Just got back after 27 hours of travel from Singapore — still recovering from what seems to be the final stages of a COVID strain I caught while there. A few quick takeaways: - There is VC interest in $EGLD. - Top DeFi players in Asia are open and eager to explore the $EGLD ecosystem.* - Several major integrations are in the “pending” stage. - Some of our competitors spend on one single event what we spend in an entire year. Is that good or bad? *** - Money moves everything. Tell someone what you’ll pay, and you’ll know exactly where you sit on their priority list. Tech, unfortunately, comes second. **** A few reflections: - Delaying a payment or investment now will likely cost 10x more six months or a year down the road. - In every major ecosystem, the most successful startups have received some form of support — from the foundation itself, or from validators and founders close to it. That’s not the exception, it’s the rule. * DeFi players chase incentives. If we create competitive, attractive incentive structures, they will come. If not, we’ll keep building beautiful products — for friends and family only. ** “Pending” means we need VC's on board to close these deals. And I’m not talking small checks. Unless you’ve done BD for a major L1 or L2, it’s hard to imagine how expensive top-tier integrations can be. *** Maybe it’s our European mindset that makes it hard to grasp how some L1s can spend tens of millions on a single event. Curious to hear your thoughts on this. **** I wish we lived in a world where technology wins on merit. But we don’t. Right now, money dictates, and we’re simply not competitive enough financially to move as fast as we need to. I do NOT have the answers to all questions but everything I have has been put into this. All the years I've worked are in this. There is no plan B. It really is good will. What I urge everyone to do is to simply put their minds to work and try and offer SOLUTIONS for the final proposal. I am 100% sure we can really close some amazing stuff and move fw. But we can't do it as we are today. We MUST change and do it fast. P.S. I always use "-" even in text messages so not AI FYI 😎