Value on the Internet will be captured by humans, probably

Infrastructure is not the safe haven you might think it is.

We’re at that part of the cycle when investors start looking for safe bets.

For many, this seems to mean heading towards the picks and shovels, and things that rhyme with the successes of previous cycles. L1s become L2s become Zk chains.

It makes sense. Infrastructure has created massive amounts of value, and developers continue to make up a large part of the people that are excited about the space.

However, not only is that not what we most need right now, we don’t think it’s where the majority of value in crypto is going to be created going forward.

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: crypto is fundamentally a consumer technology. Value flows to the social layers in this world, not the technological ones.

The projects that succeed create and maintain a deep belief in the future they’re building toward, and repeatedly leverage it to provide compelling consumer experiences.

To be clear, infrastructure projects are certainly included in this. Ethereum and Bitcoin are prime examples, and there will be many more. But they’re not the safe haven investors are acting like they are.

They exhibit consumer-like risk profiles and value drivers more than they do B2B or SaaS: power laws are alive and well, their users have a complex set of desires and problems, and strong differentiation is critical.

Data and technology moats will continue to erode as more and more of our digital life moves onchain, and community, brand, and social/cultural relevance will become increasingly critical to defensibility.

Now also consider how many more people in the world care about social and cultural experiences than developer experiences, and tell me where you want to place your bets.

The projects that capture the hearts and minds of consumers will wield the power in the space.

A growing subset of builders get this. They think the technology is ready for them to build novel consumer products, and they see the millions of people that are still here excited to play with them.

They’re ready to build the things that will finally arm crypto-natives with something to onboard their friends and family into. The things that will show them how fun and empowering a digital life onchain is.

And we’re evolving our network to relentlessly support them.