He who owns the customer captures the value In mature markets, the participant in the stack that is closest to the end user captures the lion's share of the value. We see it in finance, where brokers (frontends) like Robinhood or eTrade get the first proverbial "bite of the apple". The power comes from the ability to direct flows to market-makers. (Citadel pays over $2B/year in payment-for-order-flow (PFOF) agreements to retail brokers.) I saw it personally. As a high-frequency trader, I operated strategies that quoted miniscule spreads on government bonds to banks, who added a markup that was 5x+ of my spread before quoting those to their customers. Because they had the relationship with the customer, it was in their power to capture the majority of the spread the customer was ultimately willing to pay, while as a commodity service provider (just one of many HFTs quoting the bank) I had to quote as tightly as possible. We see the same pattern in retail, where the last mile seller (the physical store) marks up an item hundreds of percentage points from the cost to produce and transport it. For example clothing is typically marked up 100-500%. Tradeoffs and the unique opportunity for decentralized apps It'd be remiss to ignore the tradeoffs. In retail, a high markup on goods is offset by the cost of rent, labor to operate the store, risk of damage or theft, and inventory risk. And in the government bond world, it has taken banks decades to build up their client base, while building out a massive array of services and staffing their Sales & Trading desks 24/7 (not to mention treating customers to expensive dinners and perks). But technology makes it sometimes possible to build businesses that reach a global audience and capture a ton of users, while minimizing operational costs. I believe that decentralized apps have this possibility. I started my first job out of college in 2011 at an HFT firm called Getco. When I left two years later, I remember hearing about a startup called Robinhood that was trying to disrupt the brokerage space by offering a great UX and free brokerage fees. As a trader, the value prop made sense to me - why nickel-and-dime the customer when the more valuable thing was actually the ability to control where their flows get sent. (The value prop apparently also made sense to the CTO at Getco, who left around the same time and joined Robinhood as an advisor.) Fast forward to today and Robinhood is a $20B company that dominates the space of retail trading. Today, it is obvious that customer-centric businesses are one of the most valuable portions of the trading space. But at the time the incumbents were stagnant and there was an opportunity ripe for the taking. Apps in Crypto There is currently a feeling within crypto that infra gets all of the attention and funding. This situation seems ironic when considering the long-term equilibrium of mature markets, where user-centric apps capture substantial value and wield substantial leverage. Building a great app isn't easy. You need a killer idea. And then you have to master product, design, user aquisition, maybe even customer support. Nothing great is easy. But I would say, the opportunity is there. Keep Building.