Appcon

lore @optimism | ex: @coinbase | views are my own | what if it all worked out? 

good (in different ways): railgun, farcaster, polymarket, signal
bad (in different ways): pump.fun, Terra/Luna, FTX

The differences in what the app does stem from differences in beliefs in developers' heads about what they are here to accomplish.

Strong agree — pumps (and the inevitable dumps) are net negative on multiple levels:
- Top developers avoid the space, leave it, or feel disheartened — turned off by a culture that feels hollow and extractive.
- Most newcomers aren’t serial speculators. When they hear “crypto” they think betting, risky assets, and scams. I saw this happening again and again at /appcon.
- A few win at the casino, but most lose — many permanently scarred.
- It flattens what Ethereum is really about.

This doesn’t mean tokens are bad. But the dominant narrative paints crypto as a giant betting arena — when we have far more meaningful problems to solve.

It’s fine if Solana leans into speculation, and some Ethereum apps will too. But as an ecosystem, we must resist reducing Ethereum to “crypto” and “speculation”.

Ethereum is the world computer. Let’s project that vision and champion apps aligned with the problems we’re here to solve.

Coding since 1981 | Dad | UK Python Association Trustee https://uk.python.org | Freelancer https://www.empiria.co.uk

we need to show with apps and real world impact. words are not enough when the mainstream narrative is memecoins and scams

I've given up trying to persuade decent devs I respect that there's more to this world than scams and speculation. That water hole has been throughly poisoned.