Best of decentralised.co on Kiwi News
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24 stories from decentralised.co have been shared on Kiwi News since 22 June 2023, with 38 upvotes and 1 comment in total. The latest was shared on 25 June 2026. They are listed below, most upvoted first.
Text under a title is an AI summary of the linked article.
- A New Internet
The article argues that social networks depend on controlling their social graphs, which is why no shared protocol for social applications exists at the scale of Meta or Twitter. It explains that platforms earn revenue by keeping users engaged and collecting data for targeted advertising, and that a Web2 product with open social graphs risks competition and declining revenue. It cites Clubhouse, which was valued at $3.4 billion, as an example of how a social graph can vanish, and it points to OpenSocial, proposed in 2007, as an earlier attempt at graph portability.
- The Data Must Flow
Data, rather than compute or energy, is the critical resource for training large language models, and AI companies face growing problems obtaining enough of it. GPT-4 was trained on an estimated 12 trillion tokens, and next-generation models are estimated to need up to 100 trillion, with most of the public internet already scraped. Copyright lawsuits against AI companies, including one by The New York Times, challenge how that data was used, and some startups are using crypto to address these data concerns.
- volatility-as-a-service
Crypto products increasingly depend on volatility, and this is driving users toward high-risk platforms as Bitcoin volatility has fallen to its lowest range since 2016. Users are reportedly moving to products such as Rollbit, with about $46 million deposited; Unibot, which has generated nearly $2 million in fees since May; and FriendTech, which drew $52 million in inflows within about seven days of launch. The text argues that short-cycle crypto narratives act as a "narrative casino," and it draws on Eugene Wei's "Status as a Service" framework to suggest how Web3 social products may evolve.
- Financialisation of Social Networks
This essay argues that social networks are becoming financialised exchanges, with attention and capital markets converging, and that future social networks will need to be built around this. It cites the rise of prediction markets and meme tokens, including Polymarket and PumpFun, and the Degen tipping system on Farcaster, which reached close to 10 million transactions and about 784,000 wallets as of writing. The author also points to Bonsai and T2 World as early attempts to tie tipping and token rewards to attention, and notes that such blips, from NFT royalties and Degen tips, have not sustained.
- Actively Validated Services
Dco.Build presents EigenLayer's Actively Validated Services (AVSs) as a major step in the evolution of Web3, which it compares to the "AWS moment" that cut server costs for internet startups. The article argues that setting up a decentralised network from scratch requires finding validators, attracting stake, and building security infrastructure, much as internet startups did before AWS. It says EigenLayer addresses this by providing a pool of operators who can secure new networks with established assets such as ETH and LSTs, rather than requiring each network's own token to be staked. The article also notes that EigenLayer is a set of smart contracts on Ethereum, which it describes as a reliance it considers secure.
- Trusted Enclaves
Trusted Execution Environments are isolated, encrypted areas within a device's main processor that keep code and data confidential even if the main operating system is compromised, and the article presents them as a way to bridge blockchains' limits. Apple's Secure Enclave, which handles FaceID, is one example, and Intel, AMD, ARM, Qualcomm and Nvidia also offer TEEs. Blockchains have limited processing power, with Ethereum blocks produced every 12 seconds and holding at most 2 MB, and they lack native privacy. Remote attestations, cryptographic reports signed by genuine TEE hardware, can be posted on-chain so smart contracts can verify that trusted code is running.
- How To Build Product-Community Fly Wheels
The article argues that founders should build community around their most engaged users to scale, using Roby John's decade of work at SuperGaming as the example. Roby began by flying under the recognised IP of Backflip Studios, whose 2012 investment gave his then-named June Software access to popular intellectual property, and later in 2013 Hasbro acquired 70% of Backflip for $112 million. For MaskGun, which reached close to 60 million downloads by 2022, Roby personally spoke with thousands of users, and that feedback led to in-game features such as custom skins and an in-game marketplace.
- Infinite Worlds
Decentralised.co argues that autonomous agents, software entities that act independently in response to their environment, will increasingly embed themselves in gaming and on-chain finance. The article points to open-world game NPCs as a precedent, noting that Ubisoft has tested generative AI for character scripts while humans still design core story arcs. It also cites a claim that half of all Gnosis chain transactions were carried out by an AI agent in September 2023, and describes Olas Networks' tools and ElCollectooorr, which collects ArtBlocks artworks for a group's vault. The article concedes that it has not seen live agents as capable as human gamers.
- Mapping The New Internet
Blockchain networks will need on-chain identity, much as the internet did, because market incentives drive Sybil attacks and retail applications face regulations requiring more user information. Current identifiers such as wallet addresses, NFTs and wallet labels from Degenscore and Nansen are weak, since wallets can be created with a click and NFTs show little about their holders' accomplishments. Vitalik Buterin proposed soulbound tokens, which are non-transferable and must be accepted by the user, so issuers such as universities and attesters can verify a claim, such as a claimed job at McDonald's.
- Are protocol fees sustainable in the long term?
The article examines whether the Fat Protocol Thesis, which Joel Monegro wrote in 2016 and which holds that a protocol's value will exceed the combined value of the applications built on it, holds up, and argues that protocol fees are not reliably sustainable. It says applications often earn more fees than protocols: Uniswap and OpenSea have made nearly $2.8 billion because of high monetary velocity and enforceable take rates. The author notes that Compound has over 212k individuals holding its tokens outside an exchange, while about 2k used it for a loan in the last month. It also argues that raising take rates on protocols can break network effects unless the use case justifies the cost.
- Money Moves
Joel argues that the internet and crypto are both transactional systems, and that falling transaction costs will reshape business models, with stablecoins as the clearest example so far. He notes that Google's ad revenue rose from $70 million in 2001 to $133 billion in 2019, as ad networks extracted value from user attention because payments were hard for users. Stablecoin supply grew from $500 million in January 2019 to $220 billion today, and Tether and Circle generated a combined $24 million in fees in the last 24 hours. Joel also concludes that traditional card networks still lead on capital velocity, which he attributes to entrenched network effects rather than technological superiority.
- Going Institutional
ZKsync is presented as a crypto-native project that could serve institutions through its Prividium private chain, which keeps transactions confidential with ZK proofs while still settling to Ethereum. The article argues that this middle position among privacy, control and public liquidity is its core thesis, but it calls that thesis unproven. It compares ZKsync with Canton Network, which it describes as a permissioned chain using Daml that relies on trust by policy. It says ZKsync's Prividium deployments have early institutional interest, though the article notes that interest has not yet converted into paid production deployments.
- Vertically Integrated Capital Aggregators
The article argues that in crypto, protocols that integrate vertically, combining liquidity, users and distribution within one venue, build moats that are hard to compete against, and that capital-dense businesses are where value accrues. It cites Hyperliquid, whose builder code fees made up only about 6% of its roughly $1.1 billion cumulative revenue, with most revenue coming from its native front end. By contrast, on Ethereum aggregators account for 36% of DEX trades, while Uniswap has about $5.5 billion in lifetime fees. The author also notes that roughly $1.7 billion was stolen from DeFi and crypto protocols over the trailing twelve months, against about $3.42 billion in protocol revenue.
- Beyond Stablecoins
Stablecoins are presented as a strategic extension of dollar dominance, with Washington wagering that regulated, fully backed tokens can create new demand for US Treasuries as traditional buyers retreat. The GENIUS Act, still awaiting a Senate vote, would require stablecoin issuers to buy T-bills, and it follows an executive order by President Trump to promote dollar-backed stablecoins worldwide. This is compared with the Eurodollar system, which reached a $50 billion market by 1970 and let the US sanction actors through correspondent banking.
- The Inevitability of MEV
The article argues that MEV, profit extracted by reordering, including, or excluding transactions within a block, is an inevitable feature of blockchain markets that should be reduced or distributed rather than eliminated. It cites MEV extraction doubling from $550 million in 2021 to $1.1 billion in 2024, with Ethereum responsible for roughly 75% of extraction to date and sandwich attacks making up 66% of its MEV volume over the last 30 days. The article describes Ethereum's move toward Proposer-Builder Separation, with Flashbots' MEV-Boost used by over 90% of Ethereum validators as of early 2025, as a way to spread MEV opportunities more broadly.
- Mergers & Acquisitions
Crypto is entering a new mergers and acquisitions wave as venture funding declines, and acquisitions will probably make more sense than fresh funding rounds, according to Joel. Crypto venture funding fell over 70% from its 2021 peak, and monthly VC inflow dropped from $23 billion in 2022 to $6 billion in 2024. Recent deals include Coinbase's $2.9 billion Deribit deal, Kraken's $1.5 billion purchase of NinjaTrader and Ripple's $1.25 billion acquisition of Hidden Road. Joel also points to Google's 2005 purchase of Android as an earlier example of a strategic bet.
- Sustainability and revenue sharing in crypto
The article argues that revenue will be a defining feature of crypto tokens, and that projects need real cash flow to keep token holders engaged amid roughly 40 million competing tokens. It sorts crypto projects into lifecycle stages (Explorers, Climbers, Titans and hype-driven projects) and says each stage offers different room for sharing revenue with token holders through buybacks or dividends. Examples include Curve and Arbitrum One as Climbers and Ethereum, Tether and Circle as Titans. The article also notes that Token Terminal counts only 29 projects generating over $10M in revenue, and that premature revenue-sharing can increase volatility in speculative projects.
- How Web3 products make money
Joel John argues that as crypto valuations fall and venture funding declines, Web3 teams will need to source revenue directly from users through transaction fees, and that tokenized teams will then have an incentive to run buyback-and-burn models. He cites Polymarket and UMA, where a 0.10% bond on a $1 billion bet would translate to $1 million in revenue, and MetaMask, where swap revenue exceeds $300 million on about $36 billion in volume. He notes that Kaito buys back tokens at twice the rate of new emissions using cash flow from enterprise customers, while Ronin directs part of its fees to its treasury during peak usage. He also says that for most early-stage protocols, buybacks are probably not the best use of capital.
- Does Crypto Matter?
Crypto is argued to be a Coasian technology whose value lies in reducing transaction and trust costs rather than causing dramatic disruption like AI or rockets, using the Ford and Toyota histories as analogies. The article says Bitcoin has reached a trillion-dollar market value and has its own ETF, while total stablecoin supply has grown from $500 million to $168 billion. It attributes stablecoins' speed and low cost to Ethereum providing trust comparable to the institutions fiat transfers rely on. It concludes that crypto will change the world in its own way, helping train LLMs, enable AI agent payments, and speed up network formation.
- The WBTC Drama
Control of Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) moved toward BiT Global after BitGo announced a partnership on 9 August 2024, raising centralisation and security concerns. Under the arrangement, BiT Global was to control two of three keys in WBTC's multisig wallet, and a later proposal said BitGo would keep two keys, though concerns about Justin Sun's involvement persist. BiT Global cited Hong Kong's 20% shareholder limit, but all five listed shareholders share one British Virgin Islands address. Falling minting and redeeming fees are presented as a likely reason for BitGo's decision, and tBTC from Threshold Network is offered as a trust-minimised alternative.
- Pushing Boundaries of Trust
The article, a Dco.Build breakdown by Joel of intersubjectivity and EigenLayer's ecosystem, argues that EigenLayer expands the boundaries of decentralised trust, with restaking letting the same staked ETH secure multiple Actively Validated Services (AVS). It states that about 28% of circulating ETH, or 34 million ETH, is staked by Ethereum validators, and that EigenLayer has around 4.7 million ETH, or about $12 billion, locked for restaking. Using an illustrative example, it says a 1% additional AVS yield at a $600 billion market cap with 50% of ETH staked would add about $3 billion annually for validators. The article also notes that slashing is not yet live for AVS.
- Abstracting Chains - Fixing Crypto Ux
Crypto's fragmentation across hundreds of blockchains creates a clunky user experience that limits its appeal to the mainstream, and chain abstraction is presented as the remedy. DefiLlama tracks at least 300 live chains and L2 beat tracks over 80 upcoming ones, and the true count is likely higher. The proliferation is attributed to financial incentives, sovereignty over blockspace and tokens, distribution advantages, cheaper chain infrastructure, and ongoing experiments, with the claim that all signs point to a world of thousands of chains.
- The Power of Aggregation
Layer3, a crypto questing platform founded in 2021 by Brandon Kumar and Dariya Khojasteh, is presented as an emerging aggregator that uses protocol tokens to reward users for exploring new products. Layer3 reports 4.5 million wallets that completed 100 million quests and drove close to 120 million on-chain actions from users in 120 countries. Applying Aggregation Theory, the claim is that native tokens will become the main distribution spend in crypto, noting that the top twenty blockchain ecosystems held over $25 billion in treasuries as of June 2024.
- Frame This
Farcaster's Frames, which let users mint NFTs and use on-chain apps inside their feed, are credited with driving recent growth, with peak daily active users near 42k compared with about 2.5k a few weeks earlier. Web3 social networks will not replace Twitter, the text argues, because they succeed mainly as commerce for on-chain power users rather than as content sources. As evidence, Sumit's Outcasts NFT collection of 400 pieces sold out and generated about 15 ETH in primary sales, with many buyers finding it on Farcaster.