DeFi needs more interoperability, not apps or infra

DeFi has too much infrastructure and not enough apps—or at least, that’s what the consensus seems to be in crypto’s town square. Just this year, venture capitalists and private equity investors have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into crypto projects that make infrastructure a priority, if not an exclusive focus.

The highlight reel speaks for itself. In the first quarter alone, VC firm a16z committed $100 million to Eigen Layer, a restaking protocol and infrastructure layer for the Ethereum network; private equity firms Bridgewater Capital and Deus X Capital joined forces to fund a $250 million infrastructure platform; and RW3 Ventures raised $60 million for a fund focused exclusively on blockchain infrastructure and DeFi. These headlines are just a few of many; a quick perusal of any crypto news outlet reveals countless similar announcements.

Focus on infrastructure

The laser focus on infrastructure sparked considerable conversation during and following the Ethereum Community Conferences, or EthCC’24, in mid-July, with many coming to the same conclusion: We need more apps and less emphasis on infrastructure.

It’s a valid perspective on the surface. To put the issue into metaphor, focusing disproportionately on infrastructure is like building the best theme park ever seen—without the rides. Who cares if the park has nice paths, sleek gift shops, and well-equipped food stalls? If you don’t have a roller coaster (or five) on the premises, no one will show up, let alone pay to play.

Theoretical value and potential can only inspire so much customer adoption. A wide variety and deep volume of apps could help hook and retain DeFi users. With more options on offer, users will have more reason and opportunity to not only onboard but also explore.

The problem? Increasing the number of apps can only help the underlying issue (e.g., the long-term growth and sustainability of the DeFi ecosystem) so much. Returning to our metaphor, a good theme park needs a variety of rides to attract guests; however, if those rides are inconvenient to access or unpleasant to experience, interest will taper off sharply. 

The real problem: UX

Here, we come to the real problem at the heart of the apps vs. infra debate: user experience.  

To say that the DeFi ecosystem (and the emerging BTCFi sector in particular) isn’t intuitive for layperson users would be an almost comical understatement. Even seemingly simple acts such as moving assets between dapps in different ecosystems can become a time-sucking, frustrating exercise for ordinary users. Despite being fundamental to cross-chain transactions, bridging and swapping are virtually impossible for crypto newcomers to figure out without professional guidance. It’s hard to blame a layperson for giving up midway—or opting not to try in the first place.  

Infrastructure is meant to enable dApps to seamlessly onboard users, yet the BTCfi ecosystem still grapples with fragmentation issues between various Bitcoin (BTC) variants. While crypto has made progress on interoperability, the user experience remains complex. Traditional bridges and platforms still pose significant limitations and frustrations regarding scalability, slippage, MEV problems, TVL honeypots, and slow and expensive transactions.

The “we need apps, not infra” debate fundamentally misses the point of dApp and infra development by seeking to prioritize one over the other. The number of infra projects doesn’t matter; their quality and impact do.

To be fair, few set out to create a low-impact infra project. DeFi is characterized by its pioneering culture; many dApps are the first of their kind and require their innovators to build appropriate infrastructure rails from scratch.

But, as it is in any race, not everyone can be a winner, and unfortunately, many infra projects today are not and may never be impactful. The days of developing projects for DeFi devotees willing to dedicate time to learning how to use a dapp are fast fading into history. DeFi is approaching its mainstream era—and the amateur users we seek to attract won’t tolerate poor UX or care about underlying infra. To reframe into a common experience: if you’re booking an Uber ride, you don’t care whether the Uber platform runs on AWS or Google Cloud; you just want to get from A to B.

Users first

With this in mind, our end goal should be to have robust infra and abstract it away from a user so they can make full use of their dApps without thinking too hard about how it works. Navigating the DeFi ecosystem—and every app within it—should feel seamless to the point of being intuitive for users. At a minimum, we must simplify interoperability by enabling fast, zero-slippage, MEV-resistant, secure swaps with consistently excellent UX. Next, infra-abstraction must be prioritized; users should never need to see the cogs in the metaphorical machine.

This is possible, and intent-based architecture provides a model for user-centric development in DeFi. Unlike conventional blockchain architecture, which requires users to follow a series of often complex steps to achieve a goal, intent-based architecture seeks to put users first. With this approach, users can state their objective (e.g., make a purchase in a BTCFi app using funds stored on Ethereum) and rely on the blockchain protocol to autonomously complete the technical steps required to achieve that directive. Intent-based models could, if applied widely, go a long way towards ensuring infra-abstraction while improving user experiences and simplifying architecture.

Of course, intent-based architecture isn’t a silver bullet. Projects and protocols must collaborate closely to develop integrations that guarantee seamless interoperability and abstract away operational complexities that users may find overwhelming. Innovators will need to build with amateur users in mind rather than crypto natives with technical knowledge.

It’s time to set aside the infra vs. apps debate and focus on what matters most: the users. Most users probably don’t pay attention to architecture design or care about the investment divide between app and infrastructure projects as long as they follow high-security standards and get the job done. They want blockchain-based finance to be accessible and easy to understand; consumers need to be able to use apps, process transactions, and find new ways to use and make money with DeFi. As innovators and advocates for DeFi’s potential, it falls to us to (re)create the ecosystem into a welcoming world that even amateur users can explore without feeling confused, overwhelmed, or demoralized.

Let’s stop counting infra projects and start making them count instead.