This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Kero fitton
The “First Contract” Wake-Up Call
Polkadot’s Rust-or-Nothing Reality
- Substrate Framework: Powerful until you realize you’re now a blockchain engineer instead of a dApp developer
-
ink! Smart Contracts: “It’s just Rust!” they said… until you hit the
#[ink::contract]macro wall - XCMP Limitations: Cross-chain messages move at the speed of bureaucracy
NEAR’s JavaScript Mirage
- near-sdk-js: TypeScript feels like cheating… until you need low-level optimizations
- Sharding Transparency: “It just works” until you need to debug a cross-shard transaction
- Wallet UX: Human-readable accounts (@yourname.near) vs. Polkadot’s 48-character addresses
Week 1 Reality Check:
- Polkadot = Building a chain to build your app
- NEAR = Building an app on someone else’s chain
The Governance Grind
Polkadot’s Democracy Theater
- Referendum #3471: Spend 3 days voting on a runtime upgrade that fails anyway
- Council Elections: More political than a high school class president race
- Treasury Proposals: Write a novel to get funding, then wait 28 days
NEAR’s Silent Upgrades
- No On-Chain Drama: Protocol upgrades just… happen
- DAO Tooling: SputnikDAO works but feels like early GitHub
- Developer Control: Less politics, more building (but fewer subsidies)
The Interoperability Illusion
Polkadot’s Parachain Hurdles
- Auction Costs: 100K+ DOT just to get a slot (that expires in 2 years)
- HRMP Channels: Setting one up takes longer than writing your actual dApp
- Shared Security: Great in theory, until you need custom consensus
NEAR’s Bridge Reality
- Rainbow Bridge: Works but with Ethereum’s baggage
- No Native IBC: You’re building islands, not an archipelago
- Fast Finality: 2 seconds beats Polkadot’s 12-60 second “optimistic” finality
When To Choose? (The Uncomfortable Truth)
Build on Polkadot When:
- You need custom blockchain logic more than dApp functionality
- Your team loves Rust more than life itself
- You have 200K DOT sitting around for auctions
Build on NEAR When:
- You want to actually ship a product this decade
- Your users would flee if they saw a polkadot.js wallet
- You prefer scalability without political campaigning
This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Kero fitton