Antimatter is one of the most fascinating and mysterious phenomena in nature. It consists of particles with the same mass but opposite charge and spin as their normal counterparts. When matter and antimatter meet, they annihilate each other in a burst of energy. For a long time, physicists wondered whether antimatter followed the same fundamental forces and laws of physics that rule our world. For example, would antimatter react to gravity and fall downwards like normal matter, or would it defy gravity and rise upwards?

Recently, scientists at CERN have answered this question by performing a high-tech version of Galileo’s famous experiment of dropping objects from the Leaning Tower of Pisa. They created and cooled antihydrogen atoms, the simplest form of antimatter, and released them from a magnetic trap. They observed that antihydrogen atoms fell downwards at the same rate as normal hydrogen atoms within experimental error. This means that antimatter is not immune to gravity but rather obeys the same laws as normal matter.

This discovery has some interesting parallels with the world of crypto, where technology and products have been unlocking unprecedented use cases and mechanics that are different and sometimes opposite from those of traditional finance and businesses. For example, crypto enables peer-to-peer transactions without intermediaries, decentralized governance without central authorities, and programmable money without borders. Also, crypto consumer products generally aim at giving back to users, distributing shares of value to those who have contributed to generating it. During the last bull cycle, pumped by a general bubble in the tech industry and the real economy, we were somehow led to believe that crypto end consumer protocols and products were immune to the same basic principles as other traditional products, such as the need for real and sustainable revenue streams and the need to charge some fees to users. We thought that, because of new blockchain-enabled mechanics like native tokens, these products could escape the fundamental laws of economics.

It turned out it was never the case, and for how innovative and disruptive these products are, they are still subject to some core tenets:

• Consumption is the objective of economic activity, and production is its means. The end goal is consumption, which means protocols and apps need to create something that other people want or need, which requires a strenuous process in the search for product-market-fit.

• Production has costs. To produce something valuable, protocols and apps need to incur some costs, which need to be accounted for and covered.

• Productivity determines the wage rate. DAO members need to be productive to get retribution, and in general, users of a protocol or app need to bring tangible contributions to be eligible for rewards like airdrops.

• Money is not wealth. Money accrues wealth so long as it has purchase power. Tokens are not making protocols and apps suddenly wealthy if that token has no value outside the protocol itself (see FTX’s FTT or Binance’s BNB).

Just like antimatter is not exempt from gravity, crypto protocols and apps are not exempt from the business laws that govern our economy. Crypto products must generate tangible value for their users and stakeholders, differentiate themselves from their competitors, and find sustainable ways to monetize and generate profit. Otherwise, they risk being annihilated by market forces or regulatory actions. Successful crypto protocols and products are those that have managed to find a consistent and tangible revenue stream while redistributing value to those who contributed to their success, decentralize while maintaining efficiency, and open source their code while ensuring defensibility. Experiments that confirm this of this include Ethereum, MakerDAO, Aave, zkSync, and consumer applications like Friend.Tech.

While the notion of revolutionary crypto protocols challenging established economic norms was captivating, realising that they in fact align with well-known principles is a clarifying moment. It allows us to redirect our efforts towards building valuable, sustainable solutions that can compete and resonate with a broader audience. No longer should we hesitate when questioned about the value of a project's tokens, which should always stem from a tangible source and clear economic mechanisms. With this newfound clarity, we can foster a stronger foundation for the crypto industry's growth and mainstream acceptance.