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Building in DeFi sucks! Andre complains in a post: Don't want to be a developer without a "M" mindset!

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Building in DeFi sucks! Andre complains in a post: Don

Andre Cronje, one of the most iconic developers in the DeFi space, has always been known for his outspoken nature, occasionally venting his emotions through articles on Medium. On February 29, 2020, Andre Cronje published an article titled "Building in #DeFi sucks" where he complained about the conflicts and ICO fundraising behaviors among projects in the field, which he found very unfriendly to innovation.

Just yesterday, Andre Cronje once again released an article titled "Building in defi sucks part 2," where his choice of words was even more radical, almost fully exposing all the pent-up frustrations he has harbored in the industry.

Andre Cronje's Complaint

Andre Cronje stated that the time required to develop a project is longer than most people think. Ninety percent of ideas will ultimately fail. Developers may need to spend months or even years to build what you think can be completed in just a few weeks.

However, developers in the DeFi space endure immense pressure from the community every day. Thousands, even tens of thousands of people, are constantly shouting on Twitter, Discord, or Telegram communities, demanding "When will it be released?" "Why hasn't it been released yet?" "Give us project updates!" Along with many obvious malicious messages. What is even more unacceptable is that these community members demanding progress are not actually interested in using the new services the project is building; they just want to add some upward momentum to the tokens they hold. Even if you complete the development, they will continue greedily shouting, "When is the next update?" "What are you going to build next?" "Give us updates quickly."

"No one is really waiting for your development; they are waiting for 'price action events.' They actually don't want to use your product; they just want to use the 'narrative' of your product to make money."

In the DeFi space, actual users are scarce; most people only use these protocols for "yield farming" or in hopes of obtaining tokens with appreciation potential. Andre Cronje mentioned that if you were to remove the tokens from the protocol today, eliminate the token economy from the liquidity mining mechanism, competitors would use this to copy your code and introduce token economics. A week later, their users would be twice yours. Without economic incentives, innovation would not be valued.

When tokens appreciate, it is the community and pump-and-dump traders who benefit. However, if it fails, everyone will blame you. Andre Cronje angrily stated that unless you are a masochist, do not become a developer in this field. It's better to be a trader of junk coins, chatting all day in Telegram groups, posting junk tweets, harassing development teams for updates. If your pump-and-dump succeeds by chance, your influence will further increase. If it fails, blame the development team. Why bother being a developer who can't make money (or doesn't make any money) and bears all the responsibility and risk?

Uniswap Team Member Gives Advice but Ends Up in Hot Water

In response to Andre Cronje's complaints, Uniswap's Chief Growth Officer Ashleigh Schap shared some thoughts on Twitter.

She advised Andre Cronje not to attempt a "fair launch" for token issuance; not allocating tokens to oneself is the biggest failure, as project development inevitably requires funding. On the other hand, Ashleigh Schap also suggested collaborating with venture capital firms. Compared to the community, venture capital firms have more funding and resources to support project development, provide good advice, and do not exert as much development pressure as the community.

Furthermore, Ashleigh Schap pointed out that one of Andre Cronje's complaints was that people would copy his product, yet Yearn chose to partner with Sushi. When a major project partners with a copycat, it only encourages this behavior. However, this statement unexpectedly sparked dissatisfaction among other community members. Yearn's core developer banteg commentedunder the tweet:

"The reason Yearn partnered with Sushi is that Uniswap seemed to have no interest in building a developer community over the years. Your operational model is to develop in a secretive environment and occasionally release high-quality versions, which I can accept, but I don't know how this approach leads to innovation."

Additionally, prominent cryptocurrency researcher Hasu also commented on this:

"It's rare to see official comments from Uniswap on Sushi; evidently, they all believe Sushi is a 'plagiarized junk clone' that the community should avoid."

Hayden Adams quickly responded to Hasu's tweet, stating it was his personal opinion and does not represent the team's stance!