$$The past year was calamitous for people speculating on cryptocurrency, as the largest firms that emerged from “DeFi summer” co-immolated after an orgy of accounting fraud and prodigious magical thinking.$$ But the grand casino of 2020-2022 was damaging more because of what didn’t happen than because of what did. Speculation was so profitable, and centralized financial businesses so well-equipped to capitalize on it, that the latter vacuumed up talent and funding. Businesses focused on build...