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I have been arguing this for 2 years, the economics behind $DOT "rent" are broken and incentives push anyone thinking about running their own parachain to not want to either not want to give up so much control and dependency to Polka in exchange for economic uncertainty or... https://twitter.com/jack_zampolin/status/1344346442047975424
...to run a chain that has NO dependencies to Polka but still uses substrate. Or they can plug $ATOM + IBC & run their own chain w less dependency but still have interoperability. Or they can just use $ETH where there's already actual users and things worth interoperating with.
If you're already at a point that you think you should be running your own chain (which I think 98/100 times is a mistake born by hubris of a given app), why would you not want to keep the economic benefit and control that goes along with it?
This is what EOS found out. Every "app" worth a damn that was building on EOS, instead spun on their own chain using EOS tech and hinting about how they would plug into mother EOS. And then they never did because why would they? Some of those apps had a glimmer of potential..
...but it never worked & the economics (and the onchain gav of EOS) never worked, was quickly captured, and became EOS became an inert zombie chain that existed for a bunch of VCs to pretend that they didn't rip off a bunch of people, while hoarding BTC & deving non-EOS projects.
I hope in 2021, this can stop being a debate & we can look to real world evidence of the desirability (or lack thereof) of $DOT's whack-a-doodle approach to economics, that seems to have been by designed by ppl w/o any game theory or sense of how econ incentives work w real ppl.
I also want to remind early Parachains that they should expect to pay ZERO for rent because up until N number of Parachains, each marginal Parachain GIVES Polka more value than it gets. Negotiate long term deals and access that give you credit for breathing value into Polka.
Polka has NO value without parachains who demand to plug into it. So it faces a chicken and egg problem. Any parachain who doesnt get a good deal of rent, take note of whether that team is worth investing in if they can't get a great deal when they have ALL the leverage.
I would guess there should be 20-25 parachains plugged in before the next marginal parachain should consider paying rent. Negotiate hard, keep the value you create by your own app and dev work, don't PAY for the right to give that value to VCs who own $DOT.
