Lately, yet another batch of new L1/L2 projects are launching incentive programs to pull in TVL. In the group chat, the older guys are rushing while also complaining: “mine and sell.” I’m watching the mempool more directly: the same batch of automated interaction scripts running back and forth, with gas fees spent more regularly than the points. In the end, on-chain identity boils down to: “whether you’re actually there.” Forget that—plainly put, badges/points are pretty good at emptying people’s time, and in the end they turn into a reason to give yourself a daily check-in you have to do.

What I do now is pretty simple: first, ask myself—if this protocol had no points, would I still use it? If yes, I’ll casually take some; if not, I won’t force it. Then I set a limit on how many interactions I’ll do: stop once you hit the cap; otherwise, your mindset quickly turns into, “I’ve already刷 so much—if I don’t刷 to the end, I’ll be at a loss.” Anyway, identity isn’t built by clicking a button for 30 days in a row. More often, it’s about whether you’re truly using it and genuinely taking on risk. No matter how diligently the scripts run, they can’t fool the on-chain data more than a few times.