Original Title: Mistakes to avoid while building in consumer crypto
Original Author: @rishotics
Translated by: Peggy, BlockBeats
Editor's Note: In the crypto industry, discussions about "whether to build infrastructure" and "whether technical complexity equals competitive barriers" have never ceased. However, this article provides a reverse case study from a front-line entrepreneur: from a series of failed infra bets to pivoting towards a truly usable and monetizable consumer product, the author recounts the real difficulties of "building products" in the crypto industry based on personal experience.
Compared to technical complexity and grand narratives, the article focuses more on users, distribution, and execution details. In the consumer crypto space, value is not "proven" but "experienced."
Here is the original text:
As a first-time founder, I invested several years into three infrastructure protocols, all of which ultimately failed. By 2025, I began to pivot towards creating a consumer product that people genuinely wanted to use. This content shares the insights I gathered on user growth and fundraising after "stepping on pitfalls."
I have been in this industry for about four years.
In 2023, I started my entrepreneurial journey in the EVM ecosystem, at a time when "account abstraction" was the hottest concept. Almost everyone was developing SDKs around account abstraction wallets. Meanwhile, the Rollup ecosystem was rapidly heating up. Optimism, Arbitrum, and various RaaS projects dominated the mainstream view.
As someone who loves mathematics, I was deeply attracted to ZK, believing it would change the world (I still believe it will eventually).
One core mistake I made at that time was equating "complexity" with "credibility."
When venture capitalists asked me about use cases, I confidently listed zkML, zk identity, zk voting, and other directions—yet, in reality, almost none of these have been truly utilized to this day. I mistook "the technology looks impressive" for "this is a useful product."
As time went on, I even began to believe that the more complex the idea, the higher the probability of entrepreneurial success.
Many investors also told me that in the crypto industry, only building infrastructure had a chance of success. It wasn't until nearly two years and over 500 rejections later that I realized this path was not suitable for me.
So, I entered the Solana ecosystem.
For me, this was a whole new world. The people here care about actual use cases. Even memes matter, as does revenue. Speed is important. Distribution is crucial. (Special thanks to @superteamin for their help during this process.)
So far, we have been building consumer applications in this ecosystem for nearly seven months. During the private testing phase, we have processed over $12 million in transaction volume. Here are some insights I have summarized:
1. Build for young users who are willing to try new things
Try to design products for a group that is naturally more open to new products.
In consumer crypto products, this often means "trenchers" or younger users, many of whom are concentrated in the 13–21 age range.
In 2024, a study by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) on Generation Z (ages 11–26) showed that 86% of Gen Z considers technology an indispensable part of life, a higher percentage than any older group. They adopt new technologies earlier, with an average of 13 devices per household, using about 6 of them daily for nearly 12 hours.
Gen Z is also more likely to personally own emerging tech products, such as crypto applications (for example, 58% own gaming consoles, a significantly higher percentage than older groups). They have a stronger willingness to spend on new technologies, subscribe to more services, and their habits change and adapt faster than those of Millennials, Generation X, or Baby Boomers.
They are more willing to try new applications, experiment, and quickly change their usage habits.
In contrast, older users (in many cases, those over 25) are generally less willing to change existing processes unless the incentives are very strong. Note: If you are building a product aimed at institutions, this conclusion may not apply.
Multiple studies have also shown significant behavioral differences: younger users engage in social communication with more people daily, meaning they are more likely to share "interesting products they discover" with friends. Social messaging activity typically peaks around ages 20-21, closely related to college or school phases.
Related research also provides further evidence supporting this. For example, the article "Age-related differences in social media use, online social support, and depressive symptoms in adolescents and emerging adults" points out that after entering early youth, individuals' interaction frequency on social media gradually declines.
This trend brings a very direct insight: products designed for younger users inherently possess stronger virality.
2. Make the product itself shareable to reduce marketing costs
If you do not have sufficient marketing or advertising budget, then your product itself must take on the role of "distribution channel."
In other words, the product is marketing, the product is communication.
A product with strong shareability can significantly reduce marketing costs.
This is particularly important in the crypto industry due to:
- High costs of KOL marketing
- Generally low user trust
- Most users expect rewards or incentive mechanisms before participating
In such an environment, relying on traditional marketing methods often proves inefficient, while natural dissemination driven by the product itself is more sustainable.
User Direct Message (DM)
If your product can give users a reason to share spontaneously, whether with friends, groups, or communities, you can achieve distribution effects without heavily consuming funds.
This is not easy to achieve in the crypto industry, but optimizing for it from day one is very worthwhile in the long run.
3. Respond to user feedback as quickly as possible
When users provide feedback about issues with their experience or encounter poor interaction experiences, it is crucial to fix these issues immediately, especially those that directly interrupt the usage process.
My previous approach was to leave bug fixes until the end of the day. But once, a user DM'd me saying, "Your app doesn't have this feature yet; I'll just use Y for now."
At that time, I expressed understanding, but the result was that they continued using product Y. I later tried multiple times to DM them to bring them back, but it became very difficult—they had already formed a habit of using Y.
Ultimately, once users establish usage habits on other products, the cost of getting them to switch back becomes very high.
Therefore, aim to fix bugs within 2–5 hours.
If multiple users repeatedly request a new feature that is very important to them and technically feasible:
- Complete development and launch within 2–3 days
- Clearly inform them that this is based on their feedback
- You might even offer some economic incentives (this could make them your most active promoters)
A recent DM from a user who requested an important feature.
Delivering features based on user needs brings three benefits: directly improving the product itself, increasing user engagement, and establishing a deeper trust relationship.
When users see their feedback taken seriously and genuinely transformed into product features, they begin to feel that this product "has a part of them."
This emotional sense of "ownership" is extremely important and powerful in early consumer products.
4. The name of the app is very important
This may sound basic, but many people—including myself—have made serious mistakes at this step.
Your app name must be highly memorable and easy to relay and share. Otherwise, you will often receive messages like this (users want to recommend it but can't articulate the name).
And indeed, the name "encifher" is hard to remember, and I can't really blame the users for that.
There are even many group chats created by investors or partners where the product name is misspelled, and looking back now, I can only smile wryly.
For this reason, we later changed the name to encrypt.trade.
Regarding how to come up with a "memorable and shareable" name, there are actually many existing methods and resources available online for reference.
5. Communicating with users is difficult, but non-negotiable
Finding users and genuinely communicating with them is inherently a very challenging task, especially when the direction you are pursuing is not within the current mainstream narrative.
When I first worked on privacy-related products, it was not a popular track. Although many retail users had genuine needs for privacy, they were very dispersed and hard to find.
So, I did something that most people would deliberately avoid: during the idea validation phase, I proactively cold DM'd nearly 1,000 people.
If I was lucky, about 10 out of 100 would reply; and among those replies, only about 3-4 would provide useful feedback.
An example of a very poor cold DM.
In practice, as long as someone shows even a slight interest, I would engage in deep conversations with them, iterating the product while communicating with users.
In fact, cold DMs themselves are a process that requires constant iteration. When writing and sending cold DMs, there are several key points to keep in mind: start with a relatively "gentle" opening, place the most substantial information at the front (such as funding status, transaction volume processed, etc.), explain where you saw or learned about the recipient, maintain a friendly, non-intrusive call to action (CTA), and definitely follow up—don’t just send it once and be done.
There is no such thing as a "perfect cold DM." You need to continuously A/B test different versions to find out which approaches are truly effective for your target users.
Here is a high-quality cold DM template (thanks to @realsimon, from @alliance) that you can refer to directly:
But it’s important to understand that this process progresses slowly and can be psychologically draining.
In the crypto industry, very few people are genuinely willing to reply to cold DMs because scams are everywhere. A low response rate is the norm (which can be somewhat discouraging).
But even so, you still have to do it.
At this stage, your goal is not to acquire 1,000 users. Your goal is to find 10–20 early users who need to possess the following characteristics: they genuinely care about the problem you are trying to solve, are willing to try your product, and can provide honest, direct feedback.
These early users will gradually become your support system. Early products will almost certainly encounter frequent issues, and it is these users who will help you through the most vulnerable stages.
6. Rapid Iteration
The pace of the crypto industry is extremely fast. Narratives change quickly, and users' attention spans are even shorter.
If the product you are building does not have real value, it will be difficult to gain attention; even if you briefly capture attention without value, that attention will not last.
At most, it can bring a short burst of hype, but the product itself cannot survive long-term.
This is the advice Toly gave to developers at Breakpoint 2025.
The core message has three points: deliver quickly, iterate frequently, and be bold in making adjustments.
I also learned something very important: users do not always directly tell you what to do next.
You need to judge by observing their behavior: what are they repeatedly doing? What makeshift solutions or workarounds are they using? What are they willing to pay for?
Many ideas sound reasonable, but most users may not be willing to pay for them.
7. Make Your Website "Foolproof"
I don’t know why this needs to be emphasized repeatedly, but I must say: "Do not make any assumptions about what users should understand."
If you think users should be able to understand something, you are mistaken. What is obvious to us developers who have invested hundreds of hours building the product is completely unfamiliar to users encountering the product for the first time.
Do not introduce any new concepts or processes. Use only simple, familiar things that can genuinely make users' lives easier. The click path should be as streamlined as possible; users should be able to see, understand, or perceive the value of the product within 5 seconds of entering the app (this is something we are still optimizing).
I can’t provide screenshots, but I have received many DMs where users completely misunderstood the purpose of a certain feature.
Conclusion
Building consumer-grade crypto products is both interesting and challenging.
Speed, extreme focus on users, and distribution capability are often more important than "perfect technology."
This is very different from B2B products, but I still believe this was the right choice for us.
This piece has already been long enough; I will discuss fundraising experiences in the next article. Finally, just use encrypt.trade :)
If this content resonates with you, or if you are also working on consumer-grade crypto products and want to discuss GTM, distribution, or the product itself, feel free to DM me.
I am always happy to connect with other founders and developers.
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