I’ve noticed new neighborhoods usually open with familiar brands first. A known coffee shop. A chain gym. It makes the area feel busy fast, even if nothing about it is original. That’s how I think about Fogo’s ecosystem strategy.
The real question isn’t just technical, it’s cultural. Do you clone what works, push incentives, or try to build something new? Cloning is quick. Fork a DEX, add lending, maybe NFTs. TVL, which is just the capital locked in apps, starts rising. On Binance Square, those numbers spread quickly. Rankings reward visible growth, and momentum feeds itself.
But incentives can rent activity instead of building loyalty. I’ve seen users move capital just to farm rewards, then leave once emissions drop. Liquidity mining can spark life, but it rarely guarantees commitment. The cycle is predictable now.
Innovation sounds ideal, yet it’s slower and riskier. Crypto rarely gives projects patience. My view is that Fogo likely needs stages. Familiar apps first. Incentives to seed usage. Then something distinct enough that people stay for more than rewards.
Growth is easy to simulate. Retention isn’t.