Most platforms chasing engagement metrics end up chasing cortisol spikes instead. The pattern's obvious once you see it: rage keeps us glued to screens. Violence, outrage, conflict—these are the engagement gold. We literally can't scroll past them.

But here's the trap: when your north star is "time spent," wholesome communities lose every single time. A thoughtful discussion thread gets buried. A toxic drama thread rockets to the top.

Web3 communities face the same crossroads. Decentralized doesn't automatically mean healthy. If the incentive structure rewards controversy over contribution, toxicity over thoughtfulness, you get the same doom scroll culture, just on-chain. The difference? In Web3, we theoretically can redesign these rules. We can align incentives differently. We can reward signal, not noise.

The question isn't whether platforms optimize for engagement. It's whether we'll finally optimize for something that actually matters.