It's striking how differently the market has rewarded developers across cycles. During the memecoin boom, projects shipping barely-functional prototypes and largely untested features were pulling in eight-figure valuations like clockwork. The bar for what passed as a product was, frankly, pretty low—as long as hype and community momentum were there, technical substance took a backseat.

Fast forward to now. Developers building serious infrastructure like containerized AGI systems, tackling genuinely hard technical problems and pushing the boundaries of what's possible in this space, are grinding away for five-figure paydays if they're lucky. The incentive structure feels completely inverted. Raw innovation and technical ambition used to be treated as afterthoughts in bull market euphoria, yet somehow they're even more undersold in the current environment.

The irony isn't lost—the market still seems better at pricing hype than genuine breakthrough work.