As investors, we’re bound by numbers and metrics, data that reinforces our understanding of a project, and it’s future growth potential, only in the data we find the sanity and conviction we need to back an idea, and partake in making it a reality.

The more time spent in this industry, the more a nuanced, abstract reality starts to form, a behavior comparable to that seen in tribes converting into agricultural societies, feudal, religious, kingdoms and in the present, nation states. That one unquantifiable “thing” we call culture, is the easiest to overlook, and the hardest to correctly measure, but one can confidently say after a certain point, if it’s there, or not.

In microbiology, culture refers to the “cultivation” of bacteria, cells, or other microorganisms in a specially prepared nutrient environment. You can analogize blockchain’s permissionless-ness as the oxygen and the nutrients “culture” in this context, needs to survive and eventually thrive.

To rigorously explore the intricacies of this concept, it is imperative to adopt a foundational approach grounded in anthropological principles. This exploration is particularly pertinent when examining the dynamics of technological adoption and individual orientations. Behavioral patterns, influenced by these orientations, guide our cognitive processes in making strategic decisions about embedding our "seeds" – representative of our ideas, technologies, or practices – into specific environments. Crucially, the most elusive yet central drivers of these processes are twofold: hedonism and word-of-mouth influence. These factors play a pivotal role in fostering and sustaining the growth of societal elements such as traditions, customs, beliefs, language, arts, and social norms. From a sociological standpoint, it becomes evident that these cultural facets are dependent on these drivers for their vitality and propagation. Without the sustenance provided by these core motivators, cultural elements may struggle to gain the requisite 'oxygen' – metaphorically speaking – to thrive and permeate within their respective societal contexts.

To better understand “organic culture”, first we must understand the other side of the equation, what we call “parasitic” networks. These players in the industry gravitate towards a model that can be characterized as “institutional” or “permissioned.” This approach essentially creates a walled enclave within their specific blockchain ecosystem, analogous to a gated community. Such exclusivity invariably leads to restricted access, particularly for those who are unbanked or lack KYC, by design. By imposing these digital barriers, projects that ostensibly aim to "bridge the gap" between conventional financial institutions and blockchain inadvertently deprive the oxygen and the nutrients a culture needs to survive. This oversight in prioritizing institutional frameworks over more open, accessible models represent, in our view a strategic misstep for those seeking to integrate traditional financial systems with the innovation offered by blockchain, I will refer to these cultures as “parasitic”, as they lack the proper environment to foster culture, instead they grow through inorganic means, leeching to other established organisms for its survival, essentially becoming parasitic in nature.

Note that we don’t argue these parasites aren’t necessary in the ecosystem, in the contrary, they will play a pivotal role in actually compelling the establishment into the slow transformation into permissionless environments, and much like in biology, are crucial in maintaining the ecological balance by regulating population dynamics:

Parasites can influence the population sizes of their hosts. By affecting the health, reproductive success, and survival rates of host species, they can prevent the overpopulation of certain species, thereby maintaining a balance within the ecosystem.

We’re obviously here to laud and admire the “organic” nature of blockchain communities, so let’s get to it.

We’ve spoken in length about the inception of these cultures and the duopoly (that has since come to fruition) in past articles, on this piece, the focus will be on the core “nutrients” needed for these networks to form organic cultures, we’ll try to abstract away and quantify these drivers with a few core examples that tie our behaviors and blockchains together. To do this, the easiest mental model we can use to analogize are nation state societies, we divide these into key pieces, in order of formation:

• Economic Incentive & Nationalism

  Tokenizing any idea, is by far the most powerful force that drives humans into partaking in any endeavor, it provides tangible financial benefits such as rewards, dividends, or share in revenue, encouraging unity, participation, and further investment.

• Identity and Safety

  Identity plays a crucial role in blockchain ecosystems, especially in decentralized platforms where trust is a major concern. The ability to verify identity while preserving privacy is a key advantage of blockchain. Once you can establish an identity in a system you feel safe and nurtured, you’re naturally compelled to partake in its survival, a certain symbiosis is achieved between the individual and the network, where at least in one’s psychology, survival is dependent on the coexistence of both systems.

• Critical Mass and Liveliness

  For these cultures to reach self-sustenance, you can to a degree, measure what constitutes a “living” ecosystem. Cultures with high transaction frequency, active development, and community engagement are more likely to attract new users and retain existing ones, in essence forming a positive feedback loop of growth.

Each of the above-mentioned elements are crucial for the long-term survival of any culture, we can intuitively deduce these patterns apply to homo-sapiens not only to blockchain, but in general.

A theory that predicts the future life expectancy of some non-perishable things, like technology or an idea, based on their current age. It's a concept rooted in probability and statistics.

There are a handful of “organisms” that we consider to have reached this critical mass, this doesn’t mean the’ve reached perpetual life, instead they’ve reached a point in the timeline where the strongest developers and community broadly lie within these systems, these are, in no particular order : Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Arbitrum, Polygon, Optimism, & Cosmos. All of which have carved their distinctive niche within their own organic nature, they all boast a unique differentiators and driving forces. (Note these are subjective opinions based on daily exposure to the builders in the industry.) Other chains have a case to achieve lindy, but in our subjective view, have yet to do so.

In this current cycle, points as an incentive mechanisms have been the primordial driver of protocol growth. Just this past October, Solana had 300$M in TVL, and people remained skeptical in its ability to reach lindy. After a number of core teams airdropped their tokens rewarding past users, teams across the ecosystem raced to implement point systems to piggyback on the rekindled interest in these rewards.

In practice, points are undoubtedly masking the usage metrics behind airdrop farmers, potentially skewing expectations in terms of growth trajectory. Today (3 months later) Solana stands at 1.5B TVL and begs the question if the precedent the Jito Labs team set with $JTO is healthy for the organic growth of the system, another “new and shiny” hedonistic trap if you will.

This “meta” is set to culminate at the end of this month with the TGE of $JUP, the most utilized DEX aggregator in Solana. Below we argue on why this particular launch is different in nature, and why we believe this to be a the birth of a uniquely strong “culture”.

To culminate our view into culture, we must look at the coming release of $JUP, its potential to become the biggest airdrop in blockchain’s history to date, and it’s role in further catalyzing a Lindy effect for Solana in particular, but most importantly, for itself.

The first key differentiator of Jupiter as a project is it’s lack of investor base, this isn’t to say the team doesn’t “respond” to anyone, but in essence it’s fiduciary duty is only to itself. In practice, this makes the chosen token distribution and allocation as organic and fair as it can get, given there isn’t a third party involved as a driving force in the future token’s behavior once it launches, it’ll all be driven by the core team’s drive for longevity, and the community’s incentives to partake in it’s growth.

For the sake of argument, we’ll attempt to forego the hard metrics to evaluate price, such as revenue streams, organic volume, and inherent utility, in turn, we want to highlight the more nuanced reasons why we think this community in particular, will easily achieve what we call “culture”.

Their team comprises of a group of engineers sitting in a wework in Kuala Lumpur, a far cry from your silicon valley setting, they’ve yet to spent a dime on third party growth services like marketing, PR, or external BD/KOLs. Their Founders, fit the leader in the front and leader in the back personas, both their core competencies being symbiotic in nature towards the community and their team.

Their core focus, albeit not so attractive for the naked eye, has been product-first. The most successful startups in any industry all have the one commonality, their incessant obsession and attention the detail on both UX and backend functionality, the team passes this metric with flying colors.

It is hard to argue after the surge in open interest for Solana that this isn’t a good time, if any to launch their token, we see the true value actually lies in the wealth effect all the hardcore users will see once the launch materializes, it’s estimated that 955K wallets are eligible for the airdrop, making it bigger than Uniswap’s almost by a factor of four. This focus on community is to the best of our knowledge, the most important culture driver.

• No shortage of CATS

• Revenue bearing, strong business model

• Lack of Competition

• Governance & Educational Plans

• LFG Launchpad

The tagline:

“The initial value of JUP will be a symbol for Jupiter and DeFi 2.0, much as the value for UNI is a symbol for Uniswap DeFi 1.0.”

Without delving to deep into meme-ology, the statement above is designed to reinforce a very specific narrative, the Solana Bet:

“Our vision for the future is intrinsically tied to the growth and prosperity of the Solana ecosystem. We are driven by the conviction that a flourishing Solana ecosystem translates to collective benefits for all stakeholders involved. In simple terms, when the pie grows, everyone gets more pie.”

There’s no doubt as of today, Jupiter stands as the one-stop shop for all-things DeFi in Solana, the Central Terminal if you will, though we aimed to highlight culture with this piece, it’s hard for us as investors to obviate hard facts in terms of usage.

Jupiter's upcoming launch represents a significant moment in blockchain culture. Its approach to token distribution, community focus, and product-first ethos, set against a backdrop of a grassroots team and community-driven development, embodies the essence of what an organic blockchain culture aspires to be. This cultural evolution within blockchain is as significant as the technological innovations that drive it, reflecting broader trends of of our digital culture mirroring societal shifts throughout history.

Send. It.

As investors, we’re bound by numbers and metrics, data that reinforces our understanding of a project, and it’s future growth potential, only in the data we find the sanity and conviction we need to back an idea, and partake in making it a reality.

The more time spent in this industry, the more a nuanced, abstract reality starts to form, a behavior comparable to that seen in tribes converting into agricultural societies, feudal, religious, kingdoms and in the present, nation states. That one unquantifiable “thing” we call culture, is the easiest to overlook, and the hardest to correctly measure, but one can confidently say after a certain point, if it’s there, or not.

In microbiology, culture refers to the “cultivation” of bacteria, cells, or other microorganisms in a specially prepared nutrient environment. You can analogize blockchain’s permissionless-ness as the oxygen and the nutrients “culture” in this context, needs to survive and eventually thrive.

To rigorously explore the intricacies of this concept, it is imperative to adopt a foundational approach grounded in anthropological principles. This exploration is particularly pertinent when examining the dynamics of technological adoption and individual orientations. Behavioral patterns, influenced by these orientations, guide our cognitive processes in making strategic decisions about embedding our "seeds" – representative of our ideas, technologies, or practices – into specific environments. Crucially, the most elusive yet central drivers of these processes are twofold: hedonism and word-of-mouth influence. These factors play a pivotal role in fostering and sustaining the growth of societal elements such as traditions, customs, beliefs, language, arts, and social norms. From a sociological standpoint, it becomes evident that these cultural facets are dependent on these drivers for their vitality and propagation. Without the sustenance provided by these core motivators, cultural elements may struggle to gain the requisite 'oxygen' – metaphorically speaking – to thrive and permeate within their respective societal contexts.

To better understand “organic culture”, first we must understand the other side of the equation, what we call “parasitic” networks. These players in the industry gravitate towards a model that can be characterized as “institutional” or “permissioned.” This approach essentially creates a walled enclave within their specific blockchain ecosystem, analogous to a gated community. Such exclusivity invariably leads to restricted access, particularly for those who are unbanked or lack KYC, by design. By imposing these digital barriers, projects that ostensibly aim to "bridge the gap" between conventional financial institutions and blockchain inadvertently deprive the oxygen and the nutrients a culture needs to survive. This oversight in prioritizing institutional frameworks over more open, accessible models represent, in our view a strategic misstep for those seeking to integrate traditional financial systems with the innovation offered by blockchain, I will refer to these cultures as “parasitic”, as they lack the proper environment to foster culture, instead they grow through inorganic means, leeching to other established organisms for its survival, essentially becoming parasitic in nature.

Note that we don’t argue these parasites aren’t necessary in the ecosystem, in the contrary, they will play a pivotal role in actually compelling the establishment into the slow transformation into permissionless environments, and much like in biology, are crucial in maintaining the ecological balance by regulating population dynamics:

Parasites can influence the population sizes of their hosts. By affecting the health, reproductive success, and survival rates of host species, they can prevent the overpopulation of certain species, thereby maintaining a balance within the ecosystem.

We’re obviously here to laud and admire the “organic” nature of blockchain communities, so let’s get to it.

We’ve spoken in length about the inception of these cultures and the duopoly (that has since come to fruition) in past articles, on this piece, the focus will be on the core “nutrients” needed for these networks to form organic cultures, we’ll try to abstract away and quantify these drivers with a few core examples that tie our behaviors and blockchains together. To do this, the easiest mental model we can use to analogize are nation state societies, we divide these into key pieces, in order of formation:

• Economic Incentive & Nationalism

  Tokenizing any idea, is by far the most powerful force that drives humans into partaking in any endeavor, it provides tangible financial benefits such as rewards, dividends, or share in revenue, encouraging unity, participation, and further investment.

• Identity and Safety

  Identity plays a crucial role in blockchain ecosystems, especially in decentralized platforms where trust is a major concern. The ability to verify identity while preserving privacy is a key advantage of blockchain. Once you can establish an identity in a system you feel safe and nurtured, you’re naturally compelled to partake in its survival, a certain symbiosis is achieved between the individual and the network, where at least in one’s psychology, survival is dependent on the coexistence of both systems.

• Critical Mass and Liveliness

  For these cultures to reach self-sustenance, you can to a degree, measure what constitutes a “living” ecosystem. Cultures with high transaction frequency, active development, and community engagement are more likely to attract new users and retain existing ones, in essence forming a positive feedback loop of growth.

Each of the above-mentioned elements are crucial for the long-term survival of any culture, we can intuitively deduce these patterns apply to homo-sapiens not only to blockchain, but in general.

A theory that predicts the future life expectancy of some non-perishable things, like technology or an idea, based on their current age. It's a concept rooted in probability and statistics.

There are a handful of “organisms” that we consider to have reached this critical mass, this doesn’t mean the’ve reached perpetual life, instead they’ve reached a point in the timeline where the strongest developers and community broadly lie within these systems, these are, in no particular order : Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Arbitrum, Polygon, Optimism, & Cosmos. All of which have carved their distinctive niche within their own organic nature, they all boast a unique differentiators and driving forces. (Note these are subjective opinions based on daily exposure to the builders in the industry.) Other chains have a case to achieve lindy, but in our subjective view, have yet to do so.

In this current cycle, points as an incentive mechanisms have been the primordial driver of protocol growth. Just this past October, Solana had 300$M in TVL, and people remained skeptical in its ability to reach lindy. After a number of core teams airdropped their tokens rewarding past users, teams across the ecosystem raced to implement point systems to piggyback on the rekindled interest in these rewards.

In practice, points are undoubtedly masking the usage metrics behind airdrop farmers, potentially skewing expectations in terms of growth trajectory. Today (3 months later) Solana stands at 1.5B TVL and begs the question if the precedent the Jito Labs team set with $JTO is healthy for the organic growth of the system, another “new and shiny” hedonistic trap if you will.

This “meta” is set to culminate at the end of this month with the TGE of $JUP, the most utilized DEX aggregator in Solana. Below we argue on why this particular launch is different in nature, and why we believe this to be a the birth of a uniquely strong “culture”.

To culminate our view into culture, we must look at the coming release of $JUP, its potential to become the biggest airdrop in blockchain’s history to date, and it’s role in further catalyzing a Lindy effect for Solana in particular, but most importantly, for itself.

The first key differentiator of Jupiter as a project is it’s lack of investor base, this isn’t to say the team doesn’t “respond” to anyone, but in essence it’s fiduciary duty is only to itself. In practice, this makes the chosen token distribution and allocation as organic and fair as it can get, given there isn’t a third party involved as a driving force in the future token’s behavior once it launches, it’ll all be driven by the core team’s drive for longevity, and the community’s incentives to partake in it’s growth.

For the sake of argument, we’ll attempt to forego the hard metrics to evaluate price, such as revenue streams, organic volume, and inherent utility, in turn, we want to highlight the more nuanced reasons why we think this community in particular, will easily achieve what we call “culture”.

Their team comprises of a group of engineers sitting in a wework in Kuala Lumpur, a far cry from your silicon valley setting, they’ve yet to spent a dime on third party growth services like marketing, PR, or external BD/KOLs. Their Founders, fit the leader in the front and leader in the back personas, both their core competencies being symbiotic in nature towards the community and their team.

Their core focus, albeit not so attractive for the naked eye, has been product-first. The most successful startups in any industry all have the one commonality, their incessant obsession and attention the detail on both UX and backend functionality, the team passes this metric with flying colors.

It is hard to argue after the surge in open interest for Solana that this isn’t a good time, if any to launch their token, we see the true value actually lies in the wealth effect all the hardcore users will see once the launch materializes, it’s estimated that 955K wallets are eligible for the airdrop, making it bigger than Uniswap’s almost by a factor of four. This focus on community is to the best of our knowledge, the most important culture driver.

• No shortage of CATS

• Revenue bearing, strong business model

• Lack of Competition

• Governance & Educational Plans

• LFG Launchpad

The tagline:

“The initial value of JUP will be a symbol for Jupiter and DeFi 2.0, much as the value for UNI is a symbol for Uniswap DeFi 1.0.”

Without delving to deep into meme-ology, the statement above is designed to reinforce a very specific narrative, the Solana Bet:

“Our vision for the future is intrinsically tied to the growth and prosperity of the Solana ecosystem. We are driven by the conviction that a flourishing Solana ecosystem translates to collective benefits for all stakeholders involved. In simple terms, when the pie grows, everyone gets more pie.”

There’s no doubt as of today, Jupiter stands as the one-stop shop for all-things DeFi in Solana, the Central Terminal if you will, though we aimed to highlight culture with this piece, it’s hard for us as investors to obviate hard facts in terms of usage.

Jupiter's upcoming launch represents a significant moment in blockchain culture. Its approach to token distribution, community focus, and product-first ethos, set against a backdrop of a grassroots team and community-driven development, embodies the essence of what an organic blockchain culture aspires to be. This cultural evolution within blockchain is as significant as the technological innovations that drive it, reflecting broader trends of of our digital culture mirroring societal shifts throughout history.

Send. It.