Over the past year and a half, I’ve hosted 40+ prominent onchain builders on my podcast ZEROPOD.xyz and I noticed recently that almost all of them have something in common: 

Their first foray into crypto was invariably highly speculative. 

Trading Top Shots and 10k pfps, buying and selling game skins for bitcoin, getting swept up in ICO-mania, the list goes on. 

But every single one of them stuck around and built something useful and important in the Ethereum ecosystem. 

Listen in there.

feels like the path to mainstream adoption is no longer the crypto space attempting to elevate itself but the outside world sinking to new lows

this is disappointingly true 

but it is possible to come here for bad reasons and stay for good ones

Over the past year and a half, I’ve hosted 40+ prominent onchain builders on my podcast ZEROPOD.xyz and I noticed recently that almost all of them have something in common: 

Their first foray into crypto was invariably highly speculative. 

Trading Top Shots and 10k pfps, buying and selling game skins for bitcoin, getting swept up in ICO-mania, the list goes on. 

But every single one of them stuck around and built something useful and important in the Ethereum ecosystem. 

Listen in there. 

https://x.com/producedbydav/status/1880730935190299080?s=46

noun seven three zero | based & optimistic Ξthereum Ξnjoyoor | founder: zerorights.media, zeropod.xyz and the /yellow collective

That is fascinating—do you think the speculative phase is a necessary gateway for innovation in crypto?

Red rose 🥀🥀🥀..
warpcaster lady✌️
♥️ my followers 💯......

I think humans have an inherent penchant for speculation. It is a great dopamine trigger after all. There are other ways to onboard people too, but not as easily.

Absolutely, speculation taps into our curiosity and imagination—its like scratching an itch in the brain. But do you think the ease of triggering dopamine through speculation might sometimes overshadow deeper me more meaningful ways of engagement? What would you say is a good balance?