Despite years of innovation and billions in investment, the crypto world still hasn’t produced a mainstream app on the scale of Amazon or TikTok. According to Carter Feldman, CEO of Psy Protocol, the problem isn’t a lack of talent or funding—it’s the fundamental architecture of today’s blockchains, which simply can’t scale to support mass-market applications .
The Scalability Roadblock in Web3
Most current blockchains, including Ethereum, struggle to handle high volumes of transactions. As more users join, networks become slower and transaction fees spike, making them impractical for consumer apps that rely on high volume and low margins—think e-commerce or social media platforms . Feldman points out that while high-value financial transactions can absorb hefty fees, everyday apps can’t. “You can make a successful Ponzi scheme with just 30 customers, but if you have a game with 30 customers, you’re never going to break even,” he explains .
Why High TPS Matters for Real-World Utility
Feldman believes the key to unlocking the next generation of Web3 apps is throughput—specifically, the ability to process millions of transactions per second (TPS). But it’s not just about speed. High TPS enables new economic models, allowing developers to sponsor gas fees and offer seamless, free user experiences, much like TikTok or Amazon do in Web2 . With Psy Protocol, the marginal cost of adding new transactions is nearly zero, removing one of the biggest barriers to mainstream adoption: transaction fees .
“Suddenly, you can build games where users don’t need to worry about gas fees, or social platforms where posting and interacting are free for end users,” Feldman highlights .
Rethinking Decentralization and Proof of Work
Feldman argues that Web3 has drifted from its original vision of a user-owned internet, becoming instead a playground for the wealthy who can afford high fees. Psy Protocol aims to fix this by returning to first principles, using a reimagined proof-of-work system where users prove their own transactions and miners aggregate these proofs for security and scalability . This approach is designed to be more secure, decentralized, and scalable than existing solutions.
Bridging Ecosystems: The Dogecoin-Solana Example
Psy Protocol is also making headlines for its trustless bridge between Dogecoin and Solana, combining the security of proof-of-work with the speed and programmability of Solana. This bridge empowers developers to build hyper-scalable Web3 applications and demonstrates that new proof-of-work chains can interact with high-performance blockchains without sacrificing security or decentralization .
The Path Forward: Infrastructure for Mass Adoption
Feldman’s vision is clear: the right infrastructure unlocks the right business models, which in turn create the user experiences people want. The challenge now is whether the industry will embrace these new architectures or continue iterating on systems that can’t scale to mainstream needs .
“The goal isn’t just to build another blockchain. It’s to create an infrastructure that can actually support the applications people want to use, with the security and decentralization properties that make Web3 meaningful,” Feldman concludes .
