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My honest answer is this: Arc is open source, so anyone can build on it. You do not need permission to experiment, prototype, or bring a new idea into the ecosystem. That is the point of open infrastructure.

If you are asking me whether your project is likely to matter and create real value, the better question is not:

What pain are you solving? Who feels that pain today? How often do they feel it? How much does it cost them? What are they already using? What do they like about the current solution? What do they hate about it? Why would they switch?

Here's another harsh reality: switching is expensive.

If you are building for logistics companies, for example, it is not enough to say, “Logistics is a massive market, and if they send USDC, they'll love it.” That tells me almost nothing. If your product creates ten new problems because you do not understand how a successful logistics operator actually works, your product will fail.

The people you want using your product are usually people already doing volume. They are successful. They are making money. They have teams, processes, habits, vendors, dashboards, workflows, and customers to serve.

So if you want them to stop what they are doing, learn a new system, train their staff, and take a risk on you, 

and that you can show how your product saves them money, creates new revenue, reduces friction, improves speed, or opens an opportunity that did not exist before.

If you cannot do that, people will not care.

Oh and while we're here….One of my biggest pet peeves is when projects lead with potential market size alone.

Saying, “There are 25 million people who own a mobile phone,” does not prove you understand your customer. It does not prove demand. It does not prove urgency. It does not prove distribution. It does not prove that anyone will change behavior.

A better builder narrative sounds like this:

We spoke with this specific customer segment. They currently solve the problem this way. It costs them this much time or money. Existing options fail because of these specific gaps. Our product improves that workflow in this measurable way. Here is why Arc makes this possible or meaningfully better.

Jeremy Allaire said something recently that captures the opportunity well:

“Most exciting is all of the net new inventions, not mapping the legacy onto new infrastructure.”

The biggest opportunity is not simply taking old workflows and putting them on new rails. Sometimes that is useful. But the truly exciting work is asking:

What can exist now that could not exist before?

Uber did not just make a better taxi dispatch system. It created a new behavior pattern around real-time location, mobile payments, human distribution, and trust between strangers.

Airbnb did not become powerful by owning hotels. It unlocked a marketplace around existing homes and unused space, creating a new model for hospitality 

without owning the underlying real estate.

That is the kind of thinking I want to see more of.

Not just, “Here is the legacy thing…but onchain.”

So when you ask whether your project is aligned with Arc, here are a few ideas I would encourage you to share:


 Be specific. Name the user. Name the pain. Name the urgency.


 Do not stay abstract. Explain how it saves money, creates revenue, improves speed, reduces risk, or enables something new.


Every product competes with something, even if that something is a spreadsheet, manual process, internal tool, stable incumbent, or “doing nothing.”


The answer needs to be stronger than “because it uses new infrastructure.”

What becomes possible now that was not possible before?


This is where the best ideas usually live.

How will you reach the market you say you are serving?


 It is not enough to identify a valuable market. You need a credible path into it. Do you have access to the right companies, operators, decision-makers, or design partners? Do you understand how buying decisions are made in that industry?

Arc is open to builders, so please bring your experiments and ambition. Absolutely bring the weird ideas.

But… if you're serious about being successful, also bring customer understanding.

Ask Yourself: Why does this need to exist? [My Personal Thoughts]

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