Welcome back to The Breakdown with me, NLW.

It's a daily podcast on Macro, Bitcoin, and the Big Picture Power Shifts remaking our world.

What's going on, guys? It is Tuesday, February 6th, and today we are talking about whether

crypto can actually build useful things. Before we get into that, however, if you are enjoying

the breakdown, please go subscribe to it, give it a rating, give it a review, or if you want to dive

deeper into the conversation, come join us on the Breakers Discord. You can find a link in the show

notes or go to bit.ly slash breakdown pod. Hello, friends. Like I said, today's frame of reference is whether

crypto can be actually useful and whether the industry can build useful products. Now, this is, of course,

outside of Bitcoin and store value. You know how I feel about that. And what prompts it is both the story of

Farcaster, which we're going to get into in a little bit, but also a thread from Travis Kling of

Aikai Asset Management that went viral and clearly hit a nerve. Now, he framed his thoughts around

a thesis for the upcoming crypto cycle, which he called a lack of pretense that any of this

shit does anything or will

ever do anything. Travis started with an extract from his monthly update letter writing,

which brings me to my final thought about how 2024 might unfold. It appears to me that this

cycle is starting off with less pretense than prior cycles. I actually think there is

less expectation

this time around that any of this shit does anything or ever will do anything. That's not to say

there's not an expectation of much higher prices. That's not true at all. The general expectation

is for Bitcoin to hit all-time highs in the next year or so, and a bunch of alts to massively

outperform. The market is mostly taking that

as a given at this point. But it's making that assumption while also assuming it will happen

...