The Polkadot ecosystem is one good place to shop for your next bull market coin. Why? Because lots of these projects are under the radar but have good potential for long-term success. And most of them are at a decent entry point.
In this article, I will show you 2 good Polkadot (DOT) projects you should consider looking at this year.
### 1) Moonbeam (GLMR)
[Moonbeam](https://moonbeam.network/) is one of the biggest projects on Polkadot. I’ve followed this project for years. And I think it’s one of the best for developers seeking an Ethereum-compatible platform to build. By design, Moonbeam is compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), so developers can easily port their existing Ethereum dApps to Moonbeam.Moonbeam gives developers a familiar experience by replicating Ethereum’s web 3 RPC account keys and tooling. So, developers do not have to undergo many changes in terms of programming language tools or accounts. In addition, Moonbeam also provides two key advantages for developers:
– Shared security from Polkadot’s relay chain.
– Moonbeam uses XCM, Polakdot’s cross-chain messaging protocol to promote interoperability between more than 100 chains. This means users can bridge tokens like DOT and KSM between these chains. The advantage of this interoperability is that it unlocks multi-chain dapps.
Moonbeam also provides various tools to help developers build their applications. Moonbeam recently celebrated its second year on mainnet. Here are some of its landmarks:
– At the end of 2023, Moonbeam grew to 2M addresses. About 1.785M of these [addresses](https://twitter.com/MoonbeamNetwork/status/1745517392770605538) are end-user accounts (EOAs). The other 250K + are smart contract addresses (CAs).
– Moonbeam has had an average of 12,492 daily [active addresses](https://twitter.com/MoonbeamNetwork/status/1745517395807211797) for the past 3 months.
– Over 300 teams have launched on Moonbeam.
– Moonbeam has recorded 48.1M total transactions since January 2022. This amounts to 2M transactions per month since Jan 2022. About 1.2M of these transactions took place on the EVM.
– About 250K smart contract addresses have been deployed by 5,087 developers.
These figures show how much impact Moonbeam has achieved in promoting interoperability. And if you are interested in that sort of thing, you should check out this project.
### 2) Astar (ASTR)
[Astar Network](https://astar.network/) is pretty close to Moonbeam in terms of its scope and use cases. There’s a lot to love about this project and I think it’s got a good future ahead of it. Astar, like Moonbeam, helps advance Polkadot’s vision of connecting users. However, Astar provides more flexibility in terms of its programming languages.This means developers can use familiar languages such as JavaScript to develop apps on Astar. Astar also provides developers with incentives to earn. Here’s what I find fun. Astar is already getting noticed by the big players. It raised over $30 million with participation from:
– Polygon.
– [Coinbase](https://twitter.com/AstarNetwork/status/1500817551802130442).
– Binance.
#### Why is Astar Special?
Astar uses a cross-virtual machine since it is a parachain that can communicate with Ethereum virtual machine (EVM) and [web assembly smart contract (WASM.)](https://docs.astar.network/docs/learn/smart-contracts/) This means that developers don’t have to use other parachains to build their projects.
Astar also runs a build-to-earn program known as [Build2Earn](https://twitter.com/NickDGarcia/status/1468268055100895234). The program rewards developers who build their projects on Astar. So, this adds to its appeal and makes it a developer-friendly destination.
Astar is beginning to enjoy the spotlight and receive more recognition. It has already collaborated with industrial giants like Sony and [Toyota](https://twitter.com/WatanabeSota/status/1620590936479895554). Astar is also the first public blockchain listed in Japan.
For me, the biggest appeal is its commitment to growth and development. Last year, Astar announced plans for Astar 2.0. This would introduce changes to its staking, governance, and tokenomics.
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