Whether the project team is really working hard or not—rather than constantly watching for Twitter posts like “the milestones have been completed,” they seem to care more about treasury spending: where the money goes, whether the pace is steady, and whether they keep changing what they say. To put it bluntly, development and security audits don’t look flashy when it comes to spending, but the books can show “continuous small payments, settled in stages.” If, however, a large sum suddenly gets sent to something like “market cooperation/ecosystem incentives,” and the milestones are always just left in PowerPoint, then I’d be a bit on guard.

Recently, that major layer-1 public chain is set to upgrade/maintain, and everyone in the group has been guessing whether the ecosystem will migrate. I’m actually a bit slow to catch up… I’ll look at the on-chain activity first, and I find that some projects’ treasuries suddenly speed up their spending, like they’re rushing to catch up with missed work. Others, on the other hand, rein in their spending, like they’re waiting for the moment to pass. In any case, personally, I trust “spending in batches according to milestones + transparent reconciliation” more than just shouting slogans.