the death of the roadmap

somewhere along the way, "we have no roadmap" stopped being an admission of failure and became a selling point.

this isn't just memecoin nihilism. it's a genuine insight about how value works in crypto. the roadmap died because we learned what it was actually for.

what roadmaps were for

the roadmap was supposed to signal:

• competence (we have a plan)
• commitment (we're building long-term)
• value creation (these features will make the token worth more)

the theory was: roadmap → development → utility → demand → price.

this model came from traditional tech. build product, acquire users, capture value. the roadmap was the business plan translated into crypto.

why roadmaps failed

several problems emerged:

delivery didn't matter — teams shipped roadmap items. nothing happened. the market didn't care about features.

roadmaps became liability — missed deadlines created sell pressure. better to promise nothing than promise and miss.

utility didn't create demand — the best products often had the worst-performing tokens. the token was incidental to the product.

narrative beat execution — projects with no product but great narrative outperformed projects with great product but no narrative.

the roadmap assumed that token value came from utility. it doesn't.

what actually creates demand

token demand comes from:

1. narrative — is there a story people want to be part of?
2. community — is there a group worth belonging to?
3. momentum — is attention increasing or decreasing?
4. coordination — are holders aligned on behavior?

notice what's missing: utility, features, roadmap items.

this was hard to accept. it felt like it shouldn't be true. but the market kept proving it.

"no utility" as feature

saying "no utility" signals:

• honesty (we're not pretending this is something it isn't)
• self-awareness (we know how this works)
• cultural fluency (we're in on the joke)
• reduced liability (no promises to break)

it's counter-signaling. by admitting you have nothing, you demonstrate you understand what actually matters.

the new value model

the new model is:

narrative → attention → community → coordination → demand

utility can exist, but it's not load-bearing. it's decoration. nice to have. not the point.

the point is: do people want to hold this? do they want to be part of this? is there energy here?

implications

the death of the roadmap means:

1. product development is marketing, not value creation
2. community management matters more than engineering
3. attention is the only scarce resource
4. promises are liability, vibes are assets

we spent years pretending crypto tokens were equity in tech companies. they're not. they're coordination mechanisms for cultural movements.

the roadmap was a category error. good riddance.