It’s been almost 9 years in this industry, and honestly, I’ve never felt such a confused atmosphere. It’s as if there’s nothing left that we should keep waiting for.

We’ve gotten most of what we wanted: institutions coming in, technology moving forward. But something’s missing—the soul of all this seems to be gone. I start to wonder: have we forgotten the fundamental reason we’re here?

Some people celebrate stablecoins, others are excited about decentralized trading platforms that outdo traditional finance. They say it’s a victory. But I see it differently. I see a few paths ahead, and only one is worth it:

**First scenario:** Traditional finance literally swallows crypto. Stablecoins become mainstream, corporate blockchains with KYC everywhere, and Bitcoin becomes digital gold in the hands of governments and corporations. Or worse, everyone uses CBDCs and our financial privacy is fully controlled. The technology is great, but we lose. Max probability.

**Second scenario:** Governments surrender to blockchain—everything is permissionless, and the KYC/AML system disappears. A world that’s free and brilliant. But honestly? That’s pure imagination. Min probability.

**Third scenario:** We build something parallel and completely separate from the existing system. You can be on both sides, but governments can’t touch it because it’s designed separately. We win in an honest way. Probability? Totally depends on us.

I’m not interested in the first scenario. It just turns the existing machines into something that runs more smoothly. The second scenario? Pure fantasy—governments won’t give up sovereignty, just like corporations won’t give up their monopoly voluntarily.

So only the third scenario remains. Some people call it the metaverse, a digital nation, a DAO, or a tribe—whatever the name, they share one thing: an independent existence that often contradicts the political and financial systems in the real world.

Our biggest problem is that a lot of people haven’t really internalized this lesson yet. Especially us in Western countries, who are gradually getting comfortable with progress and increasing convenience. We’ve never really felt what it’s like to live without sovereignty.

But from 2022 to 2024, we actually experienced it: on one side, there were strict regulation attacks from the SEC and CFTC; on the other, there were centralized entities that almost bought half of the crypto world. So what lesson do we take? We end up thinking that by putting the right people in the right positions, we’ll win. That’s backwards thinking.

For years, we’ve complained about bad UX, Bitcoin being impractical as a payment tool, endless hacking attacks. But what if we’re all wrong? What if this inconvenience is the price for sovereignty? Is that a culture we should actively embrace?

I’m not saying MetaMask is the peak of innovation. But we have to optimize UX for the right target audience: not 50% of the world population that doesn’t need sovereignty, but 50% that really does. People in developing countries watching their democracy get eroded. People in developed countries who increasingly look like China and Russia—with anti-privacy laws.

Our goal isn’t to fight regulation or governments. Our goal is to create something that they literally can’t control. The key: don’t rely on single points that can be cut. Fiat on-off ramps, app stores, DNS resolution, centralized sorters, social platforms, centralized stablecoins—these are all potential kill switches.

Our infrastructure must not be something that can be shut down because of a court order or a bureaucrat pressing a button. Taxes shouldn’t care about our tokens ( unless we exchange them for fiat). In the end, one sentence: we must create a place where ordinary people can live without asking permission from anyone.

Specifically: embrace permissionless protocols, not black-box off-chain solutions. Real DAOs that are actually decentralized, not theater governance. Don’t learn dependence on centralized systems—be ready to switch immediately when something gets disconnected. Resurrect algorithmic stablecoins—DAI backed by ETH alone; the UST concept itself isn’t wrong. What’s wrong is that we add USDC into DAI and stack unsustainable yields. We haven’t really tried building a parallel economy.

And privacy protection—use whatever tools are necessary, as long as it works.

After 2022, we should have dispersed and remembered this lesson. But it’s not too late now. My prediction is more pessimistic: in the next few years, there will be more reasons to escape. Big monsters will grow and squeeze more things. Fully escaping into a parallel crypto world is impossible right now, even if it truly exists.

But at minimum, we can rebuild something, so people in the future have a place to escape to, while allowing the real world and the crypto world to coexist. Tools for escape are the only things worth building. One day, when crypto is no longer trendy, it can still function independently. More importantly, it gives meaning to the actions and things we can build.

Most of us will still choose to live alongside empires. Because of responsibility, comfort, money, or other reasons—everything is understandable, no problem. The small remaining group will create an exit, then search again for the things we’ve left behind. That’s what matters.