, they did not want to engage with the Polkadot ecosystem and team at all, describing it as a highly toxic ecosystem that lacked any real value for web3 and did not focus on users or adoption at all.
The co-founder further accused the Polkadot team of discriminating against Asian developers, highlighting a disparity in the allocation of grants, which he claimed favoured European and American projects over Asian ones. He mentioned that they were too busy to disclose the many facts about the discrimination they faced as Asian founders in this ecosystem. All Asian founders echoed a sentiment he shared.
Lack of Support and Decentralization
Criticising Polkadot’s leadership, the co-founder mentioned a need for more meaningful effort from the Polkadot team, including its co-founder Gavin Wood, in supporting builders. He claimed that the Polkadot team was incapable and not truly decentralised. They would be satisfied if they (Gavin Wood and their team) were to spend any meaningful effort supporting the builders on their stack.
Due to these issues, the co-founder announced that Manta Network was shifting its focus away from Polkadot to other ecosystems like Ethereum L2, Solana, and Bitcoin. He explained that they were now entirely focused on Manta Pacific because the Polkadot ecosystem was dead. He also hoped that more developers still in the Polkadot ecosystem would join other more active ecosystems such as Solana, Ethereum, and Bitcoin.
The co-founder provided an example from the Polkadot Academy event in Hong Kong, which was predominantly attended by non-Asians despite being held in Asia. He pointed out that less than a quarter of the participants were Asian, even though this was an Asian event.
Assured that Manta Network would fulfil its commitments to the Polkadot para chain but reiterated the decision to pivot towards more supportive ecosystems. He affirmed that they would keep their promise to deliver the parachain as pledged and continue building great things. However, he stated that discrimination against builders, exceptionally hardworking Asian builders in the bear market, was completely unacceptable.
