Crypto, AI, and alternative energy sources are the hottest sectors right now (not in any order) — and they'll attract the most capital.
Crypto is the easiest for me: quickest and surest path to liquidating ESOPs or equity, close ties to math, plenty of remote jobs, and salaries on par with the U.S.
That's why I chose crypto.
In crypto, the biggest opportunities are building:
- L2 chains
- Stablecoins
- DEXes
- Bridges
- Derivatives
Everything else is either dumb (NFTs, social media) or beyond my expertise (RPCs and other deep tech).
I want to capture the opportunities I truly believe in.
My current ideations — around derivatives, DEXes, and stablecoins — are areas where I have a strong core understanding from my background in finance, trading, economics, and math.
I envision these hitting $1–2 billion valuations.
But the biggest opportunity outside of that? Building an ETH L2 with a native gas token.
We should absolutely build an L2.
We boosted Mantle's TVL by 30–40% with PUFF, bringing in the highest number of users.
But we captured none of the:
- Bridging fees
- Transaction fees from every swap
- Second-order benefits we created for AgniSwap, Merchant Moe, and other DEXes
That's why I want to build an L2.
Building a DeFi protocol is like renting a house in a 50-floor DLF Camellias.
I don't want to just do that.
Most founders have only 1–2 big ideas in their lifetime.
I think I have >5.
The best way to capture them all? Build an L2.
I don't want to rent a house in Camellias.
I want to build the Kingfisher Tower — sell/rent houses to other people (protocols) and build a mansion for myself at the top.
In my self-fulfilling philosophy/worldview, everything I understand and am bearish on fails.
It's happened with zero-knowledge rollups, proof-of-anything (except PoS and PoW), social media, gaming, metaverse, and all NFTs post-2019.
Right now, DePIN and metaverse are hot narratives.
Either they fail… or I become bullish and build something in them.