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Dark StarThe Consumer Crypto Paradox
Saw this tweet the other day laying out how Zuck thinks about launching products at Meta. He simplifies it in a way that makes sense: Step 1: Spark Step 2: Retention Step 3: Growth and Scale the Community And then, only then, comes Step 4: Monetization The last part hammered a feeling I’ve had about consumer crypto products for some time: by measuring an applications success by volume, fees or revenue from the get, a product is choking its ability to capture a larger customer base. Basically,...
Dark StarBuild for Humans, Not Hashrates
Optimizing for users — not bots, vanity metrics, or protocol worship — is the only way this works. Behavioral economists often state that markets are made of people, not rational agents. Human factors like emotion, biases, and social influences impact our investment choices, which breed irregularities and inefficiencies. We experience this daily, even outside of markets. It creates perfect imperfections and keeps the world interesting. Crypto markets are no different, in that Housecoin can pu...
Dark StarAmerica Onchain: "You've Got Scale?"
press “play” before you begin… It’s not very helpful to make direct comparisons between the evolution of technologies. Other than broad similarities in the way new inventions evolve and are adopted, the unique way a technology interacts with a culture at a particular moment in history is so specific that such comparisons likely miss more than they predict. But there is something resonant in analogies between the dissemination of the ‘original’ Internet (in, say, the 1990s), the social compone...
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Dark StarThe Consumer Crypto Paradox
Saw this tweet the other day laying out how Zuck thinks about launching products at Meta. He simplifies it in a way that makes sense: Step 1: Spark Step 2: Retention Step 3: Growth and Scale the Community And then, only then, comes Step 4: Monetization The last part hammered a feeling I’ve had about consumer crypto products for some time: by measuring an applications success by volume, fees or revenue from the get, a product is choking its ability to capture a larger customer base. Basically,...
Dark StarBuild for Humans, Not Hashrates
Optimizing for users — not bots, vanity metrics, or protocol worship — is the only way this works. Behavioral economists often state that markets are made of people, not rational agents. Human factors like emotion, biases, and social influences impact our investment choices, which breed irregularities and inefficiencies. We experience this daily, even outside of markets. It creates perfect imperfections and keeps the world interesting. Crypto markets are no different, in that Housecoin can pu...
Dark StarAmerica Onchain: "You've Got Scale?"
press “play” before you begin… It’s not very helpful to make direct comparisons between the evolution of technologies. Other than broad similarities in the way new inventions evolve and are adopted, the unique way a technology interacts with a culture at a particular moment in history is so specific that such comparisons likely miss more than they predict. But there is something resonant in analogies between the dissemination of the ‘original’ Internet (in, say, the 1990s), the social compone...
Share Dialog
Share Dialog
In crypto, there's been a persistent overemphasis on financial capital (tokens, yields, and direct monetization) often at the expense of social capital: influence, community trust, and cultural relevance. But history shows that social capital is the true catalyst for sustainable value. Platforms like YouTube, SoundCloud, and TikTok didn’t scale by paying creators upfront, they built tools for reach, recognition, and status. Once those networks were in place, monetization followed.
Crypto often tries to invert that sequence: lead with money, and hope community and distribution show up after. But distribution is not a given, it’s earned through cultural resonance, consistency, and network effects that social capital greatly accelerates.
This tension is especially visible in crypto creative circles. There’s a thin line between empowering creators through revenue-sharing, and assuming creators are owed payment regardless of market demand. The popular social refrain—“I make nothing on Spotify, we deserve better”—often reflects a moral claim that ignores the market signal. Spotify, while flawed, reflects real listener behavior. If no one’s paying attention, the issue may not be payouts, it may be product-market fit, or just the brutal mechanics of attention economies. Crypto tooling can’t override that. As Stripe’s Patrick McKenzie put it: “The market doesn’t care how hard you worked.”
The most durable consumer platforms tend to start with distribution and cultural affinity, not direct monetization. Farcaster is growing not by out-paying competitors, but by building social value through community support, exclusivity, and creator identity. Bitcoin and Ethereum didn’t gain traction because of token incentives alone, they became movements before they became markets.
Financial capital is a lagging indicator of belief. Social capital often comes first, and when invested wisely, it converts.
In crypto, there's been a persistent overemphasis on financial capital (tokens, yields, and direct monetization) often at the expense of social capital: influence, community trust, and cultural relevance. But history shows that social capital is the true catalyst for sustainable value. Platforms like YouTube, SoundCloud, and TikTok didn’t scale by paying creators upfront, they built tools for reach, recognition, and status. Once those networks were in place, monetization followed.
Crypto often tries to invert that sequence: lead with money, and hope community and distribution show up after. But distribution is not a given, it’s earned through cultural resonance, consistency, and network effects that social capital greatly accelerates.
This tension is especially visible in crypto creative circles. There’s a thin line between empowering creators through revenue-sharing, and assuming creators are owed payment regardless of market demand. The popular social refrain—“I make nothing on Spotify, we deserve better”—often reflects a moral claim that ignores the market signal. Spotify, while flawed, reflects real listener behavior. If no one’s paying attention, the issue may not be payouts, it may be product-market fit, or just the brutal mechanics of attention economies. Crypto tooling can’t override that. As Stripe’s Patrick McKenzie put it: “The market doesn’t care how hard you worked.”
The most durable consumer platforms tend to start with distribution and cultural affinity, not direct monetization. Farcaster is growing not by out-paying competitors, but by building social value through community support, exclusivity, and creator identity. Bitcoin and Ethereum didn’t gain traction because of token incentives alone, they became movements before they became markets.
Financial capital is a lagging indicator of belief. Social capital often comes first, and when invested wisely, it converts.
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