The big ugly problem facing the crypto space:

Will any of the products and protocols funded by speculation use cases have any use at all for mainstream use cases?

Do Curve or Aave or DAI matter for people who aren’t using the blockchain like an underregulated casino?

I dont agree with this framing at all. First of all, many businesses operate on speculation. Casinos are often profitable businesses. The returns from the stock market are driven by only a small subset of stocks. Most stocks do not actually deliver returns. But no one argues that these are not valuable.

Ethereum enthusiast exploring frontier of layer 2s, gamefi, and decentralized apps.

Same with “mainstream” some of the most successful companies sell things B2B and have no mainstream usage by the average person. Expecting every crypto product to be useful to the average mainstream user is not a realistic standard.

Even if crypto is only a global casino (which i dont believe is the end state at all), if it generates trillions of dollars in economic activity. Then it is fundamentally successful. “Speculation” and “mainstream” are just terms representing personal biases for what someone personally finds useful