I keep hearing people talk about “modular blockchains” lately. Put simply, for an end user like me, the most obvious changes are probably just two: transfers/interactions won’t be as expensive, and they won’t be as laggy; then the experience of jumping back and forth between different apps feels more like “the same system” rather than starting fresh from scratch every time. But it’s not that magical either—any confirmation you need to sign still has to be signed, and none of the phishing you’re supposed to guard against will be missed.

To put it in everyday terms: before, it was like a restaurant that bought its own ingredients, cooked and served everything itself, and even washed the dishes in-house—when it got busy, you’d be stuck waiting in line. Modularity is more like outsourcing the back kitchen, dishwashing, and the delivery platforms: the front desk focuses on cooking, efficiency goes up, but you have to trust that the outsourced companies won’t pull any funny business.

Recently, the news around deposits and withdrawals has been tightening and loosening in waves, and my psychological expectations really will change. If the fees are a bit higher, I can still tolerate it, but getting stuck at that “compliance gate” makes me anxious… so now when I do interactions, I prefer to calculate costs plus diversify my wallets, instead of putting all my hope into “for sure, the next time there will be an airdrop.” That’s it for now.