Philosophy · 2026-08-12 · 8 min read
Shipping MVPs in the Age of Crypto
Venture capital is not the only way to finance software. Crypto introduces a strange new possibility: products can potentially create their own economic loops, where usage generates fees and those fees help finance the continued development of the product. This does not mean every product needs a token. Most do not. But for certain internet-native products, it may be worth experimenting with.
There has always been a financing problem in software. You need money to build the product. But you need the product to prove that it deserves money. That creates a strange loop.
Fundraise before building and you risk selling a vision nobody wants. Build before fundraising and you risk running out of money before anyone notices. Crypto creates another possibility worth experimenting with.
Instead of treating a token as the product, treat it as one component of an economic system around the product. The experiment becomes:
Can market activity help finance the software that creates the activity?
Ship something useful
Start with an actual MVP. Not a whitepaper. Not a roadmap with 47 features. Something people can use.
Create a community around it
Users become participants rather than simply customers.
Experiment with crypto-native distribution
A token can create a liquid, global coordination layer around an internet-native experiment. But the token should not be presented as guaranteed appreciation.
Generate legitimate fees
If the product creates real economic activity, fees can be generated.
Allocate fees toward the product
A clearly disclosed mechanism can route a portion of those fees toward development, infrastructure, marketing, research, and future experiments.
Measure what happens
Did people actually use it? Did revenue grow? Did the community contribute? Did the product become better? If not — kill it. If yes — ship the next version.
The token isn't the product.
The product is the product.
If the only reason people care is because they think the token will go up, the experiment has failed. The interesting question is whether crypto can help bootstrap products that otherwise wouldn't get built.