Nurturing a bustling yet vibrant marketplace—the third way beyond cathedrals and casinos

Nurturing a lively yet vibrant marketplace—A third path beyond cathedrals and casinos Today, I went out and happened to read an article titled “Don’t Let Casinos Consume the Cathedrals.” Jocy’s writing is excellent, and this is the most practically meaningful article I’ve read in 2026. When I read the part mentioning “Many Chinese teams raised only five to seven million dollars around 2023… such runway just supports over two years. Now, either they have lost reputation in the crypto industry or they are leaving,” I felt a strong resonance inside. I don’t know much about other teams’ specific situations, but UniSat’s two funding rounds in 2024 were roughly within this range. Whether in valuation or total funding, we’ve always kept a relatively conservative level. Compared to many Western projects with valuations in the billions and tens of millions of dollars in funding, there’s almost no comparison. But our choice has always been clear: regardless of whether the market is cold or hot, we adhere to a frugal, “small steps, small gains” low-power combat approach, focusing long-term on high-quality, efficient delivery, and continuously improving team weaknesses through practice. From the very beginning, we never considered “withdrawing” as an option. As Jocy pointed out, the reason why the crypto industry on the other side of the ocean can sustain development largely benefits from generations of pioneers investing long-term, systematically, and in layers—that is a true “cathedral-style” construction path. In contrast, the reality around us often shows the opposite: talent is hard to retain, long-term vision is lacking, and the industry gradually degenerates into a game of stockpiling; short-term greed intensifies, ultimately forming an irreversible vicious cycle. These phenomena are not isolated cases but a true reflection of current industry structural issues. As the article states: “When Web3 is reduced to a big casino, and the mainstream narrative shifts from ‘changing the world’ to pure wealth gaming, the best talents will vote with their feet.” Even the most optimistic builders have to admit: building a true “cathedral” has never been a one-day effort. But the problem is—if the cathedral is out of reach, do we have to accept the path of the “casino”? I don’t think so. Between these two, there is actually a long-overlooked third way. Between “relying on large-scale continuous investment” and “constantly withdrawing and fishing in dried-up ponds,” we can choose: to gradually build a low-power, lively, and thriving—marketplace—at a relatively low cost. Those who have read “The Cathedral and the Bazaar” might smile knowingly. Yes, with the right approach, building a vibrant, self-growing open-source marketplace doesn’t necessarily require the high costs of constructing a magnificent cathedral. The development paths of open-source Linux, the evolution of open-source AI models like DeepSeek, and the open-source Bitcoin wallets and infrastructure like UniSat (please forgive me for mentioning this boldly) all follow similar logic in essence. Besides “spending money to build a cathedral,” we can also choose to rely on and promote further open-sourcing in the industry, allowing millions of independent developers to push their small carts and jointly foster a prosperous marketplace. Diversity is precisely the source of prosperity. A patchwork of open-source markets driven by real needs, constantly patched and evolved through practice, may not be inferior in competitiveness and system robustness compared to the grand yet fragile centralized cathedrals. Furthermore, Vibe coding is significantly lowering the barriers for developers to customize and modify existing open-source code. In my view, the resurgence of open-source in the AI era is no longer just an idealistic declaration of “out of touch with the world,” but evolving into a true “code equality”—everyone has the opportunity to turn their real needs into runnable, usable code. And this is the best catalyst for nurturing a thriving marketplace. Small but continuous progress far surpasses ambitious but disastrous ventures. Let’s work together.