not one to do this much anymore but seeing some anger on the feed; so if there is frustration to be directed, it should be directed at base, not zora
base chose to seed zora; base chose to integrate it into its consumer product line at the most fundamental level before meaningful validation & went to market with that integration: the c-suite signed off on that
if that wasn’t enough, base also choose to amplify zora’s brand DAILY & LOUDLY—despite sustained & persistent pushback from nearly all of the broader crypto ecosystem, particularly the non-cb mafia
when a platform as large & institutionally backed as base decides to champion a pre-pmf company so aggressively that the two brands become synonymous: accountability rests with the platform making that decision, not the startup
base is a consumer initiative emerging from what was, until recently, an $80b pubco. zora is a vc-backed crypto startup that has failed to establish durable pmf across multiple cycles, now tried over half a decade. the power asymmetry matters. one is an experimental startup navigating survival; the other is a distribution engine with enormous balance sheet backing & brand credibility
the more prudent approach would have been for base to cultivate a broad ecosystem of applications—pushing from the top down—rather than embedding a still-searching product into its very first major consumer narrative & launch
but base chose to put all their eggs in that basket; they choose to place their entire consumer perception in the hands of a few over the hands of the many
both companies tend to operate meta-reactively, optimizing for prevailing trends. that can be understandable in the trenches of startup survival, but it is far less defensible for a 5,000-employee pubco with ten business lines, deep regulatory exposure & immense political & institutional entanglement
strategic incoherence at that scale is not a minor misstep… it’s a directional failure; it’s inexcusable & unfounded imo
base should have exercised stronger judgment. zora, meanwhile, is doing what early-stage startups often do: chasing liquidity & iteration until something sticks
the burden of responsibility is in no way, shape or form, equal
either way, this is exactly why you—a chain, a platform, an ecosystem—a top-down player—would never do what base did this past year
how often does the president concern himself with state-level issues? what about county-level? what about towns? should the president brag about any specific county-level plans or decisions? does the president dictate what towns should and should not prosper?
that is exactly it
we built a one-way street—one with no place to stop unless you wanted to get robbed, littered it with billboards, and directed it right off a cliff
we needed to build our first 13 colonies
