From regulatory battles that forced him out of DeFi, to the conviction that drew him back, Andre opens up about the unseen cost of innovation in a space that now rewards safety over experimentation.
This isn’t a retrospective of Yearn or a breakdown of his past projects. It’s a look at why composability collapsed, how decentralisation became a UX burden, and why most builders today are creating walled gardens instead of primitives.
We explore:
• The psychological and legal toll of building in public
• Why upgradability killed trust and composability in DeFi
• Ethereum’s missed opportunity: 2% utilisation and a path to 8x throughput
• The paradox of building secure, decentralised systems for users who don’t want to deal with either
• Why Andre thinks you shouldn’t build in crypto and what to do if you still want to
This episode isn’t about nostalgia. It’s about reckoning with the systems we’ve created, and the incentives we’ve chosen.
If you’ve ever asked yourself whether it’s still worth building in this space, this is the episode to watch.Timestamps — 00:00 Introduction
01:34 Navigating Regulatory Challenges in Crypto
03:09 Legal Battles and SEC Interactions
09:23 The Shift in Market Participants and Decentralization
13:59 Innovation Stagnation in DeFi
18:00 Balancing User Experience and Decentralization
34:00 Scalability and the Limitations of Ethereum
41:17 Innovations in DeFi Primitives
44:10 Advice for Builders
👥 Guest: Andre Cronje – CTO, Sonic Labs
Twitter: https://x.com/andrecronjetech
🎙️ Host: Saurabh Deshpande – DCo Podcast
Twitter: https://x.com/desh_saurabh
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