In crypto, every app is a finance app. But what if this is wrong?

Today, crypto apps are Default Finance. By default, tokens are treated as money and stock. Builders focus on token price, supply dynamics, and financial engineering. And users expect to make money.

This works for actual finance like lending, perpetuals, and payments. DeFi can be DeFi. But for consumer categories like social, learning, fitness, creator tools, or entertainment, we should default to building apps more like games.

The gamer spirit burns in crypto’s millennial and gen-z user base. We’ve grown up farming gold, collecting items, and min-maxing economies. But through the Default Finance lens, this energy has been channeled into degenerate speculation.

Creating apps through a game design lens, aka Default Game, is how we'll build useful, enduring apps that take consumer crypto mainstream.

How did we get Default Finance?

First there was Bitcoin. Then Ethereum. Then ERC-20s, programmable money, stablecoins, and DeFi. And tech aside, speculation was everywhere. It was natural to assume all crypto apps should be built around finance.

Beyond finance, builders copied the ethos of the founding projects. Bitcoin needed decentralization, but then, all crypto apps were dApps, all crypto finance was DeFi, and all crypto organizations were DAOs, whether decentralization was necessary or not. Features followed suit: staking, originally a blockchain security mechanism, became universal, often meaning ponzi yield. And we copied design assumptions. Layer 1 tokens naturally merge utility with investment. But then every crypto app token tried to graft utility to investment despite having completely different dynamics.

DeFi may indeed be the Future of Finance–but applying a finance ux across all consumer crypto apps is just another copying act. Default Game is not just a superficial reskin from finance to games, but a clean break from cargo-cult design to first-principles.

Why is Default Finance a failed paradigm and how can Default Game fix it?

Default Finance means building consumer apps through a finance lens. It has numerous failure modes:

Developer greed

The possibility of a hot token launch and quick millions can pervert the incentives of otherwise noble devs. It also attracts outright scammers.

Mercenary Users

Default Finance brings users who only want money. “Wen token??” This mercenary user base is counterproductive to finding true product market fit.

Sharks and minnows

Consumers aren’t finance savvy. PvP finance apps turn retail users into shark bait. Every single time.

Limited UX

If an app is Default Finance the UX boils down to “number go up.” This crowds out more interesting possibilities.

Default Game means building consumer apps of all kinds (not just video games) through a game design lens. Done right, it has the potential to fix Default Finance’s shortcomings:

Easy to understand

Games abstract complexity through intuitive mechanics. Points, items, and levels are easier to understand than perpetuals, impermanent loss, and liquid restaking.

Unlimited UX

Games can be anything: fun, scary, challenging, adventurous, puzzling, or competitive. And everyone can have a good outcome because entertainment is positive-sum.

Better design levers

Game design is more versatile than finance tokenomics design. Progression, quests, soft currencies, faucets, sinks, gameplay loops, and more all let game devs craft the perfect experience.

Beyond ux, it's clear crypto’s user base lives and breathes games:

We’re all gamers now

• 77% of Millennials and 81% of Gen Z play video games.

• Globally, 3.3 billion gamers spend 1.5 trillion hours gaming per year.

• Even the richest and busiest man in the world speed runs Diablo 4 in his spare time.

Gaming concepts are already widespread in crypto

We use terms like Meta and PvP, and PvE, to talk about trading. Many apps have seasons. Communities do raids to shill their tokens. NFTs can be soulbound.

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I’m not the first to say gaming will be mainstream. OGs like EllioTrades have been rightly saying this for years–but only half right. Because it's not that crypto video games will be mainstream, but that all consumer crypto will become gamified. Gamify, not GameFi.

(By the way, I wrote all five of the em dashes in this article myself, haters.)

How might we reimagine crypto not as finance tech but game tech?

We’ve now created millions of crypto currencies, which from a money standpoint makes little sense. The world mostly needs two types: Bitcoin to store value and stablecoins to spend it.

But if we’re building games, it makes perfect sense. In both video games and gamified web2 apps you find endless currencies. There’s freely earned soft currencies such as World of Warcraft gold, Twitch channel points, or Duolingo Gems. Or purchased hard currencies like Fortnite V-Bucks, Roblox Robux, and Tinder Super Likes.

Crypto rails unlock new benefits for game currencies. Game currencies can now outlive their original game or app, be resold on the open market, or potentially unlock benefits across other apps.

If we change the frame to crypto assets, we find a few good investments amongst an endless graveyard of scams, memes, and other odious excrements. We need fewer investment assets and more resources.

Games have many types of resources, like xp to mark progression, potions consumed for powerups, player stats like health, or crafting materials like ore.

We can spend our resources, although “spending” in games means something entirely different than in finance. You spend hit points in battle and mana on spells. On social media you spend reputation (measured by likes and follows) on a hot take. And in Duolingo you spend a life on a poor pronunciation attempt.

Resources do not compete with each other for liquidity. So unlike investments, each new resource is positive sum insofar as it creates a good experience for users. Resources can be used to push us toward our goals, help us learn, find love, create art, or simply infuse more fun into our daily lives.

Crypto has been largely blind to game currencies because our founding ethos is the antithesis of game design.

Our cypherpunk forefathers knew currency issuers (governments) are not to be trusted, and therefore money must be decentralized. But game designers know players are not to be trusted (as they will exploit the economy at first chance), and therefore game currencies must be tightly controlled.

These values translate into polar opposite designs. Stablecoins and Bitcoin are meant to be universal, frictionless, and noncoercive. They are designed for entire economies and have stable monetary policy.

Game currencies are specific to just one game, and sometimes can only purchase one type of item within that game. They intentionally have limitations to manipulate player behavior and emotions. And their economics can change on the fly to create new game mechanics.

The story of crypto thus far is what happens when libertarian design collides headfirst at internet speed with unchecked human nature. This was appropriate for finance. But in the realm of consumer apps, where users have plentiful choice and low switching costs, we should change our builder mindset to the benevolent authoritarianism of game design.

If tokens are the currencies and resources we spend, NFTs are the collectibles we hold on to. But Default Finance has made us forget that holding isn’t just for making money.

At age 12, I gave away my Pokémon binder. At 33, I’d do anything to get it back. Not because of what they’re now worth to the market, but because of what they're worth to me. Collectibles preserve memories and emotions–like the exact moment I opened a holo Charizard–which is worth more to me than the market would ever pay.

Let’s explore how to make NFTs fun again, with resale being emergent, not the only reason to play.

Imbue metadata with meaning

An NFT’s value should come from story, utility, or art, not manufactured scarcity. A 10k supply is so conspicuous that it breaks the fourth wall, signaling the collection is an investment. Design first and foremost around meaning and let scarcity be secondary. Better yet, turn trait rarities and supply caps into diegetically meaningful characteristics.

For example, I previously worked on charity Impact Certificates:

Imagine an NFT that represents a real planted tree: the attributes describe the type of tree and forest; the art is nature themed; the video is the proof of it being planted; and the collection size equals the actual number of planted trees.

By crafting meaningful characteristics you elevate your NFT from an ephemeral bull market hot potato into a timeless collectible.

(And your NFTs don’t have to map to the real world. Just give them in-world meaning within your app, like an item in a game.)

Upgrade the form factor

Just as physical collectibles come in many forms: Beanie Baby dolls, Pokemon cards, Tech Deck boards, Pog discs, and Tamagotchi gadgets, digital collectibles should likewise. Yet most NFTs are treated as artwork in most app UIs. This is Default Finance thinking, as art is a traditionally investable category (with auction houses and billionaire collectors), whereas only a select few game collectibles have ever achieved investment status.

Under the hood NFTs are shapeless data: a json file with a few key-value pairs. Let form follow function. Imagine new ways for NFTs to take form in your apps to create new collectible categories and new types of value.

Gestalts, not JPEGs

Most NFT collections treat only the image as the art and the rest of the metadata as supporting details. This is a skeuomorphic interpretation of NFT art.

The Opensea standard has nine metadata slots, with attributes being an arbitrarily long list. Not to mention, you can add additional metadata beyond the standard. Instead of confining art to the image_url, treat each piece of metadata as a "brushstroke" and the entire NFT as the "painting." The full potential of an NFT is not to be a JPEG but a gestalt of layered metadata.

And once you’ve created a gestalt, do not outsource your UX to the NFT marketplaces that display every NFT in identical cookie-cutter fashion: image here, title there, attributes below. It’s like crafting an elegant dish, then having it sorted into the little plastic compartments of a cafeteria tray on the way to the table.

It's not just the game resources themselves but the way we talk about them that shapes the user experience.

Imaginative limitation

If your app has users mint, stake, and burn you not only sound just like everybody else, you inherit the semantic shackles of these terms. Stake implies locking tokens to earn yield. But equip could unlock power ups, abilities, or cosmetic upgrades.

Users no longer care what is happening beneath the hood. Replace technical terms with whimsical ones to create a richer experience.

Finance pollution

Remove finance language, as it takes users out of the game and on to the trading floor.

Just because a token is onchain, doesn’t mean you have to call it by its $ticker. The $ticker suggests these things are like stocks, not game currencies. Your tokens can be called shards or essence, or any other name that creates immersion and thematically aligns with your app.

Do this across your entire app. Even universal terms like wallet can potentially be renamed to inventory to add unique flavor to your app.

App legibility

STEP’N, the gamified move-to-earn app, had users earning two tokens: $GST and $GMT. What the hell are GST and GMT? The names give no clue to their use. Games let us chop trees to get wood to build houses. Or collect herbs to make potions, which we know to be powerups.

Use familiar terms to keep your app intuitive. Users can keep track of dozens of game currencies, their uses, and conversion rates–if designed properly. But they will quickly get lost with just a few unfamiliar names or concepts.

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From day one, set out to build a gamified experience. Ruthlessly delete adopted finance concepts that don’t belong. And only once you've created a fun and user-friendly experience can you intentionally add just the right amount of finance back in.

What if you want to give users ownership, juice user acquisition, or raise capital for your company? How can you add finance benefits without over financializing your UX?

In UI design, there’s a common default color ratio: 60-30-10. Sixty percent of the interface is whitespace. Thirty percent is black text. And just ten percent, the brand color, highlights key interactive elements.

We can apply similar thinking to add just the right amount of finance to our app economy.

60% - Currencies & Resources

Currencies and resources shape your core mechanics, controlling pacing, gating, or progression.

They’re lives like Duolingo Hearts; actions like Tinder Swipes; credits like Midjourney image generation requests; or soft currencies like World of Warcraft gold.

There are soft currencies that are typically freely earned through gameplay. And purchased hard currencies that buy premium loot and upgrades.

30% - Collectibles

Collectibles make games more rewarding.

They're the unique Pudgy Party characters that grant in-game abilities; guns and attachments in Call of Duty; or League of Legends skins. These collectibles can potentially be resold but they should be primarily designed for players not speculators.

Collectibles can also be achievements like Duolingo streak milestones or GitHub contribution trophies but these should not be purchasable.

10% - Investments

Investments are your only assets designed primarily for speculation and financial return.

Investments should serve a purpose that is outside your core app ux, like rewarding early users, or boosting growth. Said differently, users should be able to have a complete experience without ever touching an investment.

If you want to weave investments into your app, you might reward investment holders with your non-investment game currencies. But don’t do the reverse: don’t primarily reward users in your volatile currency (e.g. play to earn) thrusting everyone into a PvP finance experience.

Is an asset a collectible or an investment?

If the resale price of the asset can go to $0 and still have value to users, it's a collectible. But if the price goes to zero and users bring out the pitchforks, it’s an investment (or was anyway).

Risk management

Default Finance apps nakedly expose users to financial risk. For example, they reward users with a volatile currency but fail to warn how the market can render the currency worthless.

With investments capped at 10%, you can now treat them more like ranked or hardcore mode, where users opt in and you signal there is permadeath risk. Not every player can handle hardcore so let users choose their preferred difficulty.

Value signaling

Too many Default Finance apps have a UX that is like: “stake your $butts utility token to earn $farts governance token, and also buy our $tp NFT collection.” Problem is, users quickly lose track of which is most valuable: the $butts, the $farts, or the $tp.

In games, users can keep track of many resources because each has a distinct purpose, presentation, and value. Save the $ticker symbol for your investment assets. Then use other design treatments to differentiate your currencies and collectibles.

Economic control

Investors and gamers are both ruthless. They exploit value gaps, discover arbitrage, hack, grief, and invent unanticipated strategies that destabilize entire economies. The difference is game developers can patch on the fly. Finance devs have limited options.

Control your currencies and resources in a smart contract that allows fine-tuned permissions, or keep them offchain altogether. Let collectibles be resold, but tightly manage the faucets, transaction fees, and the marketplace. Only let investments be at the whim of the market.

This way 60-30-10 ensures 90% of your app is mostly under your control for when your users inevitably find exploits.

What 60-30-10 looks like at Artizen:

Artizen is a fundraising platform for projects at the frontiers of creativity.

Artizen’s game currency is Votes (offchain soft currency). Users vote to boost potential funding for their favorite projects. Users get free votes on signup and can earn more by taking various actions throughout the app.

Our collectible is Artifacts (NFTs). Users financially support their favorite projects by buying their Artifacts. Artifacts grant rewards from the project, Artizen app utility, and potential financial ROI.

Lastly we have our ART token, which is an investment in the overall success of the platform and our creators. ART will grant in-app powerups but you won't need to own it to take core actions.

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Just like in UI design, 60-30-10 is a guide. Assets won't always fall into these exact buckets but rather along spectrums of e.g. developer control or market risk. Proportion carefully to keep your economy healthy.

It’s time to try something different.

The consensus in Crypto is a future in which everything is a gamble. Let’s create a future in which everything is a game.

Ironically, once we stop focusing on finance we might all make more money. Because a rising tide of gamified apps that are fun and useful (and don’t rug our users) is the elusive PvE everyone has been searching for.

Thanks for reading!

Consumer crypto isn't just any old game. In part two, I'll discuss what 'type' of game, and how we need to work together as an industry to build it...