Why 99% of Innovation is Garbage | Q&A

1. If the price of crypto assets skyrockets, will it attract more and more talent into this field, leading to explosive innovative applications? Does that make sense?

The skyrocketing of crypto assets will definitely attract more and more people into this field. However, among these people, there are both talents and investors, as well as speculators. I am quite skeptical about how many of them can create explosive innovative applications.

I believe that those who can truly create explosive innovative applications in this field are driven by interest, passion, enthusiasm, or even a sense of mission.

This is almost the case in every field.

When Jack Ma founded Alibaba, he hoped to connect China with the world and provide new opportunities and platforms for small and medium-sized enterprises.

When Larry Page and Sergey Brin created Google, they believed they could improve the search experience and provide more accurate search results.

When Vitalik created Ethereum, he aimed to create a blockchain platform with Turing-complete functionality.

When OpenAI was founded, it aimed to develop artificial intelligence that would benefit all of humanity before the internet giants could.

……

There are countless such examples.

The protagonists in these examples all faced skepticism, ridicule, and confusion in the early stages.

None of them started their dreams because the internet, blockchain, or artificial intelligence could immediately bring them visible economic benefits at that time.

They all bravely ventured into uncharted territories driven by their inner pursuits, ideals, and enthusiasm, ultimately creating one disruptive application after another.

2. Do you still have a positive outlook on the Magic project transitioning to zkSync Layer 2?

I do find it a bit hard to understand Magic's switch to developing its own Layer 2 on zkSync. I think using Arbitrum's tech stack to create a ready-made Layer 2 extension would be more convenient and efficient.

Perhaps this project has ideas or plans that are currently inconvenient to disclose.

Recently, this project has performed quite mediocre; it's neither good nor bad. I have kept its tokens and haven't sold them.

3. After seeing so many so-called innovations, 99% of them are garbage.

This phenomenon is actually quite normal; it is the law of nature.

In any field, the vast majority of projects are just also-rans; in any group, most people are followers; in any ecosystem, most species are at the bottom of the food chain.

Many times, finding true innovation among a pile of projects is not much different from searching for a needle in a haystack: 99% of the time, it involves tasting bitterness and swallowing the bitter fruit, but when that 1% chance of finding the needle arises, the sense of achievement is something that most people will never experience in their lifetime.

To taste the sense of achievement of standing at the peak, one must endure the fear of falling into the abyss.

4. Are there any projects that can be mined at home using a regular laptop?

In the crypto ecosystem, it can sometimes be difficult to see where a project's advantages lie, but it can be easier to spot its flaws.

For example, the mining mentioned in this comment.

If a project can be mined using a regular computer and the mined assets can be sold for money, it means there are no technical barriers or participation thresholds, allowing everyone to participate and make money.

If such a project is not a Ponzi scheme, it will eventually turn into a scenario where all participants are desperately buying computers to mine, leading to a situation where only those with more computers can truly make money—turning the project into a pure financial game.

For such projects, ordinary retail investors generally do not have much need to participate.