An underrated skill for crypto builders is figuring out how to design campaigns that are loss-leader in nature but not farmable/bottable. For example, a physical trading card protocol could temporarily allow players to rip packs for positive expected value; it allows the team to surprise and delight, and lowers the activation energy to anyone interested in the product, without being farmable (user has to take physical delivery and sell on secondary, too much work for most farmers). A loss-leader campaign that isn't bottable is great because it can be openly advertised without impacting the efficacy of acquiring real users. Everyone in crypto likes to cite Uber subsidizing rides in the early days, but riders were still spending money and consuming rides. Reward campaigns should lower the activation energy for real consumers without being so lucrative that they induce mercenary users. I believe it is extremely worthwhile for every crypto builder to figure out what this means in their case.

Happy New Year! I hope that 2026 is a year of significant personal growth for you. For the Monad Ecosystem and the Monad Foundation team, 2026 will be a year to face tough challenges head-on and grow substantially in capability from them. At the end of next year, my goal is for crypto to be substantially more relevant in global markets, commerce, and capital formation, and for Monad's technology and builders to have played a huge part in that.