in any pitches, I don’t like referring to crypto as a tool to fix existing tech and finance problems. it’s not a short-term solution to upgrade obsolete systems. it’s the foundation for creating new ones most of us, builders, are coming from broken worlds. countries with political or economic instability, oppressed groups, or personal and family setups that pushed us to seek privacy, freedom, and self-expression most of us came to this space looking for change. some chose the short route, accumulating wealth by extracting from the market or gambling. this is fine - not to shift the paradigm, but to reinforce the reputation this industry is stuck with those who stayed long enough and joined complex projects had to become visionary (or, in the eyes of their close circle, delusional) short-term players raise easily for every new meta long-term builders face rejection, disbelief from other founders, and a lack of community support. some narratives require years of R&D before even reaching MVP, and this space has almost zero patience for Defi I can think of countless DID, DePin, SocialFi, swarm intelligence, and privacy projects that have been “too early” for years in public, everyone claims to support founders building in developing crypto niches. in practice, very few users or VCs are truly invested in an idea that offers more than a quick token pump I’ve said it many times, but the enterprise sentiment smells like hypocrisy. unless enterprises use defi rails while preserving crypto ethos, we’re heading toward inevitable corporatization of major consumer apps. will it bring trillions? yes. will it be net positive for builders? not sure for those geared for the long run, there are no easy cycles. no 12-month GTM plans or short shiny whitepapers. no rants about the changes and bright new crypto future just hours of work, experiments, rejections, pitches, conferences, decks, testnets, meaningless, and prominent collabs, CT fame, CT hate, competition, team alignment, stress tests, hackathons, failed rounds, closed beta, mainnets... Rome wasn’t built in a day. fundamental crypto systems, and some of the greatest projects, aren't built in a cycle