From zero sum to positive sum
It's time for the crypto industry take on a more positive sum mindset. I say that because whether I’m scrolling through my feed on X, or listening to a podcast, I find that we’re often having zero sum debates in which there is one winner and one loser. Will Ethereum or Solana win? Are L2s parasitic to the Ethereum L1?
Part of why we’re having these debates is human nature. Crypto is as much a technological movement as it is a social one. Humans are tribal, and in crypto, this manifests as loyalty to ecosystems that have made them wealthy or promise to do so. Bitcoin maximalists are Bitcoin maximalists because BTC made them wealthy. Ethereum maximalists are Ethereum maximalists because ETH made them wealthy, and so on. This won’t change.
However, the other reason we’re having these debates is that over the past few years the industry hasn’t grown significantly. The past couple of years have been tough. Regulators worldwide have ranged from apathetic to overtly aggressive toward the industry, and in the U.S., dozens of government agencies coordinated efforts to cut off its access to banking services. Good faith CEOs of large companies like Coinbase were preoccupied by lawsuits, startup founders were intimidated from fully pursuing their product visions and new potential founders decided against entering the space at all.
Zero sum games are played when the pie doesn’t grow, when the only way to increase your share is to take from someone else.
However, that’s changing. Donald Trump’s election has ushered in a pro-technology, pro-crypto government in the U.S., and he has pledged to make the country the global crypto capital. The world often looks to the US for guidance on policy regarding emerging technologies and I expect the US’s change in stance to reverberate across the world.
The stage is now set for crypto to grow. When there is growth, you can grow your size of the pie without taking from others.
Crypto is still so small in the grand scheme of things, but stablecoins and consumer products like Polymarket and Courtyard demonstrate that meaningful products can be built for a mainstream audience.
The question we should be asking ourselves isn’t whether Ethereum or Solana will win. They both can. The question we should be asking ourselves is how can we now build apps that reach billions of users.