stablecoins the killer blockchain app also were the killer of bitcoin itself

once we lost the mindset of btc as denominator it's just another risk asset, just another trade to go long or short
altcoins such as they were, were narratives trying to either supplant bitcoin with superior tech (zcash), distribution (dogecoin), programmability (ethereum), or governance (decred)
... or force that tech to be rolled into bitcoin. either way the fail case still put bitcoin on top in the conceptual sense, and for the speculators, in the sense of value capture of driving the technology forward one way (bitcoin) or another (not bitcoin but probably eventually bitcoin)
dollar denomination normiefied crypto and we got the shit end of the deal. we got adoption but that would have come eventually any way. we gave up the requirement to care about decentralization (not the absolute but the useful tradeoff spectrum), we gave up the permissionlessness for legacy integration on incumbent system's terms (compatibility!) and most shamefully we gave up try-anything FOSS-iterative cypherpunk mindset for no-not-like-that dogmatic orangewoke obtuseness that resonates with nearly nobody and sacrifices all of the above on the key man altar of the weak man's hero worship
we (and I'm included, I'm just as guilty) let infinite fiat strip mine the bitcoin supply after the real PoW miners brought it to market
bitcoin is not going to millions in our lifetime. that dream is dead, but it served its purpose: we flew to this great height on its wings. and this new plateau is higher than we were before bitcoin brought us here. the task now is to preserve and propel bitcoin's original ideals wherever you find them. that could be on bitcoin, that could be on other chains, that could be in AI systems as they grow out. but all those agents and ways must be cross-supportive and never again at odds with each other. the exponential gainz already proved bitcoin's value. we must let it be the trojan horse for other concepts and systems of human freedom