I have been working in Trilitech, supporting Etherlink’s ecosystem efforts beyond my role of community and marketing. Having seen the sheer number of Ethereum L2s spawning this year, liquidity fragmentation and user/dapp adoption is becoming a growing pain for most chains.

On top of that, we are reaching a mid term plateau in chain performance. Ethereum L2s transaction fees are equivalent to the fees of other alt L1s and the transaction speeds are fairly similar for the end user. I will not dive into the various technical architectural differences as I am here to cater to the typical user who care more about what they can do onchain.

In this environment, attracting builders isn’t a matter of technical excellence or performance superiority. It requires a good mix of:

1. A healthy community of users that would support and use the new apps that enter the ecosystem.

2. Grants program with financial incentives to support the dapps that deploy on the chain.

Basically, every chain already has a grants program:

However, pouring money into grants won’t solve the builder problem. Builders approaching chains for grants are mixed in with an increasing number of mercenaries out to get a quick buck with easy forks and with multichain becoming a norm and being easier to implement, it is difficult to retain builders without sufficient onchain growth and support.

Positioning Etherlink as a Chain for Startups

This is where I believe Etherlink can position themselves to stand out: heavily focusing on supporting startups in crypto and providing them extensive support beyond just grants.

Case Study: Fortify Labs

This is currently being experimented by TZ APAC’s Fortify Lab’s Program which gives a small grant to each startup and focuses on a small cohort of 7 startups to ensure they can provide each project with sufficient support, spanning VC introductions, direct marketing support, wider campaigns like TZAPEX to showcase each project and to help with their user growth.

Case Study: Tezos Gaming Team

A similar approach is being provided to games on Tezos & Etherlink, kickstarted by Jeremy, the head of gaming at TZ APAC.

They carefully select and nurture a small number of high-quality games by focusing primarily on product quality, evaluated by experienced Web2 game experts. Once the game is vetted, other aspects like the team, funding, tokenomics, and go-to-market strategies are also assessed. The team only works with projects that have a working game before launching their token to avoid issues associated with early token launches. Their goal is to foster fun and sustainable Web3 games, with upcoming releases like BattleRise, Sugarverse, and Auto Hero prioritizing both engaging gameplay and long-term success.

By taking a more hands-on approach, you can filter out short-term opportunists and actively support genuine builders.

Support goes well beyond just the initial grant. In our gaming team, dedicated staff are assigned to specific games, ensuring steady progress with weekly check-ins. These calls help track their go-to-market strategies and offer additional resources as needed.

Additionally, we allocate a budget specifically for KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders) to boost content and user growth for ecosystem games. We’re currently experimenting with this model through Battlerise and Sugarverse on Etherlink.

Ecosystem team and project teams become one

The ideal scenario is for project and ecosystem teams to collaborate deeply, moving beyond traditional support into a joint effort focused on the dapp’s success and the ecosystem's broader growth. Ultimately, a blockchain’s success hinges on the quality of its dapps—what users can actually do on the chain. This approach, in my view, is the most sustainable for both short-term and long-term success. It's the key to standing out in the sea of chains.