Thread by @julianhosp

1/ Are you frustrated with @defichain at the moment?
Do you know people who are frustrated at the moment?
Keep on reading. Let me intro you to the concept of "The Messy Middle" - formulated by Scott Belsky.

2/ In any significant project (not tiny small ones), you start scrappy, fast, focus on outcomes, not processes, there is little to lose, lots to gain, lots of adventure, etc.

3/ If, and only if, a project actually gets traction, we all know where it needs to get to: stability, processes, predictability, etc.

4/ However, in between lies the "Messy Middle". It is the transition period, where debt from the startup phase has to be compensated. It is where structure needs to be built in. Where organization has to push flexibility aside.

5/ All successful projects have to go through this phase. No matter companies, blockchains, heck, even your hobbies, and relationships. Why do you think people pick up to play golf, or cycling, or running, but they never become excellent at it? Why do relationships get "boring"?

6/ It is because the early startup phase attracts a certain type of person: loves risk, the unknown, high rewards, action, change, excitement, the new, etc.

7/ Large companies, blockchains cannot operate that way, however. You can't have a group of tens of thousands of people turn on a dime. Long-term relationships require consistent work; otherwise, you start living apart.

8/ Turning a hobby of golf into a single handicap, requires tedious, brainnumming repetitions. It doesn't matter what we look at, we all know, only very few ever make it through this Messy Middle.

9/ Why is that? Because the people the "finished", long-term project attracts are almost the opposite of the early adopters: low risk, low upside, little excitement, high reliability, etc.

10/ And that is, what we are feeling at @defichain right now: We are moving from new exciting blockchain, to a long-term project. Cashflow is not 1000% per year anymore. Problems that early adopters were ok with, become the "big issues". Just like in any relationship.

11/ People without commitment move on to other newer projects, try their luck gambling, while forgetting, that 99% of all projects that start, never even get the chance to get to the Messy Middle. They die right at the start, just like most hobbies and relationships.

12/ But, they are attracted by the exciting new promises. By the unknown. However, those of us, that know where the REAL returns lie, know, that it is on the other side of the Messy Middle.

13/ It is by sticking it through. By painstakingly cleaning up with old issues, adding stability, being ok with the rotation of people (long timehorizon incoming, short outgoing), etc.

14/ So, the frustration you are feeling, is exactly this. It is the Messy Middle. It is the cleaning up. It is the change of people. It is the slightly slower pace in return for stability. It is all this, what makes a project actually sustainable.

15/ This is the phase the @defichain community is in right now. The community will come out the other side with, or without you. You simply have to choose, whether you are ok with the process. If not: sell & leave. If yes: hodl, buy, build, support, help.

16/ $DFI's Utility is stronger than ever. Lots of super exciting things coming up with Options, DeFiMetaChain, Onchain Governance, etc. #RoadTo50 is just as much on the horizon as in 2021. Nothing changed, except for your emotions. Let's fucking go!