Gogol-Style Crypto: A Farce of Pay and Promise

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Stability in a venture, especially one that shouts into the void of cyberspace, can be found only where real utility knocks on the door; and incentives must march in step with genuine risk and long-suffering value, not with glittering coins that vanish like smoke.

Buterin Warns Against the “Pay Users or Fail” Growth Strategy

In a dimly lit corner of the modern agora-the internet, as they call it-a certain Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, presides over a debate thicker than a farmer’s ledger. The jesters of the crypto theater insist that to summon crowds one must sprinkle coins like bread crumbs; yet Vitalik, with the gravity of a clerk who has seen too many ledgers, whispers that such broad payments produce a feverish flutter in the market but rarely a sturdy harvest.

He argues that invitations based on gold coins drawn from up-front takings may rouse activity, but without long-lived purpose the crowds drift away as if they were geese summoned by a trumpet and then released to wander the marketplace in search of something to nibble.

A Curious Distinction Between Sustainable and Unsustainable Rewards

He draws a line between benefits that endure and those that vanish with the day’s end. Supposing one pays certain users out of revenue collected from others, one may keep a respectable economic loop-token flows mimicking the old bazaars where profits feed growth. But this is not a recipe for a lasting republic of apps; it is a temporary carnival ride that requires ever more coins to keep the horses churning.

My first reaction to this was:

“And that’s why I just received a modest sum of tokens, enough to buy a loaf of rye and perhaps a lamp for the father’s desk, now that Fileverse has grown and my old man, who once wrote deeds on parchment, now wires me notes from the future.”

My second reaction to this was:

“I see how this makes sense from a practical standpoint, like a ledger that balances itself with the sound of coins.”

The CEO, as the newspapers would call him, believes that an early handshake with rewards can be reasonable. Liquidity providers must bear the risk of hacks or the project’s misfortune-cunning new protocols bring both perils and temptations. In such cases, rewards serve as compensation for stepping into these fog-laden waters.

As audits sharpen and the public’s trust grows, the fog lifts and the risk recedes. Then, a heavy purse of rewards becomes unnecessary. But this is not to be confused with the simple expedient of paying users to churn activity.

He warned that paying all users in the cradle of growth may plant trouble later. Teams should not assume the profits of tomorrow will cover the spend of today. When the coins stop clinking, so too does the crowd, for many joined only for the shine and have little reason to stay when the shine fades.

Aggressive Reward Campaigns Risk Weakening Crypto Communities

Campaigns that pay people to post about the project tend to produce a harvest of cheap words rather than honest thoughts. The content becomes a parade of remunerations; when the payments end, the parade thins and the stage becomes a lonely sutra of empty pages. Even those who linger often do so for the sake of the money rather than for genuine affection for the thing itself.

In DeFi, capital remains capital; on social platforms, quality and lively souls count more than numbers. The steadfast community members, it seems, need not constant coins to sustain them. They build tools, write manuals, and answer questions in forums without the promise of rewards, enriching the project with a gravity that even the stiffest novelist could envy.

In Vitalik’s view, an effective incentive counters the early weaknesses of a fledgling product. But as those weaknesses fade, the coins should recede as well. Aggressive campaigns that buy attention merely to inflate numbers can create the illusion of adoption while neglecting to craft a living, breathing family of users.

“The bulk of the effort should be on making an actually-useful app. This was historically ignored, because it’s not necessary for narrative engineering to create a speculative bubble. But now it is necessary.”

Vitalik wrote that crypto is slowly moving toward models born of real utility, not of reward-led growth. The sturdy incentives are ones that ease early burdens and gently disappear as maturity dawns.

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2026-02-13 13:13