Opinion: Building crypto products requires more creativity and less greed
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Opinion: Building crypto products requires more creativity and less greed
Excessive greed and short-sightedness can limit progress.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: Nick Tomaino
Translation: TechFlow
A small number of crypto applications—such as Coinbase, Uniswap, Opensea, and Polymarket—have already attracted millions of new users and genuinely advanced the industry by offering accessible, novel experiences. Now, after 15 years, we must ask: why haven’t there been more such applications?
The answer lies in short-term greed. An excessive focus on getting rich quickly has drawn many into the space, but it has also become a major distraction. From college students speculating on meme coins to venture funds pouring hundreds of millions into the 19th crypto exchange or the 27th scalable L1, this phenomenon is widespread. Greed is part of human nature, but excessive greed and short-term thinking limit progress. To achieve massive long-term success, one must believe in something more important than making money, commit for years, and ultimately enable entirely new behaviors the world has never seen before.
I’ve been investing in crypto for over a decade and, while driven by greed to some extent, I don’t claim to be morally superior. At 1confirmation, our approach is to attract newcomers through creative products that deliver long-term value. Projects focused solely on internal value extraction aren’t a fit for us. Our primary goal is for cryptocurrency users to exceed one billion—that’s the guiding principle behind all our decisions.
More Creativity, Less Greed
To fully realize the industry’s potential and reach one billion users as quickly as possible, we need more creativity and less greed. While another scalable L1 might help push a token’s FDV above $1 billion, insufficient block space isn’t currently the bottleneck to industry progress—creativity is what’s missing. We need more innovative thinking tailored to the world’s unique needs, rather than blindly chasing the next hot trend.
Below are some ideas for new applications combining crypto with news, social media, sports, politics, health, and music. Many of these are already being explored, but I believe they deserve even greater time and attention:
News. Prediction markets may at first seem like just another form of gambling, but on-chain markets allow anyone to bet on global events, generating valuable information that helps people better understand the world. Market prices, combined with objective analysis of political, military, and cultural events, can help news organizations earn the trust of truth-seekers worldwide.
Concept: Build a news application that combines prediction markets and AI to offer users a simple, fair, and reliable source of truth. Such a product could potentially replace social media platforms like X, as well as traditional news outlets like NYT and CNN.
Reference apps: Polymarket, DeepNewz
In social media, we’ve seen how a few centralized platforms (like Meta and X) wield enormous influence—shaping public opinion while often misaligned with user interests. In the future, superior products will emerge that align with users’ incentives and offer greater control and monetization opportunities.
Concept: Develop an on-chain social media app that gives users ownership of their data and explores new ways to earn.
Reference apps: Warpcast, Degen, Wildcard
In politics, blockchain technology is enabling new forms of social organization. Bitcoin was the first decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), and since then, we’ve seen numerous innovative experiments in on-chain ownership, voting, and capital formation. Each crypto community can be viewed as a digital nation—connected not by geography, but by shared beliefs and economic interests. This force is incredibly powerful.
Concept: Build an app that enables people to easily create on-chain DAOs for collaboration, voting, and investment decisions.
Reference apps: Bitcoin, Nouns.wtf
In sports, the sports industry—and how people engage with and watch sports—is rapidly evolving. While no breakthrough sports app has emerged yet, the future will bring more attempts to let athletes and fans own and capture value directly.
Concept: Create an app that allows young athletes to fully control their image and likeness by earning directly from fans.
Reference apps: Popset, Rodeo, Krause House
In music, for over a century, the music industry has been top-down and centralized. Crypto empowers artists with new tools to invent entirely new business models and disrupt the existing system.
Concept: Develop an app offering on-chain tools that enable independent artists to manage their careers without relying on record labels.
Reference apps: Sound.xyz, Coop Records, Catalog
In health, young people today care more about their health than ever before. There’s a pressing market need for products that incentivize and motivate individuals to maintain their well-being.
Concept: Build a “move-to-earn” app that’s resistant to manipulation and drives community engagement through novel design.
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