A Crypto Builder’s Perspective: Unveiling the 2024 Manifesto

As 2024 unfolds, I find myself reflecting on the wealth of experience I’ve accumulated since entering the blockchain industry in 2017. Having navigated through ecosystems like Near, Polkadot, Cosmos, and Ethereum, my journey also involved a thorough investigation with Coindesk to unveil evidence related to Terra fraud.

In 2021, I ventured into entrepreneurship, founding a company for building things better and witnessing firsthand how fraudulent crypto builders behaved amid a bull market. The revelations from this period were both enlightening and disconcerting, driving home the reality of the challenges that permeate this new and growing industry.

This manifesto is born from a synthesis of these experiences. It is an exposition aimed at illuminating the myriad challenges that loom over the crypto sphere in 2024, coupled with a forward-looking perspective that proposes innovative solutions.

The Challenges

1. Cult of Interoperability

The last bull cycle focused extensively on achieving interoperability among numerous blockchains, but did we genuinely try to deliver on that promise? Each interoperability project in the crypto space adopted a top-down approach, aiming to dominate the industry with self-proclaimed superiority and marketing that glorified their incompatible standards, despite the need to address real issues.

Many were lost in these contradictions, with bridges claiming to have solved the interoperability issue through nothing more than a mirage of technical jargon, ambiguity, and limited results. I recall a venture capitalist stating that the quality of technology is secondary to creating a cult-like following where everyone believes in whatever you’re doing. Today, numerous founders, lacking the ability to code their own projects and devoid of genuine contributions, thrive in this industry by engaging in networking events with cult-like followers, promoting false visions of their self-proclaimed “better” worlds.

Some VCs were just supporting what was current without due diligence, and then we had “sovereign” chains which made the biggest Ponzi scheme with little work on compatibility and distributing traffic to other blockchains. Their greed may have attracted capital inflow in the whole ecosystem, but the problem that they were self-proclaiming to solve remains unsolved.

2. Superficial Product Focus in Bull Markets

During bullish phases, core teams are focused on the aesthetics of their products rather than solving real-world problems. Tokenomics often prioritizes token sales over fostering sustainable token economy through circulation, and company cultures are marred by entitlement which they think are a higher order of a nation or something.

The workforce in these times is just filled with narcissistic frauds who just think they can use anything on their path to solving their problems to achieve wealth as well as carnivalizing other co-workers and resources. As a result, many projects just run away after the token sale and maintain the company for less than two years.

They never connect their digital assets to their services and make them circulate so that they can be responsible or improve their value as a utility currency. There is a definite use case in blockchain to improve traditional finance, and they are demoralizing honest builders by making Ponzi schemes.

The Solutions

1. Crypto Agnosticism is the Future

It is disheartening that some VCs build cults and exploit retail investors, collaborating with narcissistic founders who fancy themselves as crypto gods or wizards. Embracing agnosticism towards these crypto cults marks the beginning of genuine blockchain adoption. True blockchain innovation transcends cults, embracing standards that can mature the industry for widespread adoption.

A bottom-up approach is advocated for achieving interoperability. This manifesto calls for an end to unrealistic dreams of magically connecting all blockchains simultaneously and instead encourages respecting each chain’s system individually as it is then connecting from their interfaces one by one. Lumina, born from this perspective, aims to bring standardization to the bridge in the blockchain ecosystem.

Devs don’t need an image that glorifies themselves as cult leader to look at their chain as the next future of whatever. Interoperability should come with genuine effort to solve problems. Through Lumina, Standard Protocol aims to provide honest and reasonable services to its members regardless of what chain they use or believe in without caring if there is a god to give generational wealth or take people “to the moon”.

2. The Birth of Standard

Standard Protocol was created for this very purpose: to introduce reason and standards for growth. Currently, we are engulfed in a financial hell where daily life is dominated by financial pressures, soaring rents, escalating financial frauds, and unprecedented inflation due to quantitative easing. In their desperation, people are now willing to invest in anything a persuasive narcissist promotes.

If this turmoil is perpetual, then the concept of heaven is flawed. When the “angels” of traditional finance engage in questionable practices like Payment For Order Flow, Predatory Lending, Overcharging, and Hidden Fees, Front Running, yet continue to thrive, it’s clear that the rules only apply to those who conform. Non-conformists are left to suffer, only to be exploited once more in their rigged game.

In this landscape, Standard Protocol emerges as a beacon of hope for decentralized finance. Following three years of diligent research and experimentation with current monetary and financial systems, we have launched a fully decentralized order book exchange. This platform stands as a remedy to the issues plaguing dark pools and payment for order flow. The $STND token is ingeniously designed to ensure circulation, linked to memberships, and complemented by airdrops with every launch of a new project developed over the past year. The inclusion of new chain-agnostic projects into the Standard Protocol ecosystem, all unified under a single Standard membership, marks a significant milestone in our journey.

• Lumina: A chain-agnostic restaking bridge across blockchains.
• █████: An order book-based stablecoin.
• █████: An intent-centric digital asset bank to always provides a locally optimal interest rate.

Keep an eye out for updates on airdrops as we unveil new project launches within the Standard Protocol ecosystem.

Conclusion:

This 2024 manifesto advocates for a transformative approach in the crypto industry, urging a shift away from superficial trends towards genuine problem-solving and interoperability. It emphasizes the need for adopting crypto agnosticism and practical, real-world solutions to cultivate a more inclusive and trustworthy financial ecosystem. Our goal is to position Standard Protocol as a pioneering force, advancing the cyberpunk movement to revolutionize finance by tackling systemic issues and fostering a community-driven, equitable decentralized financial landscape.