Your attention is the most expensive commodity in Web3

'We think we are playing chain games, flipping airdrops, participating in DAO governance, but in reality, we are algorithmically conditioned 'attention miners', unconsciously mining a resource more precious than Bitcoin — our own life span.'

1⃣ From 'attention economy' to 'neural colonization': The ultimate evolution of attention plunder

Traditional internet giants extract user attention through ads, while Web3 has invented a more covert exploitation paradigm: wrapping attention as 'labor', then exchanging it for financial symbols.

StepN requires users to run to earn tokens, turning movement into tradable computing power;

Galxe guides users to complete dozens of tasks to receive credentials, turning behavioral data into an on-chain resume;

http://Friend.tech prices social interactions based on the rise and fall of Keys, with emotions being financially quantified in real-time.

When 'X to Earn' becomes the standard template, human walking, socializing, creating, and even daydreaming are redefined as exploitable attention mines.

2⃣ Dynamic pricing trap: How attention is refined into 'derivatives'

Unlike the brute interruption of traditional ads, Web3 has built a sophisticated attention financial engineering system:

Fragmented plunder:

'Flipping airdrops' requires users to perform mechanical operations such as cross-chain, staking, and liking daily, slicing continuous time into quantifiable 'behavior fragments'.

Debt cycle stimulation:

The 'points system' kidnaps current behavior with promises of future returns — you endure tedious tasks simply because you believe the discount rate of your attention will double in a bull market.

Volatility addiction:

Attention yields are tied to token prices, and users, in pursuit of soaring 'labor returns', actively extend the hours spent mining their own attention.

The harsher truth is: The 100 hours of attention you spent on a DApp might ultimately lead to token zeroing out, while the project team has already completed VC financing with your active data.

3⃣ Neurocapitalism: When your brain cells become MEV

In the Ethereum dark forest, miners intercept value through transaction frontrunning (MEV). In the neural jungle of Web3, a new type of MEV (Mind Extractable Value) is emerging:

Behavioral oracle analyzes your speaking frequency on Discord, predicting your probability of participating in the next IDO;

Attention leverage uses the title of 'early contributor' to entice you to promote projects for free, turning your social capital into protocol cold start fuel;

Neural arbitrage:

Project teams know you're tired of doing tasks, so they launch 'automated mining scripts' — you pay Gas fees to purchase a bot, thinking you've freed your hands, but in reality, you've given away even your 'self-exploitation rights'.

4⃣ The excised 'deep attention': On-chain degradation of human cognitive ability

Stanford research finds that Web3 users switch wallet interaction pages an average of every 2.7 minutes. When the brain is conditioned to be a reflexive reward chaser:

Deep thinking is systematically punished:

Users who spend three days studying white papers earn far less than scientists who batch-flip airdrops;

Animal spirits dominate decision-making:

Community governance has devolved into emotional voting, with token fluctuations dictating judgments on technological routes;

Creativity depletion:

Artists cater to the preferences of NFT speculators, repeatedly producing financialized memes, with vanguardism giving way to liquidity.

5⃣ Anti-exploitation guide: Three forms of resistance to reclaim attention

True decentralization should start with freeing the brain:

Beware of the rhetoric of 'financialization of labor':

Refuse to fit essential human activities like reading, socializing, and creating into the 'earning coins' framework;

Practice attention sovereignty:

Use cryptographic tools to block on-chain harassment ads (e.g., Farcaster clients blocking token promotion frequencies);

Establish a neural firewall:

Daily mandatory offline for 3 hours to rebuild the neural circuits of deep thinking in the physical world.

Conclusion: More precious than freedom is the right to daydream

When Satoshi Nakamoto created Bitcoin, perhaps he never anticipated that this technology born to combat centralized exploitation would eventually give rise to an even more extreme neural exploitation system. When on-chain behavioral data becomes more sought-after than crude oil, and when our anxieties and dopamine are refined into K-line charts, it's time to initiate an 'attention liberation movement.'