To see whether the project team is genuinely working hard, I basically don’t pay attention to their vision talks. I start by checking the treasury spending first: where the money went, whether the pace stays steady, and whether, at key moments, it suddenly “jumps” into things like outsourcing + consulting fees. Milestones also shouldn’t just be written as “Q3 launch”—they need to line up with on-chain actions: code updates, contract deployments, permission tightening, and multisig when it’s supposed to be. Don’t just have a hot wallet sitting there and *swaying around*… it even makes my blood pressure spike.

People think: the faster the treasury gets burned through, the more it proves they’re going all-out in the sprint.
In reality: spending quickly doesn’t necessarily mean they’re doing things quickly—it might just mean they’re better at claiming reimbursements.

By the way, the recent NFT royalty drama has also been pretty much like a litmus test: on one side, they’re shouting about creators’ income, and on the other, they’re trying to maximize secondary liquidity. In the end, it just comes down to whether the protocol is willing to spell out in the rules exactly how the “money” gets split, instead of leaning on vibes. Anyway, when I see the bulk of the treasury funds go into “market collaborations,” my hands start to tremble a bit—so let’s leave it at that for now.