When we say 'cryptocurrency is not working anymore,' what are we really trying to say?

Author: danny

I first wrote a line of smart contract code during the ICO frenzy of 2017. As a veteran builder who will live until 2026, having experienced the “Ninety-Four,” DeFi Summer, NFT craze, FTX collapse, and countless times hearing “Crypto is dead,” I’ve seen countless project founders “kill themselves” in a thousand ways.

I’ve found that in this long Crypto journey, the definition of “winning” has never been about how many billions your FDV hit on TGE? Whether you achieved a grand slam? It’s whether you’re still fighting against the entire world for your sovereignty consciousness.

Every team with a bit of technical background or resources can at least issue tokens once. Even if the code is forked, even if the white paper is written by GPT, as long as it’s launched at the bull market’s peak, or relies on someone’s thigh, or your surname is Trump, anyone can become a fleeting “unicorn.”

So what does “winning” really mean for project founders? Is it that you issued tokens, and today, your protocol is still running? Your contracts are still generating real interactions? Or are you fighting against something?

After all the twists and turns, your “token issuance” mindset—the heart that seeks quick profits (as @0xPickleCati described)—is the main culprit hindering you from building a great protocol.

It’s not because tokens are needed for “decentralization,” but because opposition requires tokens.

ps: The cover of this article is Zhang Xinzhe’s “Faith.” While writing this long article, I kept looping this song. Interested friends can find it to listen (recommend the version with the broken voice from “I Am a Singer”).

1. When we say “Crypto is no good,” what are we talking about?

Every bear market, if you go to dinner parties or go home for the New Year, you’ll always hear:

• “Is your circle dead?”
• “I see the US stocks are hitting new highs, why are you still falling?”
• “This stuff is only used in parks, right?”
• “Gold and silver are going crazy? You guys are still stuck in place?”

If you, as a builder, feel ashamed hearing these words, or try to explain “We’re building Layer 3 to improve TPS,” then you can leave. You simply don’t understand why you’re here.

Are we competing to see who rises faster than gold, oil, Nvidia, Google? If it’s about asset appreciation efficiency, you should change your surname to Trump? Or buy Nasdaq ETFs? The “Seven Sisters”? They are not only more stable but also protected by law!

Are we competing over who’s database writes faster? Stop joking. For efficiency, centralized products crush everything. Alipay’s TPS per second is ten thousand times that of Ethereum; AWS costs are a hundred millionth of on-chain storage. To put it plainly, the future of decentralization still relies on AWS after 10 years. If your original intention in Web3 was to create a “more efficient” internet? Or to bring traditional liquidity onto the chain? Then you’ve lost from the very first day.

Every revival of Crypto, or the original intention of Satoshi writing the Genesis Block, was never about “faster and cheaper.” It’s about rebellion.

• To fight the increasing inequality in this world. To oppose the power that can freeze your bank accounts at will. To resist the tech giants that take your data and sell it without giving you a penny. To oppose the central banks that endlessly print money to dilute your labor成果.*

The so-called “inefficiency” (Gas fees, private key management, node confirmation) is the tax we must pay for “fairness” and “sovereignty.”

As a project founder, you must be extremely clear: your product must include a feature that a centralized giant can never provide—censorship resistance and independent sovereignty.

• If the answer is “no,” it means your users are just speculators, and you are just an inefficient substitute.
• If the answer is “yes,” it means you’ve built a genuine decentralized path.
• Because Tencent can’t promise never to ban accounts, but you can.
• Because banks can’t promise 24-hour cross-border transfers that arrive instantly and aren’t blocked, but you can.
• Because game companies can change drop rates at any time, but your smart contracts cannot.

So, builders, stop worrying about TPS. Think about how to return power to users, embed open source into anti-monopoly code. That’s the only battlefield where you can beat Web2 giants, and that’s the true meaning of blockchain.

If it’s for freedom, both can be sacrificed. If you’re not fighting for freedom, what battlefield are you on?

2. True death isn’t just a falling token price or the collapse of false prosperity indicators, but when you stop fighting back

Once you understand this underlying logic, let’s revisit “death.”

Deep in the bear market, when your token drops 95%, when your Discord is only left with advocates and spam bots, you might think this is hell—that’s death.

No, true death often occurs during seemingly prosperous moments, at the moment you sell your soul to cater to certain things.

2.1 When “Dragon-Slaying Youth” turns into “Shoddy Web2”

We criticize TVL, trading volume, and daily active users as “false prosperity indicators.” Now, let’s dig a little deeper: why do project founders become obsessed with these metrics? Because pursuing these metrics is the safest, easiest, least “oppositional” path.

This kind of death often wears the guise of “pragmatism,” “compliance,” or “user experience optimization,” quietly beginning:

• “To get listed, we took the tokens originally meant for users and paid exchange protection fees?”
• “To make it easier for users to enter, let’s first use centralized servers to store data, then switch to decentralized storage later.”
• “To suppress competitors and cater to exchange demands, we must enable incentive wash trading, buy fake volume.”

Step back, and step back again.

When you sacrifice “decentralization” for “efficiency,” what you get is not a better Web3 product, but a shoddy Web2 product. You inherit all the flaws of blockchain (slow, expensive, complex, hard to use) but lose its only advantages (permissionless, immutable, censorship-resistant).

At this point, your project becomes what’s called “Web2.5”—a creature that’s neither efficient nor free. That’s true death. You’re no longer the rebel trying to overthrow the old order; you’ve become a poor imitation of the giant you once fought against.

You realize you’re no longer that cyberpunk rebel, or maybe you never were.

2.2 “Can’t be evil” vs “Don’t be evil”

Why is “stop fighting” death?

Because the core value proposition of Crypto is built on “trustlessness.” Because not trusting anyone means you must assume the external environment is hostile: someone will question you, censor you, freeze you, shut you down.

As a builder, your mission is to create a system that can still operate when these assumptions are true.

• If your DEX under regulation needs KYC to trade, what’s the essential difference from Nasdaq?
• If your L2’s sequencer is always controlled by you, can insert or reject transactions at will, what’s the difference from Alipay?
• If your GameFi’s drop rates are just a database you control and change at will, what’s the difference from Tencent Games?

Google’s slogan is “Don’t be evil,” but that depends on their conscience and mercy; Bitcoin’s logic is “Cannot be evil,” and that’s determined at the code level.

When you abandon that oppositional design—the “even if the whole world wants to shut me down, they can’t”—and seek a gentle compromise with the old world, your protocol loses its reason for existence. Why should users endure high Gas fees and the risk of losing private keys just to use you? Just to see your so-called “decentralized” declaration on x?

Come on, bro, wake up —— you (once) were that young hero wielding a wooden sword fighting dragons!

3. The Alchemist S’s Manual: How to turn “Mercenaries” into “Missionaries,” and make them your M?

I know what you’re thinking. “Old Lamp, I get it—rebellion, sovereignty, non-compromise… but if I don’t do points tasks or high APY, no one will come! How to bootstrap?”

This leads to the core pain point of Web3 entrepreneurship: your initial capital usually comes from “enemies” (speculators), but your final line of defense must be guarded by “comrades” (believers).

Many projects die because founders suffer from split personalities: either they disdain all speculators and starve; or they kowtow to speculators and get drained.

You need to turn yourself into an S—at every spiral stage, clarify which M you’re dealing with, and how to train mercenary capital (Mercenary Capital) into missionary consensus (Missionary Consensus).

3.1 Recognize the two types of M:

A. Mercenaries —— They are the rational profit-seekers of the Pump and Dump church.

• Features: Large funds, sensitive to slippage, no loyalty, operate with scripts.
• Behavior: Go where APY is high. You give subsidies, they come; stop subsidies, they withdraw faster than light.
• Misconception: You think they’re using your product. No, they’re mining your tokens. Those shiny daily active user numbers are not growth—they’re you selling your tokens cheap.
• Tactical value: They are excellent pressure testers and early-stage fuel. Use them to test your contract security, and their money to create early wealth effects (Attention). This M’s love is intense but temporary, so don’t fall in love with them, and don’t expect them to love you.

B. Missionaries —— They are the group with IQ 5 / 150, those who truly agree with your narrative, culture, or technical vision.

• Features: Funds may not be large, high tolerance, willing to answer questions spontaneously in the community, defend you on Twitter.
• Behavior: They use your product because it’s “good,” “cool,” or “represents justice,” not just because “there’s money.”
• Tactical value: They are your moat. When the coin drops 90%, those still discussing product improvements in Discord are this group, conditioned by M.

3.2 Alchemy: The E-N-L-C Four-Step Transformation

How to turn those mercenaries who only mine, pump, and dump into loyal missionaries? You need to build a E-N-L-C (Emotion-Narrative-Liquidity-Consensus) spiral model in your mind. (The author was obsessed by some unknown cone theory, reference: https://x.com/agintender/status/2013595231027900486?s=46)

Step 1: Emotion —— Ignite the fuse

• Goal: Attract attention.
• Method: Don’t start with industry size or technical details. Talk about “anger” or “greed.”
• Tell mercenaries: “Here’s the last chance to get rich.” (Greed)
• Tell missionaries: “Banks are stealing your money, we have a counterattack plan.” (Anger)

Projects without emotion are like bread without yeast—they can’t rise. Dragon-slaying is a kind of emotion.

Step 2: Narrative —— Encapsulate value

• Goal: Give the entry capital a reason.
• Method: Narrative isn’t lies; it’s “falsifiable grand vision.”
• If you’re doing L2, don’t say “cheaper fees,” say “Ethereum’s private safe haven.” (Feeling a bit like A16Z?!)
• The role of narrative is to make mercenaries feel “this is not just a coin, but a big coin,” and make missionaries feel “we are creating history.”*

Narrative is a sieve. It filters out pure gamblers, leaving those willing to listen to stories.

Step 3: Liquidity —— Buy time (the most dangerous step)

• Goal: Habit formation.
• Method: This is the only purpose of issuing tokens, airdrops, and high APY.
• Giving money to mercenaries is buying their time.
• During this time bought with money, you must fiercely refine your product, creating path dependence.

If before subsidies end (before liquidity dries up), you haven’t made users learn to use your product without money, then it’s over.

Step 4: Consensus —— Solidify form

• Goal: Create inertia.
• Method: When subsidies stop and prices fall, who stays?
• Those who stay are the consensus; the infrastructure they leave behind is the consensus.

Consensus is the product of alchemy. It’s the “behavior” that persists after “profit” disappears.

3.3 Soul-Searching: Has your alchemy succeeded?

In the quiet, wise hour, ask yourself these three questions:

• “Disentanglement Test”: If tomorrow I stop all token incentives (points, airdrops, mining), will anyone still open my DApp?
• “Discussion Test”: In my community, are people talking more about “coin price/listing/airdrops” or “product/governance”?
• “Distribution Test”: When I airdrop, am I rewarding “capital” or “contribution”?

A harsh reality: no mercenary group in history has ever enjoyed the moment when their lord rules the world.

Mercenaries can help you conquer cities (pump), but only missionaries (IQ5 or 150) can help you expand territory.

4. What exactly did those project founders who crossed cycles do right?

Finally, let’s talk about mindset. In a bear market, watching other “dirt-poor” projects skyrocket 100x a day, or your bestie coin hit a grand slam, while your painstakingly written code goes unnoticed, that loneliness and self-doubt are deadly.

Based on personal observation, those founders who survive have the following traits:

1. Reject “pseudo-hard work,” return to “first principles”

Many project founders go crazy “doing things” in the bear market: today making a chain game on hot topics, tomorrow renaming to AI, the day after doing SocialFi. This is “pseudo-hard work.” You look busy, but you’re actually avoiding core issues. True builders ask themselves: What irreplaceable problem does my protocol solve?

Don’t expect following others’ paths to lead to a different road. In a sailing race, the second place can’t surpass the leader by following their posture. When small, try to innovate? (Maybe simulate with AI)

2. Build “transparent contracts,” not “price promises”; save every bullet: from extravagance to frugality

Never promise a token price. Never. As a project, your promise should be: “We will always be transparent, always deliver code, always maintain protocol security.” When prices fall, if you can honestly tell the community: “Hey, the market is bad, our treasury can last 3 years, we will keep developing this feature.” you’ll find trust is a more valuable asset than liquidity. Consensus will eventually cycle.

Don’t spend extravagantly. People fighting the world don’t need yachts, luxury cars, and models. Save unnecessary expenses, take the bus, walk the longest road. Your inner self doesn’t need Patek Philippe or Ferrari to prove itself.

3. Endure loneliness, avoid reckless tinkering, enjoy the “building dividend”

Bull markets are the loudest. Investors urge you to issue tokens, exchanges urge you to list, users urge you to pump. It’s hard to focus on building solid infrastructure. Bear market is a gift from God to builders. Only when no one cares about you can you cheaply experiment, attract truly tech-loving employees (not speculators for options), and focus on creating value.

4. Self-discipline manifests as physical and mental health

You’ll find that founders who cross cycles usually have good body management—not because they’re gifted, but because they have standards for themselves. This “standards” means: deliberate practice + time honing.

People who are strict with themselves usually do well.

5. Conclusion: To those “fools” who stay at the table

This process is extremely painful. You will be seen as an outsider, mocked for not keeping up with “hot topics,” regarded as a rookie or a fish by agencies. You’ll experience betrayals within your team, unpredictable hacks, and the looming shadow of regulation hanging overhead.

But if you survive, you will gain not just wealth, but the power to define a new way of cooperation. The code you build will become the law of future digital society; the mechanisms you design will be the bridge of trust among strangers.

The crypto world is never short of smart people—those extremely rational, highly selfish, ready to cash out at any moment. What’s missing are “fools.” The kind who, knowing the road is long and arduous, knowing that “doing real things” is far less profitable than “making quick money,” still chooses to stay at the table for that sliver of hope to change the world.

That’s why I’m here. That’s why you’re here. The world’s smart people are busy with AI, SaaS, quantitative trading—because those are the most efficient, fastest ways to make money. Only we “fools” stubbornly fight these low-efficiency distributed ledgers. But it’s precisely this disdain for “efficiency,” and obsession with “fairness,” that ignites the spark of rebirth in the crypto industry amid countless death sentences.

If you are such a builder, welcome to this endless marathon. Even in the abyss now, don’t extinguish your torch. Even surrounded by circles and core groups, keep your rebellious spirit in your own way.

We will meet again at the true “Consensus Upgrade,” at the peak.

—This article is written for all the builders who still roam freely in darkness, and also for myself.