Are you solving problems for crypto natives, or for the whole world?

Author: Dougie

Translation: Deep Tide TechFlow

Crypto is dead.

I’m not saying the price has gone to zero, nor that blockchains have stopped producing blocks, or that stablecoins have quietly disappeared. What I mean is a very uncomfortable truth for someone like me who has been deeply involved in this industry for the past decade.

My career, my network, and even a large part of my self-identity have revolved around "crypto." I have experienced the ICO (Initial Coin Offering) boom, the DeFi (Decentralized Finance) summer, the NFT craze, the points metaverse, meme coins… I have participated in almost all of these waves.

In Telegram group chats, on Crypto Twitter, at various conferences, and in countless calls with founders, there has been a common assumption: crypto is the center of the universe, and our task is to keep expanding this universe.

However, I now hold almost the opposite view.

"Crypto" as a self-contained world is on the decline.

This technology is about to integrate into everything else, and those who mistakenly see past bubbles as the endpoint will be left behind by the times.

So, why do I still have faith in crypto?

Because this "death" is the gateway to something greater than the industry we have been striving to defend.

The "Bubble World" We Built

In the modern development history of the crypto industry, the noisiest areas are often built by "crypto natives" for "crypto natives."

Here, "crypto natives" does not refer to all traders or those seeking better or different financial systems, but a narrower group: those who have completely moved their financial lives onto the blockchain.

Everything we do is optimized around these users:

• Interface design assumes users are accustomed to transferring five or six-figure sums via browser plugins;

• Educational content is essentially equivalent to "read a few more tweets";

• The feature set revolves around liquidity mining, points, token distribution, and meta-games, which only those already in the space can understand;

• More importantly, we have built a marketing strategy (GTM playbook) that primarily works for ourselves:

  • Issue a token with a points program;

  • Launch liquidity mining;

  • Start a referral code program;

  • Create a Discord community, hire an intern to run the account, and then call it a "community."

This is the so-called meta-game of "building for crypto": a closed-loop incentive mechanism aimed at those who already know how to mine, rotate, and sell on-chain. When founders talk about "user acquisition," they often mean "competing for the same wallets that other projects are also vying for."

Beneath all this lies an unspoken assumption that has quietly propelled many careers: over time, the world will become more like us.

However, this has not happened. The number of users has indeed grown, but the culture remains niche and self-referential. Most activities still revolve around the same behavior patterns: trading on-chain assets, leveraging, chasing short-term incentives, etc.

What we call the "crypto industry" looks less like a universal technology ecosystem and more like a highly liquid massive multiplayer online game (MMO).

It is an interesting world, and one could even say a great world. But its potential is ultimately limited.

What do I mean by "death"?

When I say "crypto is dead," I do not mean that blockchains have stopped running, and everyone has gone back to their own homes; nor do I mean that tokens will disappear or that the technology will completely fail.

What I want to express is:

Crypto as a self-contained industry is disintegrating. The lines between crypto, "fintech," "AI infrastructure," "payments," "markets," and "casinos" are becoming blurred. "Crypto startups" will no longer be a distinct category; they will simply be regular startups that happen to use blockchain technology.

Applications that only target crypto natives will either die out or remain forever in niche markets. If your target user group (TAM) is "those who are immersed in the chain all day," you are essentially working in a dead end. While this niche market will always exist, and some can profit from it, this is not how blockchain technology will change the world.

The label "crypto" is gradually becoming a burden. Slapping the label "crypto" or "Web3" on something no longer helps attract users, gain regulatory support, or secure capital. Ordinary entrepreneurs will integrate blockchain technology into their products but will no longer brand themselves as "crypto companies."

The victory of crypto is not about turning the whole world into crypto natives, but about enabling everyone to benefit from it without having to become a crypto native.

What I mean by "death" is the end of crypto as a self-enclosed independent world. This world once expected others to step into our universe, learn our language, and accept our rituals. And now, that expectation is fading.

From "Crypto Natives" to "Real World Natives"

The popularization of technology often does not look glamorous. In the early days, it is always driven by a few "eccentrics" and "believers." If the technology is real, it will eventually integrate into everything else, and people will no longer refer to it as "technology," but will focus on the value and utility it can provide.

This is precisely the direction I believe we are heading: the mark of success is no longer "more crypto natives," but "more ordinary people."

We have already seen some signs of this budding change:

• Users querying election odds on Polymarket may not even know they are querying a blockchain;

• Merchants in Lagos or Buenos Aires settle bills in USDT (Tether) because it allows transactions to be completed in seconds;

• Savers in high-inflation economies hold USDC (USD Coin) not because they "believe in crypto," but because their local currency is depreciating.

These users are integrating crypto technology into their lives without needing to know what a "rollup" is. The technology makes their lives cheaper, faster, and more efficient.

But this is not just a dichotomy between "speculators" and "ordinary people." We overlook a huge middle group: those who are tech-savvy, care about privacy and autonomy, or enjoy participating directly in markets but have no interest in yield or points mining. They want the ability to self-custody but do not want to adopt the culture of crypto natives. What they want are better technological tools, not a whole new identity.

To be honest, we are now closer than ever to serving this group. User onboarding and user experience have significantly improved; we have mobile-first experiences, social logins, Apple Pay, and card payments, and abstracted wallets. Using on-chain technology no longer requires a "crypto master's degree."

The bottleneck is no longer user experience, but intent.

Since we can now hand this technology to anyone, what do we choose to build? Who do we choose to serve?

Too often, the answer remains:

• "We are solving crypto natives' problems for crypto natives."

• "We are making it easier for those already on-chain to stay on-chain."

• "We are building better casinos for a group that already spends all day in casinos."

And this part will ultimately be left behind by the times.

We should foresee that crypto will follow the development path of other foundational technologies. No one says, "I am an internet user." No one takes pride in "using cloud services." People are just using products and getting things done.

The term "crypto user" will sound just as strange in the future.

What is Worth Continuing?

This is not a call to completely destroy crypto culture. In fact, some aspects of crypto native culture are worth preserving and spreading:

• Permissionless access: Anyone can access and build.

• Global liquidity and 24/7 markets: A market that never sleeps.

• Composability: Open states and open APIs that foster innovation and collaboration.

• User ownership (selectively): Empowering users with ownership where it truly enhances the product.

Additionally, there are some "quirky fun" aspects worth preserving:

• Open development: Iterating and releasing products in the public eye.

• Open-source spirit: Promoting technological advancement and community collaboration.

• Daring to experiment with financial innovations: A courage that traditional boards would never approve.

At the same time, we need to face the reality: casinos (speculative markets) have funded much of the infrastructure development. The speculative capital flows and fee spikes that people often scoff at have actually financed "boring" infrastructure like payments. The goal is not to destroy the casinos but to stop mistaking the casino for the entire city.

Crypto culture has given us a true gift. The issue is not to bury these cultures but to subtly integrate them into other fields.

Why Have the Old Rules Come to an End?

If you agree with the above points, you must re-examine the current rules of the game.

Liquidity mining, points programs, and airdrops are mostly just circulating the same funds within the same circle through slightly different user interfaces. This cycle goes like this: launch a project, attract mining, further mining, exit the project, and then complain that "users are too speculative." The metrics on day one may look impressive, but three months later, user retention is often dismal.

From an investor's perspective, you can quickly identify this hype pattern: the team excels at generating attention and designing incentive mechanisms, but when you ask key questions, they have almost nothing to say:

• Who is this product designed for outside of the Crypto Twitter (CT) circle?

• Why would they continue using it once the rewards stop?

• What does this mean for those who do not care about basis points and token symbols?

The problem is not that we can no longer reach ordinary people. The advancements in tools have made that possible. The real issue is that we are rarely willing to build things that are meaningful to ordinary people.

Another place where this mindset hits a wall is growth. When you try to step out of the circle, you often run directly into the high walls of compliance.

KYC (Know Your Customer) and regulation are not some neat top-down arrangements but are actively introduced by marginalized entrepreneurs who realize that without these, their businesses cannot grow at all.

• As long as you engage with real payment networks, you will inevitably encounter KYC.

• If you wish to collaborate with institutional counterparties, you need to set up protective mechanisms.

• If you are involved in credit, identity, or real-world assets, the idea that "everyone remains anonymous" will quickly become unfeasible.

Part of the on-chain economy may remain completely anonymous and unregulated. This is a characteristic. However, it is naive to think that most economic activities will stay in this state.

The mindset of "you will all eventually become like us" is actually an attempt to evade the hard work of solving problems, distributing products, and building business models. You can feel this fatigue when the hype fails to translate into lasting user adoption or returns. This is not just a macroeconomic issue, but a ceiling imposed by the limitations of building only for ourselves.

Crypto Becomes the Backend of the World

If the old rules are failing, what will happen next? I think of it in three layers:

1) Infrastructure Layer: Quiet, Boring, but Significant

Blockchain will become the default infrastructure in certain areas: settlement systems for specific types of payments and markets, the application of stablecoins in cross-border flows, shared states for identity, collateral, and ownership records.

Most users will never know or care that these services are "on-chain." What they will feel is faster settlements, more reliable access, global default support, and unprecedented programmable currency features that traditional banks cannot provide.

2) Product Layer: No Longer "Crypto Products," Just Ordinary Products

Applications in fintech, commerce, and other fields will only adopt on-chain technology when it genuinely enhances the experience while striving to hide complexity. These applications will compete with other products on the same dimensions: price, speed, user experience, and trust.

They will not market themselves as "on-chain," but will promote themselves as cheaper, faster, more global, more composable, and sometimes fairer.

3) Speculation Layer: Continues to Exist, but Repositioned

The "casino" will not disappear, but it will no longer be the whole story. Meme coins, complex derivatives, and purely speculative venues will continue to exist. Some will remain niche, while others may gradually blur into mainstream trading and entertainment. They do not need to completely disappear.

The key change is that these speculative activities will become a vertical within a larger ecosystem, rather than the foundation of the entire "industry."

Ultimately, crypto will no longer be an independent industry but will quietly integrate into the global tech stack, becoming the backend that supports the functioning of the world, rather than existing separately from it.

Winners and Losers

As crypto becomes the underlying layer of everything, the incentive mechanisms will change.

For Developers:

• Losers: Teams that develop products only for Crypto Twitter (CT) and a small group of on-chain addresses; founders whose main skills are designing liquidity mining, points programs, and token distribution mechanisms.

• Winners: Teams that start from real user problems and view crypto technology as a means to achieve details; founders willing to be "boring" but grounded in key areas (such as trust, compliance, distribution).

For Investors:

• Losers: Funds whose investment philosophy is "serving crypto people with crypto" and make "reflexivity" the core of their business model.

• Winners: Investors who invest in real demand, user retention, and sustainable distribution paths in broad markets (payments, credit, identity, markets, data).

For Existing Industries:

• Losers: Those who identify with "I entered early, so the world should adapt to me"; ecosystems that refuse to integrate with other fields, insisting that "pure crypto" is the only correct path.

• Winners: Teams that develop infrastructure and products loved and relied upon by real users; projects that can integrate into existing financial and consumer flows; teams willing to collaborate with others when they can bring new demand to the chain. Embedding crypto into the real economy is key to achieving long-term and significant success.

Accepting Change Is Not Easy

If you have been deeply involved in the crypto space for many years, this transition may be hard to accept.

When you have held the "trench" for years and hear someone say, "the trench is closing, the battlefield has moved elsewhere," it feels like a betrayal of the time, energy, and faith you have invested—especially when the industry has not yet been widely accepted.

Many people's identities are built on being "early participants," "different," and "playing a game that outsiders cannot understand." Now, the world may embrace these tools but not recognize this identity, and this reality brings a sense of loss.

But this is actually a normal developmental trajectory for all successful technologies.

The internet as a subculture "died" because it became ubiquitous and boring; "cloud" is no longer an exciting frontier because every serious company has quietly adopted it. Today, no one mourns these "deaths" because they are the price of success.

The maturation of crypto means that the "crypto" we know must die. But this is not a failure; it is the inevitable result of the goals we once pursued.

Crypto is Dead, Long Live Crypto

If we can face this transition correctly, we will no longer view "crypto adoption" as an independent goal.

Instead, we will talk about:

• Products and businesses that rely on these infrastructures;

• Markets that are more global, open, and programmable than existing systems;

• People whose lives are changed because they have access to tools that local banking systems cannot provide.

You can choose to cling to the closed, self-referential industry we once built, hoping the world will eventually integrate into it; or you can accept that this phase is ending and start building and investing for a broader audience.

Our mission has never been to turn everyone into crypto natives. Our mission is to use the tools we build to make the world a better place—even if the world ultimately forgets the names of these tools.

A Key Question: Who Are We Building For?

If you are a developer or investor, face this question directly:

Am I solving problems for crypto natives, or for the whole world?

Your answer will determine your position in this obituary.

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