Early blockchain projects generally have grand visions, such as Ethereum's earliest world computer, and later the financial settlement layer and programmable layer; such as Ton's Open Network, etc. Of course, there is also the famous Web3.0 narrative. In 2017, it was said that it could replace Web2 and become the new generation of the Internet, and it was later replaced by the Web3 narrative. A grand vision means that everything can be done according to the dream, so many early projects such as IOTA and ICP, although they didn't know what they did or what they could do, were able to raise a lot of money and maintain a high market value. At that time, the market was very tolerant of such projects because of their grand vision. Who knows if the story of "Don't bully the poor young man" will happen?

As encryption becomes mainstream, the market has gradually discovered the limitations of Crypto. The projects are more practical and grounded, and the participants are more rational, so it is difficult to shout out a huge vision. Therefore, there are not many projects with visions after 21 years, and more are called narratives. In my opinion, narratives are more like a goal with a solution path proposed by a certain organization with a loud voice, which is realized by the project team. Whoever does it the fastest and best can enjoy the highest market premium. The most obvious example is the pursuit of EF in 2022 and 2023. EF called for Layer2 and ZK, and the market did Layer2 and ZK. EF called for abstract accounts, and a batch of projects came into being. This path has been very useful in the past two years because the market lacks bottom-up power. But this year, most of the projects chasing narratives died in narratives. On the one hand, the ETH price is not good, the profit effect is poor, and no one listens to what they say. On the other hand, many narratives are more like SaaS, patching up the existing infrastructure and making a little money, which is difficult to produce scale effects.

Recalling the past years, everyone wants to go back to the era of 2017 and 2021. It is a cliché that new leeks and new capital inflows are needed to attract the remaining funds. I think vision is a very important part. In 2017, everyone believed that Web3.0 could replace Web2.0. In 2021, everyone really believed that DEFI could change finance and the metaverse could change the entertainment industry. What do we believe in now? Is it MEME or ETF? New increments require new grand visions.