Vitalik's advice to Chinese-speaking developers: Front-end UX is an advantage, while the client-side is a new opportunity

In the Chinese-language decentralized social discussion organized by Firefly, Vitalik made an interesting observation: developers in the Chinese-speaking community don’t need to reinvent the wheel with underlying protocols; instead, they should focus on front-end and user experience, which are the true advantages. This reflects a shift in the crypto ecosystem from infrastructure competition to application-layer innovation.

From “Underlying Redundancy” to “Application Explosion”

Vitalik pointed out that a few years ago, startups related to L1 and wallets were scarce, but now the situation has completely reversed—underlying protocols and infrastructure are relatively redundant. The straightforward conclusion is: infrastructure is sufficiently mature; continuing to pile up underlying layers has little significance.

Thanks to the improvement of underlying infrastructure and the emergence of AI, the ecosystem can now innovate more at the application layer. This presents an opportunity window for developers in the Chinese-speaking community—there’s no need to compete in building L1s or wallets; instead, focus on areas where differentiation is easier.

Where Are the True Advantages for the Chinese-speaking Community?

Vitalik especially emphasized the advantages of Chinese-speaking developers in front-end user experience. This is not just politeness. In fact, user experience design, interaction flow optimization, and localization adaptation—these seemingly “soft” skills—are often the most overlooked and easiest to turn into competitive advantages in decentralized applications.

Many crypto applications are feature-rich but have poor user experience. If Chinese-speaking developers can excel in this area, they will naturally stand out.

Protocols vs. Clients: An Underestimated Track

The most interesting point is Vitalik’s statement: “We don’t need to build our own Farcaster, but we can build our own Farcaster client.”

What is the logic behind this? The future of decentralized social is an ecosystem of multiple protocols and multiple clients. Protocols like Farcaster, Lens, Bluesky, Nostr already exist—they are all open data layers. Instead of expending effort to create new protocols to compete, it’s better to develop a better client—using superior UI, better recommendation algorithms, and localization—to aggregate content across these protocols.

According to the latest news, Vitalik himself is already using multi-client tools like Firefly, which allow simultaneous access to X, Lens, Farcaster, and Bluesky. This shows that he not only supports this direction in theory but is also practicing it.

The Reality of the Current Ecosystem

It’s important to recognize that the decentralized social ecosystem is undergoing a transformation. Recently, Farcaster announced a shift from social-first to wallet-driven pathways, reflecting competitive pressure in the pure social track. But this also opens space for innovation at the client and application layer—the protocols themselves may evolve, but users still need user-friendly tools.

From this perspective, the opportunity for developers in the Chinese-speaking community is clear: instead of creating new protocols, build better clients and applications to make it easier for users to access the existing decentralized social ecosystem.

Summary

Vitalik’s advice essentially points to a fundamental industry development pattern: once infrastructure matures, competition shifts to the application and experience layers. Developers in the Chinese-speaking community, rather than competing for limited opportunities at the protocol level, should focus on front-end, client, and application areas where differentiation and user service are easier. This is not a fallback but a way to find their true strengths. When the underlying infrastructure is already well-established, excelling at the upper layers can be even more valuable.