Lately, when I’m judging whether a project is serious or not, I actually care more about how the treasury spending is handled than about first looking at how high the TPS can be touted to be or how low the fees can be pushed (it’s also pretty tiring to hear about this every day on L2). Put simply, spending like development, auditing, and infrastructure is like utilities and rent—ongoing, explainable, and reassuring. But if it’s always about big-ticket ecosystem subsidies out of nowhere, and all kinds of collaboration “promotions,” while milestones keep getting delayed, then I start to frown: is this money going toward building, or is it just for buying attention?

Earlier, I followed a few projects because they looked like they were going to be really lively and the gas fees were cheap. Later, I found that every update felt like drawing a cake—yes, the on-chain fees were saved, but the time cost was what got dragged away… and slowly, I unfollowed them. Now I stay a bit more zen about it: on-time milestone delivery plus transparent spending is more likely to make me want to take another look than a war of words.