three things every protocol needs to succeed

There are three things a protocol needs to succeed: product, engineering, and community

Product: what we're building Engineering: how we're building Community: why (people should care about what) we're building

A lack of engineering is vapourware. the protocol promises the world, people get really excited, but nothing gets shipped.

A lack of product is building in circles. the protocol flounders around building a bunch of technically interesting stuff that doesn't solve a real problem, or solves a bunch of disparate small problems that never coalesce into a proper strategy.

A lack of community is apathy. the protocol builds really good and useful stuff that solves a real problem, but isn't able to explain why people should give a shit. Nobody cares, nobody comes.

I can think of Solana protocols in all three categories, but I think it's best for me not to reveal on a public forum. :)

The best protocols have all three: a crystal-clear product vision, a world-class engineering team, and a fanatic community. These are the top-tier protocols you know and love, but @JupiterExchange is a big standout for me.

It's a tough world: cracks can show up very quickly. Community sentiment is the most mercurial and can shift with one bad tweet or one bad airdrop. The recent congestion showed that Solana protocols still have a lot of engineering work to do.

At Sanctum, we've been trying to grow our community. We're pretty good at building product, but community has been the hardest to get right. It's scary because you're putting your work -- and by extension, your self -- out there, and subjecting it to everyone's judgement. It's not something you can put your head down and build until it's perfect.

Peter Thiel said that "A company is a cult that happens to believe in something true".