One criticism from Molly White I read last cycle that I did actually agree with, which was that crypto is strangely self-referential. The social layer is filled with a lot of already crypto-pilled people, telling other already crypto-pilled people why crypto is good/valuable. You don't really see this in other spaces, I'd say it comes across slightly as cope, people who need to keep convincing themselves they're right

Arguably this just arises from a defensive position since it's also true that no other industry also faces as much criticism, fud, etc.

Yes, and not just on the social layer. I would say the vast majority of apps (and certainly the marketing for apps) is also self-referential. How many web3 apps are actually attractive for a web2 audience? There’s a lot of potential for web2.5, i.e. crypto/blockchain tech in the background but something easy/fun/useful to sign up for up front. 

I can’t think of many examples for stuff like that. Sorare has done it for sports fans, Robinhood or Coinbase are very good on the finance side. Any other good examples?