With countless new and emerging chains coming to market imminently, I’ve been thinking a lot about how the blockchain landscape will shape up. While its inherently difficult to speculate on things given a confluence of factors, I’ve found a simple question to be helpful:

What is the actual reason that people use one chain over another?

While this question appears to be simple, it is actually quite nuanced. Counterintuitively, I’d argue it is not because one chain has better DeFi apps. Most of the low hanging DeFi primitives have or will be picked across all chains going forward. Consequently, the user experience will be relatively indistinguishable. HyperEVM, Berachain, Monad, and MegaETH will all launch with a handful of spot DEXs, perps DEXs, lend/borrow apps and LSTs. While one breakout app can certainly result in some power-law in activity distribution, I struggle to name one truly differentiated