Written by: Bryan Daugherty
Translated by: Block unicorn
For over a decade, discussions around blockchain have been shackled by an old cliché: "Price matters."
Their argument is simple: unless developers can bet on the future price of tokens, they won't develop. They claim that speculation is the "engine" of innovation.
This is not only wrong—but completely inverted.
History clearly shows: foundational technologies are not built on the illusions of speculation; they are forged in the crucible of utility. Prices follow capability, not the other way around. Edison did not sell "lightbulb coins" before perfecting the filament. Noyce did not issue "chip tokens" to fund integrated circuits. Cerf and Kahn did not mint "ARPANET NFTs" to drive the development of TCP/IP.
They built because their utility was undeniable, the problems were urgent, and the demand was real. Only after these systems operated at scale in the real world could their financial benefits be realized.
The "price matters" camp in cryptocurrency has inverted this model. They use price as an incentive, hoping utility will follow. The results are evident: hollow hype cycles, fleeting adoption, and fragile ecosystems.
Every leap in modern infrastructure tells the same story. The power grid did not arise from bets on "watt tokens," but to provide reliable, scalable electricity to entire cities and nations, funded by serious, long-term investments in physical infrastructure, not by retail speculators.
Integrated circuits broke the "digital tyranny" in electronics, driven by explicit demands from NASA and the Department of Defense. Chip prices fell from $32 to $1.25, not due to speculation, but because the technology proved itself indispensable.
The internet? It was built to withstand nuclear attacks and connect research networks, not to fill anyone's crypto wallets. The internet was entirely funded by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), and commercial use was illegal for years. The protocols we rely on today were born without a single speculative asset.
The lesson of every era is the same: capability comes first, then financialization.
In the blockchain space, lasting value does not stem from betting on volatile charts. It comes from providing legitimate, scalable public infrastructure capable of handling billions of microtransactions daily and solving real-world problems.
If we measure success by speculation, we will build sandcastles. If we measure success by infrastructure, we will lay the foundation stones.
Why the "Price First" Model Fails
In every major technological revolution, the earliest and most steadfast supporters are not the speculators chasing quick returns, but the users demanding the highest standards, who will not tolerate any failures. In the blockchain space, this principle has been abandoned by those who advocate for a "token-first" strategy, and the cracks are evident.
Misaligned Incentives
When founders monetize early through token sales, the focus shifts from solving complex, systemic problems to hype cycles. This is not just a cultural flaw, but a structural one. Founders have a legal obligation to serve equity holders, not token holders. The result? Value capture is optimized at the company level, while network participants creating real utility are left holding volatile assets.
Short-Termism
Price surges reward ephemeral behaviors that may spike today but undermine sustainability tomorrow. Once these incentives disappear, the participation and value of protocols supported by inflated token rewards will collapse.
Market Distortion
When token price becomes the core metric, engineering roadmaps tend to favor things that spark speculation rather than enhance throughput, reduce transaction costs, or meet compliance requirements. The "blockchain frenzy" of 2017 proved this: companies released vague statements, their valuations soared with Bitcoin, only to evaporate within 30 days due to a lack of substantive progress.
User Friction
Products with high token thresholds force users to become speculators before they can become genuine users. They do not provide seamless, dedicated services but throw potential users into the market volatility of "pump and dump." This attracts gamblers rather than the long-term participants needed to sustain the ecosystem. Once airdrop miners and yield chasers leave, the entire L1 ecosystem can be hollowed out. Price may attract crowds, but it cannot build a foundation.
The Builder's Reality: Intrinsic Motivation + Direct Returns
Ask those who laid the internet backbone, designed database engines, or expanded blockchain infrastructure why they do it, and you will never hear "because I can speculate on tokens." They build to solve meaningful problems, earn the respect of their peers, and push the limits of possibility.
Open-source software proves this every day. Linux, Python, Apache, Kubernetes—these invisible arteries of the global economy, carrying trillions in value, were not born from speculative token sales.
Decades of open-source history clearly show: infrastructure that changes the world does not need tokens to survive; it needs to establish a direct link between the value created and the value captured.
Projects that can endure receive funding because they solve critical problems, not because they are in a hype cycle. In this model, returns stem from measurable impact, allowing builders to focus on performance, reliability, and application, which are the principles blockchain must follow for lasting development.
A Legitimate, Scalable Path Forward
If blockchain wants to move beyond its speculative adolescence, it must adhere to the same rigorous principles that built the internet, the power grid, and modern computing. These systems did not emerge by chance; they were built through thoughtful, systematic large-scale problem-solving.
It starts with a real, measurable problem, one with clear beneficiaries and definable outcomes. It is not a vague promise of "future potential," but an urgent, specific challenge that can be addressed today.
Success must be measured by utility metrics: cost savings, fraud reduction, operational efficiency—not by vanity metrics like "total locked value," which can inflate overnight due to liquid capital and just as quickly disappear. Important metrics are those that withstand market cycles and prove sustained value.
The path forward is not unknown. We have seen it in every transformative infrastructure of the past century. The question is not whether it is feasible, but whether blockchain has the discipline and focus to achieve it.
Conclusion
Price speculation is fleeting. Utility is enduring. If blockchain is to become a permanent, indispensable layer of the global economy, we must stop viewing token prices as the North Star.
Speculation will find its outlet; markets exist for that. As builders, investors, and policymakers, our responsibility is to ensure that speculation is backed by real, legitimate, and scalable support.
History will not judge us by the peaks of bull markets, but by the infrastructure we leave behind once the dust settles—those that withstand market cycles, serve billions, and provide globally scalable verifiable trust.
This is the future worth building. It is also the only lasting future.
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