Steven Johnson
@SJCatalyst
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Technical Architecture Manager - Project Catalyst @IOGroup Views=Mine
Joined April 2023
A CTO at a Web3 company proposes switching from AWS to decentralized storage. Cost savings: 30% reduction, censorship resistance, values alignment. CFO: "What will this cost in Q4?" CTO can't answer. Token moved 40% today. CFO: "Not budgetable.Stay with AWS." Deal dead. 1/9
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To be clear here the criticism here is of the Cloudflare blogs technical inaccuracy, they are the ones doing the handwaving. Not anyone else.
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The question every DePIN builder and investor must answer: Which two properties did you choose, and which one are you pretending you didn't sacrifice? Curious to hear from those building or investing in decentralized infrastructure. 8/9
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I'm not saying it's unsolvable. I'm saying I haven't found a system that's solved it. If you believe a system can deliver budgetable stability, credible decentralization, and a pricing unit that doesn't collapse into speculation then show how. 7/9
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The fundamental tension: The mechanism that builds the network (free-float attracts bootstrap capital) prevents the network from being used (volatility blocks enterprise budgeting). This is why we see amazing technology with minimal enterprise adoption. 6/9
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Why speculation always wins: Once tokens float freely, speculative volume overwhelms utility demand. A DePIN token with $10M/year in actual usage can have $100M+ daily trading volume. Price formation is dominated by traders, not infrastructure users. It's structural. 5/9
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THE CURRENT LANDSCAPE: Hyperscalers (AWS/GCP/Azure): Stability + Free-Float Enterprises love it Zero decentralization Most DePIN today: Free-Float + Decentralization Crypto natives love it Enterprises can't budget it Unsolved?: Stability + Decentralization 4/9
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A decentralized infrastructure network cannot simultaneously achieve: 1. Budgetable Price Stability (what enterprises require) 2. Free-Floating Token Value (what bootstraps the network) 3. Credible Decentralization (what makes it valuable) You can pick two. 3/9
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I've seen this pattern repeatedly: Strong DePIN tech → early crypto adoption → enterprise evaluation → procurement wall. Why does amazing technology keep losing to AWS? I believe there's a structural constraint: The DePIN Utility Trilemma. 2/9
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@MladenLm Appreciate you! @InputoutputHK deserves a lot of credit for the work they do. They truly embody the open source ideology and consider all opinions and input. I honestly think most entities would've not considered the input of a young college student. High level engineers from
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