When transaction fees approach zero, what value should 'post-efficiency era' encryption applications provide?

Differentiation must come from other aspects: unique features and experiences. This article is derived from the Cem | Sovereign article, compiled and translated by Deep Tide TechFlow. (Background: Liquidity decline, where do profits from encryption projects come from? Should we buy back Tokens?) (Background supplement: Jump returns to the encryption market business, 'black history' leads to an awkward situation) Recently, the main discussions on encryption Twitter have focused on improving the efficiency of the general environment. Base is achieving the 'Gigagas' goal by leveraging Reth and the blob upgrade of Ethereum. Solana is continuously approaching the vision of reaching 1 million TPS (transactions per second) through the amazing optimization of Firedancer and its C-based network stack. MegaEth has completely removed gas restrictions with the help of highly optimized sorters. As an encryption enthusiast, I have nothing to complain about. During the DeFi summer and the bull market in 2021, I paid a huge fee to Ethereum Mainnet, and now I can enjoy low-cost transactions on Solana. In the future, I will also enjoy cheaper and faster transactions on all these platforms. However, since I first entered this industry around 2017, I have been obsessed with making encryption technology mainstream. A question has been lingering in my mind recently: Are we rapidly approaching the point of over-optimization? By the end of 2025, Block space will become abundant, and efficiency will become a commodity. Once almost instant and free transactions become the norm, simple speed will no longer be the key differentiator. As developers, we need to change our mindset. Post-efficiency era We call it the 'post-efficiency era' because the efficiency battle has been won. Most platforms can now achieve fast and cheap transactions, so differentiation must come from other aspects: unique features and experiences. This is where full-stack customization comes in handy. It is now 2025, transactions are both cheap and fast, but the look and feel of most applications remain the same. At the same time, the market premium derived from launching another Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) has disappeared. Just look at Unichain, it has not been able to attract widespread follow or Liquidity: Meanwhile, the winner of this round, Hyperliquid, has adopted a bold strategy. It built the entire stack from scratch, optimizing it for specific use cases. Among the many interesting customizations it introduced, two points stand out: Priority cancellation and Maker-only transactions enforced by type within a Block, Hyperliquid prevents outdated orders from being easily snatched by high-frequency traders. This reduces harmful order flow, making market-making easier and increasing Liquidity for all traders. Treasury-based replicated transactions Hyperliquid's treasury allows anyone to automatically replicate the transactions of the treasury builder. Since treasury logic is executed as part of Block creation, external maintainers are not required. Hyperliquid treasury implements market-making strategies, allowing anyone to provide Liquidity and share the resulting profits and losses. Combining these unique features with high efficiency, low latency, and seamless user experience, it's easy to see why Hyperliquid has become the preferred Derivatives DEX. The results speak for themselves: The real bottleneck: Virtual Machine A major reason why most applications lack differentiation is the Virtual Machine (VMs). Many of our tools are built around Virtual Machines (or derivative versions of Ethereum and Solana clients), which to some extent hinder customization. In recent years, there has even been a trend in the industry to push for all Rollup implementations to achieve full EVM equivalence, enabling them to be based on the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and natively executed. Is this really what the market needs? I don't think so. In fact, the more you can differentiate on features that truly impact customers, the more likely you are to win the market. Isn't interoperability the key? Yes, even in dedicated Blockchains, Cross-Chain Interaction communication is key. Standardized and shared Liquidity and messaging tools are still crucial. That's why Open Source messaging libraries like @hyperlane and intent-based bridge frameworks like @RelayProtocol have the potential to succeed. But in addition to being able to integrate these Interoperability components on custom chains, developers should have the freedom to fully customize their applications. Responding to market demand What the market needs are finely tuned applications built specifically for a particular purpose, providing a seamless user experience—not just another ordinary EVM derivative. Therefore, build something truly customized and optimized for your use case. Only then can we create applications that truly bring encryption technology mainstream. Related Reports Analysis of EVM series chains on $COCORO: Learning EVM, Injecting Solana Genes into EVM, Will Monad herald a new wave of public chain replacement? Hyperliquid launches the smart contract chain HyperEVM, $HYPE can be used as a GasToken, short-term big pump in price When transaction fees approach zero, what value should encryption applications provide in the 'post-efficiency era'? This article was first published on BlockTempo by Dynamic Zone, the most influential blockchain news media.