What happened Polkadot (CRYPTO: DOT) tokens rose all the way to $38.51 on Tuesday morning, marking a 12.8% jump from the lowest prices of Monday afternoon. The blockchain protocol, designed to connect various blockchains and other asset types to form the basis of new applications and services, is gearing up for an important technical update at the end of 2021. Investors are getting excited about that event. So what The Polkadot network you see today is actually not the final production-grade version but a so-called "canary" system that's meant to suss out technical issues before the final product goes live. Well, that launch is scheduled to take place before the end of the year, when developers have approved the final technical design and completed auctions for the first handful of feature-complete Polkadot chains. Image source: Getty Images. Now what This process has been moving forward all year long, and investors see the light at the end of the tunnel. As of Tuesday afternoon, Polkadot prices have gained roughly 30% in the last week, 65% since mid-August, and quadrupled from $9.30 per token at the start of the year. The Polkadot project could play a significant part in the future of blockchain systems, providing an even more flexible smart contract platform than sector leader Ethereum. That being said, Polkadot has not yet completed its technical development and faces competition from a large number of alternative chain-linking systems not named Ethereum. It's an interesting blockchain project but also a risky and speculative one. I hold a few tokens myself, but I'd never bet the whole farm on Polkadot -- or any other particular cryptocurrency. Please be careful out there, dear reader. 10 stocks we like better than PolkadotWhen our award-winning analyst team has a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.* They just revealed what they believe are the ten best stocks for investors to buy right now... and Polkadot wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys. See the 10 stocks *Stock Advisor returns as of August 9, 2021 Anders Bylund owns shares of Ethereum and Polkadot. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Ethereum. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.Source