back in 2020, there were so many alt-L1s working to come after ethereum with scalable composability. i keep wondering why solana made it when nearly everyone else died. part of it is ftx. part of it is proof of history, then IBRL. but i think the main factor is @aeyakovenko showing up in the trenches everyday, giving feedback to app builders in github, responding to every tweet and dm to build community at the ground level. i used to write off the impact of founders compared to product and market, but when you look at which chains will win, this seems *by far* the most useful signal. look at cardano or ripple. many shit chains have slop products and slop markets, but their founders are doing whatever it takes to build a community. now look at the current state of alt-chains and ask how many of them have founders who are actually putting in the work the way toly has every day for years.