On one level, there is so much to take apart here. Scalability, composability, liquidity, AAVE, Polygon, L1, L2, Optimism… and so forth. However….
I recall in my naïve phase of blockchain enthusiasm being thrilled by the accelerating proliferation of whole architectures and new evolutions and revolutions of solutions to…. One thing: Scaling. After all, its easily one of the most satisfying problems to solve if you're a techie. And coming from the world where this was indispensable and fast moving in order to make money, it seemed this was going to be great fun. Add in this fascinating notion of an "autonomous" operating platform and WOW!
12 years into the “decentralization” revolution and not much has changed. Ultimately, the “mandates” around conforming to this supposed good have entirely frustrated and failed time and again the possibility of any of this going anywhere in any significant fashion is pretty much finished.
Instead, all these Proof-of-Work blockchains have become completely centralized (in China and by Chinese tech) and will never achieve scalability. Or, if they do, they will die the deaths eventually of the brittleness of increasing software complexity and dispersion.
The oddly and contradictory beliefs animating this “movement” are (pick one or all):
1. Undermining western liberal democratic control of “finance”
2. Bringing financial products to people in countries where barter is more the norm and the chief beneficiaries of “DeFi” are the corrupt autocrats and their friends and families who own all the infrastructure that would supposedly benefit the masses they keep subjugated. Yes, those poor people need something like a cheap Visa card.
3. All this will happen in spite of the fact that China can shut the whole project off the minute it sees project #1 nearing ripeness.
Coinmonks.
It’s a good name for a group that sees itself on a zealous mission to bring the Word to the world. And the parallel to greater and more obscure exegesis (technical rather than biblical) completes the picture: this is a religious order and just one among many other cults in the crypto space.
Feel free to respond if you would like to understand the full details and discuss/debate empirically.
