韭黄其实不太黄

Before the Industrial Revolution, weaving a beautiful piece of fabric was an extremely patient craft. A top artisan carefully holds the shuttle, interweaving independent threads over months or even years to complete a small tapestry. This process is slow, precise, and yields impressive results. But no one would foolishly imagine using this method to weave the curtain of an entire city.

This scene perfectly reflects the dilemma faced by blockchain technology in carrying the dreams of the metaverse. Early public chains are like skilled artisans. They handle independent transactions with unparalleled rigor and security, weaving each transaction like sturdy threads. This is more than sufficient for creating a financial certificate recording a transfer of billions. However, for constructing a virtual world tapestry that requires billions of threads to interact and intertwine in real-time, this workshop-style productivity becomes an insurmountable chasm.

We have all seen the orchids carefully cultivated in greenhouses. They are planted in specially designed pots filled with nutrient solution, with precise temperature, humidity, and light set by the gardener. They are incredibly delicate, beautiful, and fragile. Once they leave this pot, away from the gardener's care, they will immediately wither. Because they have never truly lived in an ecosystem, they are just exquisite exhibits passively receiving settings.

For a long time, the so-called lives we have created in the digital world, whether NPCs in games or basic AI companions, are like a pot of orchids in a greenhouse. They live in application pots that are carefully crafted by developers but isolated from each other. Their memories can be arbitrarily modified by developers; their existence will end with the shutdown of servers; they can never truly interact with the plants in another pot.

Imagine the culinary world of your city, dominated by a legendary but highly inefficient Michelin three-star restaurant. This dictatorial chef possesses extraordinary skills, and each dish is a work of art. However, his kitchen can only handle one order at a time, with each course strictly prepared in order from appetizer to dessert. As a result, reservations need to be made six months in advance, and the price of a dish is comparable to gold, plus you can only eat from the menu dictated by this chef. The culinary innovation of the entire city is in the hands of one person.

This suffocating scene is a true portrayal of the early blockchain world trying to carry the dream of the metaverse. The first generation of public chains, born for security and precision, operates everything in a rigorous yet rigid single-threaded mode, much like the kitchen of this dictatorial chef. They are well-suited for creating the expensive dish of financial transactions, but when the super feast of the metaverse, which requires simultaneously serving millions of fast food, desserts, and creative drinks, begins, this system immediately collapses.

Have you ever been to a world-class concert hall or opera house? Sitting in one, you will notice a wonderful phenomenon. Even without amplification, the slightest sigh on stage and the faintest pluck of a string seem to reach the ears of the audience in the last row clearly. This magic does not come from expensive microphones or sound systems, but from the extreme application of acoustic principles integrated into every wall and every inch of the dome from the very beginning of the architectural design.

Architects know that an exceptional experience comes from the invisible foundations and structures, rather than from equipment added later. Latecomers can fill an ordinary room with speakers and soundproofing foam, but that naturally formed sound field and resonance can never be replicated.

In our bodies, there coexist two completely different information systems. One is the endocrine system, which regulates important but slow life processes such as growth and metabolism by releasing hormones. It is precise, reliable, and has far-reaching effects, like sending an important letter by registered mail to ensure delivery, but never seeks speed. The other is the nervous system. It processes vast amounts of sensory information and coordinates each of our delicate movements at a speed we can barely perceive, using electrical signals and neurotransmitters. This is a system designed for real-time interaction, the foundation of life’s ability to think, run, and perceive.

In ancient mythology, humans once sought to build a tower that reached the heavens, the Tower of Babel. To stop them, God caused humanity to speak different languages. From then on, communication barriers arose, and the great project came to a halt.
In today's AI world, a modern version of the Tower of Babel story is unfolding. Google's AI, Meta's AI, Apple's AI, all are very powerful, yet they speak different 'languages' and live in high-walled gardens built of data and algorithms, unable to communicate and collaborate. They are powerful 'tribes', but not a unified 'civilization'.

Before the birth of modern nation-states, the world was made up of countless isolated city-states. Ancient Greece's Athens and Sparta, Italy's Florence and Venice, are typical examples. Each city-state had its own citizens, its own army, its own laws, and its own economic system.
Among the city-states, there was a constant low-intensity state of war over land, trade routes, and talent. They might establish temporary alliances, but more often it was filled with distrust and competition. This fragmented political landscape, while giving rise to brilliant civilizations, also brought about significant internal strife, making it difficult for them to unite their strength to face greater challenges.

Let's start with a basic biological question. When you have a small cut on your hand, you put a Band-Aid on it. This is effective. However, if a deadly flu virus invades your body, can you really solve the problem by putting a Band-Aid on your nose?
The answer is obviously negative. To deal with such systematic, complex invasions, what you need is a similarly complex, intelligent, and coordinated system, which is your body's immune system.
Today's DeFi world is still in that naive Band-Aid era when it comes to security and risk management. Each DeFi protocol is like an independent organ in our body. They each spend a lot of money hiring auditing firms, which is like putting an expensive Band-Aid on their organs. This method can defend against some of the simplest external scratches.

In ecology, there is a classic model that describes biological survival strategies, the r/K selection theory.
r strategists are synonymous with opportunism. For example, mice and dandelions. They follow a strategy of producing a large number of offspring in a short time without investing any resources in nurturing them. Their population size fluctuates dramatically with the fluctuations in environmental resources. When food is abundant, they experience explosive growth. When the environment deteriorates, they die on a large scale.
As K strategists, they are exactly the opposite. For example, elephants and oak trees. They invest enormous resources and carefully cultivate a few offspring over a long period of time. Their population size typically stabilizes near the upper limit of the environment's carrying capacity. They do not pursue short-term explosions but seek long-term, sustainable survival.

Let's first talk about a linguistic miracle, Creole languages.
Historically, when people from different language families, such as European colonizers, African laborers, and Indigenous peoples of the Americas, were forced to live together due to trade or historical reasons, they faced a huge communication barrier. They spoke completely different languages and could not understand each other. To address the most basic communication needs, they first developed an extremely simplified pidgin, called pidgin language.
But the miracle happened in the next generation. As children grow up in an environment where pidgin is spoken, their brains automatically and creatively supplement this rudimentary language with complex grammar, fixed tenses, and rich vocabulary. Thus, a brand new, fully functional language with native speakers was born, which is Creole language. It is not a simple imitation of any source language but a crystallization of fusion and innovation.

Let's not talk about cryptocurrency for now; let's talk about a bad trip.
Have you ever experienced a journey like this: to travel from your hometown, a third-tier city, to another equally unknown city to attend a friend's wedding? You open the ticket booking app and find that there are no direct flights or trains available. Your only option is a route that makes you question your life.
First, you have to take a two-hour bus ride to the provincial capital, then fly from the provincial capital's airport to a first-tier hub like Beijing or Shanghai, where you wait for a long five-hour transfer, and then take another flight to the provincial capital of your destination, and finally switch to a slow green train to barely arrive before the wedding starts.