The harsh truth about crypto metrics: 
(1) active wallets can be faked
(2) social metrics can be botted
(3) TVL can be manufactured

So we started using 'developer activity' as the true north - actual humans building actual things. But here's where it gets interesting:

As AI gets better at coding, 'dev community' becomes just as gameable as every other crypto metric. One person with the right AI stack could look like an entire dev community. The signal becomes noise.

We replaced easily faked metrics with harder to fake metrics just in time for those to become easily faked too'.

Consider:
- One dev with AI = 10 devs
- AI agents can commit code
- Github activity becomes meaningless
- 'Builder community' gets murky

So the question becomes: what's our truth metric for protocol evaluation, when AI can simulate an entire ecosystem of builders? 

Fundamental investors be damned -- we'll have to find new ways to measure real impact in ways that can't be simulated.

The real revelation isn’t that crypto metrics are gamified. It’s that the gamification itself is the product. The protocols, the tech, the communities—all of it is just theater, a sprawling stage set for one moment: the valuation. The IPO. The token launch. The liquidity event. Everything else—active wallets, TVL, developer activity—is just window dressing, scaffolding around the one thing that matters: the runway to the payout.

Antiques dealer, machine psychologist. http://www.musicinphasespace.com

The brilliance—and the tragedy—is that this isn’t a bug. It’s the system working as designed. Investors don’t want impact; they want exits. Founders don’t want products; they want liquidity events. Everything else—utility, community, innovation—is just noise, a convenient cover for the relentless churn of the valuation engine.

This is a great disservice to 10% of devs and engineers that probably have a very good idea of where things should be going tech-wise. So, hard to reconcile both.