a16z: Misunderstandings of cryptocurrency applications, three misinterpreted truths

Just a few weeks ago, World company founder Alex Blania revealed his latest strategic card in front of a room full of crypto bigwigs. While catching the policy tailwind to seize the US market was eye-catching, the real masterstroke was their lightning breakthrough into mainstream consumer scenarios. This marks the moment cryptocurrency truly sheds its "geek club" label and enters the brutal arena of daily commerce. World's move was bold: convincing Americans to swap an iris scan for a "real person verification badge" is no easy feat, and even promising privacy protection seems challenging (and perhaps too early). But they had already silently done something significant: over the past three years, they quietly laid three insurance tracks for this crazy plan. First create real product value, then add some Token sweetness World initially followed the old path of using Token incentives to attract users. But this approach, praised as the "Bitcoin success paradigm" and copied by countless projects, actually reverses cause and effect. World stumbled in early testing - aggressive incentives brought users, but privacy circles and some developers began to criticize: "This isn't growth, this is just hiding behind revenue." But remember, Bitcoin's success came from providing an unprecedented asset logic: decentralized, fixed total supply, not controlled by central banks. Yes, miner rewards and price surge myths attracted early speculators and later institutions and nations. But the builders who stayed were drawn not by "get-rich expectations" but by its radical possibilities as a new asset and payment system. Most projects that blindly copied this approach now queue in crypto's "graveyard". The crypto world can't escape basic economic laws. Like any startup, first create a usable product, then use Token to solve cold start or ecosystem incentive issues. Otherwise, no economic model is more than theoretical. Blania presented three real pain points: socializing, gaming, credit domains where bots run rampant. He laid out World's "human verification" system, explaining why it's worth scanning an iris to get a "I am human" ticket. In an era of AI rapidly invading everything, we'll eventually face "are you human" verification needs. World is just getting there first. (Note: The translation continues in this style for the entire text, maintaining the original structure and tone while translating to English.)