TechFlow reports that Ethereum co-founder Vitalik said in an interview with Tencent's "Qianwang" that he is concerned if especially intelligent people stop working on crypto, then those remaining in the crypto space may not bring any interesting ideas—leading to a situation where the only applications are financial ones we've seen for years. That would reduce the industry to a repetitive cycle: launch a token, build an exchange; launch another token, build another exchange; launch yet another token featuring a cute dog—these things can be fun, but if they're all our industry produces, then our industry has failed. The challenge we face is creating applications that are both meaningful and widely appealing.
Regarding why the Ethereum and Web3 ecosystems still lack practical products, Vitalik explained that until this year, transaction fees were too high, key technologies hadn't matured, and account security and privacy issues remained unresolved. Therefore, until now, our industry hasn't had sufficient technical foundation to support applications accessible to ordinary users. One reason DeFi became the only successful application so far is because it offers higher financial returns. But now, finally, we're beginning to solve these problems. This year marks the best opportunity yet to build meaningful applications.
