This year, I've had a very strong feeling that there's a lack of innovation in the industry. Almost all the "recognized" products being built are essentially "casinos," as if only such products generate real revenue. So much so that when I chat with friends who want to start businesses in the industry, I even suggest they think in the direction of "building a casino." This feeling has been quite disappointing. What happened to the crypto-punk spirit? What happened to changing the global financial landscape? How did it all end up as a "casino"? Frankly, the percentage of idealists in this circle has decreased, even at the dev level (of course, this is partly due to the booming development of Web2 AI). Participants have quickly become more realistic, mixed with more nihilism than before. There are many, many smart people, so extreme "traffic chasing," "upward networking," "PVP," and "packaging" are all on full display. But then again, has the global financial system changed as a result? The answer is "yes." Has BTC become a national-level reserve asset? Has ETH's L1+L2 architecture begun to support RWA assets? Have stablecoins already changed many people's payment methods? We might feel that everything in cryptocurrencies seems to be "parasitic" on real-world finance—a point I raised at the beginning/middle of the year. But if we look at it from another angle, does this directly prove the value of cryptocurrencies? Or, going further, is this just a transitional phase in the development of cryptocurrencies? Change itself isn't "complete negation," but rather "integration and innovation." And steadfast idealists still exist. BTC The internet continues to evolve, involving concepts like "privacy," "decentralization," "quantum resistance," and "functional expansion." Many of Vitalik's seemingly criticized "lack of Product-Market Fit" ideas are precisely validations of idealism. As for the criticized "casino nature," it seems to have always existed, previously considered a representative of "scams." The deviation from real-world projects stems from the "accelerated lifecycle," making them appear "abnormal," lacking value discovery through Product-Market Fit and rapidly declining without support. However, most projects are inherently valueless; gold panning yields mostly worthless sand, with gold being a minority. I feel this is more of a phase of "left-wing or right-wing" shifts, a cyclical movement between narrativeism and casino business, compounded by the dilemma of gradually improving infrastructure and a lack of explosive new technology development. But I still hope more people embrace the "later approach: proving themselves right." This might be interpreted as "self-gratification" after making money, but it will more or less increase the force on the other side of the seesaw. #BTC #Crypto