Recently, I keep seeing a bunch of testnet points missions, and the more I do, the more it starts to feel like work… I originally just wanted to practice, but then everyone basically starts assuming, “I’ll be able to redeem these points for something later,” and once that expectation builds up, my hands just don’t listen anymore: opening more accounts, going back and forth across chains, and even being careless about Gas fees. To put it plainly, the two stop-loss rules I set for myself are: first, the most money/time I’ll spend each day—if I go over, I stop immediately; second, I only do the interactions I understand and that I might realistically use in the future—if it’s purely to rack up points, then I’ll pass.

Especially now, with the whole “staking” and “shared security” setup getting criticized as “doll-within-doll,” I’m even less willing to treat points as principal to gamble with. Since on-chain retention and real users still haven’t taken off, even if I end up with more points, it may just be noise and hype. In any case, before the tide goes out, I’ll tie my shoelaces a bit tighter first—so I don’t end up running around and losing myself along the way.