Chainfeeds Guide:
Sign Protocol founder Yan Xin shared in-depth insights into his entrepreneurial approach of persisting in building community, expanding global ID and payment infrastructure during the bear market, emphasizing the importance of avoiding short-term trends and focusing on long-term tracks that create genuine user value and sustainable growth in the crypto ecosystem.
Article Source:
https://x.com/xingpt/status/1915069540775637041
Article Author:
XinGPT
Perspective:
Yan Xin: I realized from last year that VC tokens are very difficult to sustain. Even if you have a successful product that can make money, making you a good business, why would you issue a token? I believe many great tokens actually rely on Airdrop traffic, but after the Airdrop, it's essentially over. Last year's market significantly impacted me. During the bear market, everyone was struggling, and we were constantly fundraising. From the start of my entrepreneurship, I've been developing products while seeking VC approval. Objectively, to launch a successful token, what you need most is not VC approval. VC approval is no longer recognized by retail investors, right? VCs were originally meant to attract retail investors, but now retail investors no longer trust VCs. If you're constantly chasing VCs, it becomes very challenging. Later, I realized that building community is most important, so from last year, I've been studying how to build community. Everything we're doing now isn't purely for TGE hype. We started building community from late last year, before any TGE discussions, using our own approach to create a consumer-oriented community. Building a community differs greatly from creating a VC token - you can't just talk about the product. In the current market, most people don't trust any narrative. No one believes public chain stories, ZK narratives, and MEME coins have been completely exhausted. We can only continue doing what we believe in: building and strengthening our community, introducing crypto to those who've never used it before. So we're collaborating with national entities, expanding our territory instead of chasing hot topics within the inner circle. Returning to community building. Current marketing standards involve partnering with KOLs to speak on your behalf, essentially competing for temporary attention within a fixed circle. But you know this isn't sustainable. KOLs promote new tokens weekly, and people won't consistently support your token when they're constantly exposed to new ones. The crypto industry's poor development stems from the limited inner circle - full-time participants, liquidity, but with finite capital. Pi greatly inspired me because Pi users exclusively use Pi and avoid other tokens. I believe you must find your own domain with a genuine user base, embedding your Sign App within this community, preventing users from touching other tokens. I blindly believe in the four-year cycle, and I think Bitcoin reaching $10,000 was quite predictable. Using log-based Bitcoin age index, it has historically been linear, last year's $10,000 was accurate, just not yet reaching $15,000 or $20,000 this year. If it reaches those levels, it would again be precisely timed. After the ETF, it's more correlated with US stocks and macro influences, but the crypto market remains small, with just tens of trillions. As long as the wind comes, it can be pulled up again. Why do I blindly believe in the four-year cycle? Because I see no reason for change. I believe the cycle's determining factor is retail investor memory - after some time, people forget how they lost money previously and re-enter. FTX severely damaged trust, but in two years, no one will care, just like Hyperliquid's recent rise. People don't care about decentralization or centralization; as long as someone shills and creates another wave, there's no problem. Mathematically, cycles will gradually extend but not quickly, essentially resulting from collective human behavioral game theory, following a very consistent pattern. Because past cycles have always been four years, I see no reason for change.
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