Borrowing the Fake to Achieve the Real: A Web3 Builder's Self-Reflection

Author: @0xWilsonWu

 

I finally took some time to catch my breath. Over the past few days, I carefully sorted out my assets and plans. Countless questions flooded into my DMs and the comment section—some were concerned about the progress of Honeypot, some pressed for market trends, but most were simply curious: “What exactly have you experienced in these four years?”

So, I decided to write this long article. There are no wealth secrets, no motivational chicken soup, and not a hint of marketing. This is just my confession—a real review of my transformation from a Web2 coder to a Web3 entrepreneur. Perhaps, this is my true “white paper”—not a grand declaration, but a code log soaked in sweat.

From the Cage of Web2 to the Call of Web3

I am a typical nerd, immersed in code, product optimization, and system building, interpreting the world with rational logic. Back then, I believed that as long as the algorithm was precise enough, the world would be orderly.

However, as Trump was erased from Twitter and Youtube, I gradually realized that the world I was optimizing never truly belonged to creators. It was monopolized by giants, the rules were skewed, and innovators often became pawns. No matter how sophisticated the algorithm, it could not escape platform censorship and data plundering; no matter how excellent the product, it was just making wedding clothes for others.

The crypto world was like a beam of light breaking through a crack, entering my field of vision. At that time, I already held a small amount of BTC as a trial, but what truly ignited my passion was the explosive rise of Luna—it was like a dazzling new star, not only providing a high yield, but also prompting me to study crypto from all angles. I read the bitcoin white paper, learned Ethereum smart contracts, and studied Cosmos and IBC’s application chain technology. Decentralization was no longer an abstract concept, but a living revolution: no intermediaries, code is law, everything is transparent. But it was also full of uncertainty: wild volatility, unclear regulation, high technical barriers. Here, code is not just a tool, but the creator of rules; individuals can reshape the flow of finance and value from the ground up, rather than relying on the grace of centralized institutions.

Eventually, I decided to go all-in on Web3. This was not an impulsive move, but a deep reflection on the limitations of Web2: the comfort zone of Web2 is like a cage, stifling true innovation; Web3, though chaotic, offers infinite possibilities—it allows me to shift from optimizer to architect, building a digital territory that belongs to everyone. If you don’t step out of your comfort zone, there will never be a way out for innovation. I began to shift my savings into crypto assets, and my first major move was to go heavy on Luna.

Luna’s Catastrophe: Collapse of Faith and Rebirth

Why did I choose Luna as my first true all-in? Because it represented the ultimate ideal of Web3: the Terra ecosystem promised a stable algorithmic stablecoin UST, combined with an efficient blockchain, aiming to build a decentralized financial system that could rival traditional banks. At that time, Luna’s narrative attracted me like a magnet—it was not just a speculative tool, but a disruption to centralized finance, promising low-cost cross-border payments and unlimited DeFi expansion. As someone with a developer background, I was attracted by its algorithmic mechanism: the dual-token arbitrage and liquidity incentive design showed me the potential of Web3.

In my continuous investment in Luna, I poured in over $500,000 in principal. At first, everything went smoothly—the price soared, I made a big profit in the middle, and my account once doubled, the excitement made me even more determined. But the good times didn’t last, and the crash came. In May 2022, UST lost its peg, and Luna’s price plummeted from nearly $100 to a few cents. My account was wiped out, and my ideals turned to bubbles. I sat in front of the screen, watching everything evaporate. The despair at that moment surged like a tide, my heart felt like it was being cut—not just the loss of money, but the collapse of faith. I began to question everything: how could Web3’s decentralization be so fragile? How could the promise of algorithmic stablecoins vanish in an instant?

The reason for Luna’s collapse was not an opaque algorithm—Terra’s mechanism was open source, and the dual-token arbitrage logic was publicly auditable. But design flaws were fully exposed: UST relied on Luna as an infinitely supplied “buffer,” triggering a death spiral under market panic and large-scale sell-offs. The high yields of the Anchor protocol attracted speculative capital, leading to a run; liquidity dried up and social media amplified the panic, making things worse. The entire ecosystem evaporated tens of billions of dollars, proving that the experimental risks of algorithmic stablecoins far exceeded expectations.

But Luna’s collapse was not the end, but a turning point of awakening. It forced me to face the harsh reality of “decentralization”: the market has no mercy for anyone, it tests your resilience and cognition. The Luna incident exposed the immaturity of Web3—excessive leverage, design flaws, herd mentality. But it was in this ruin that I completed my true transformation from Web2 to Web3: the stability of Web2 comes from centralized control, but it stifles freedom; the ruthlessness of Web3 comes from openness, but it rewards iterators. From the blind pursuit of a speculator to the calm analysis of an observer, I learned to scrutinize mechanisms rather than narratives.

Return to Rationality: Healing in US Stocks and Cycle Enlightenment

After the Luna crash, I chose to temporarily leave Web3 investments and return to the relatively familiar US stock market to heal. During that time, I desperately needed to regain rationality from emotional volatility, so I began to study macro cycles and market structures. At first, I allocated to industrial metal stocks represented by FCX—it symbolized the post-pandemic global production recovery and reminded me of the power of cycles: all prosperity comes from accumulation at the bottom.

As the market entered the early stage of recovery, I gradually shifted my positions to tech stocks—Google, NVIDIA, Meta, AMD, QQQ, QTUM. That was not blind bottom-fishing, but a practice based on “cognitive compounding.” I firmly believe that knowledge and insight will snowball and grow bigger. This experience made me re-understand the essence of investing: price is just the surface of volatility, emotion is the underlying logic of the market.

Luna made me fall from fanaticism, and US stocks allowed me not to worry about making a living for a while. Fortunately, I still had about $200,000 in principal left at that time, which became the fuel for my restart. Through reflection and position adjustment, I learned to seek certainty in volatility. During that period, my belief shifted from “chasing returns” to “chasing certainty.”

Return to Web3: From Observer to Builder

When I looked back at the crypto world, I realized—Luna’s failure was not the end, but a mirror reflecting the immaturity and potential of the entire Web3. It made me understand that true innovation lies not in narrative, but in mechanism.

So, when I saw Berachain propose Proof of Liquidity (PoL) and a three-token system, the familiar yet restrained design made my eyes light up: it retained the power of liquidity incentives, but used institutional constraints to avoid Luna-style self-destruction. At that moment, I was no longer content to be just an observer or investor—I wanted to become a Builder.

Honeypot Finance was born at such a turning point. Its original intention was definitely not a simple entrepreneurial venture, but a continuation of faith—to build a truly democratic, upgradable super app, making liquidity no longer a speculative chip, but the core engine driving the sustainable growth of the Web3 ecosystem.

Luna made me experience the collapse of faith, US stocks taught me the reconstruction of rationality, and Honeypot is my rebirth as a founder.

The Origin of Honeypot: From Pain Points to the Spark of Revolution

During my healing period in US stocks, I constantly reflected on the chaos of Web3: rampant yield farms, copy-paste projects flooding the market, inefficient capital, poor composability, and rigid liquidity. These problems kept me up at night—why is DeFi still at the toy level? Why can’t Web3, like Web2, nurture complex and massive application ecosystems?

I wanted to change this world dominated by centralization. The giants of Web2 control everything, users are just data sources; Web3 was supposed to be a democratic utopia, but often degenerates into a speculative casino. I dreamed of building a democratic, orderly, and upgradable super app—a modular, DAO-governed DEX, fundamentally solving DeFi’s friction points.

Thus, Honeypot was born. Not starting from hype, but from problems. We built an upgradable decentralized exchange from scratch, focusing on real pain points: combating sandwich attacks and MEV. In mid-2023, our Batch A2MM model won an award at the ETH Shanghai Hackathon. That was not a demo, but proof—DeFi can be smarter, leaner, fairer, and more scalable.

Honeypot never chases trends. We advocate practical innovation: providing tools for the community, not toys; simple and powerful interfaces serving real financial needs. This is not another DEX clone, but a testing ground for a grander proposition: if composability and liquidity are solved, anything is possible.

Later, the memecoin frenzy brought us new thoughts. The craze exposed the trap of the bonding curve—it rewards speed rather than conviction, insiders rather than participants, fleeting moments rather than culture. We launched Pot2Pump as a fair and scalable meme economy engine. It turns early participants into native LPs, rooting liquidity from the start; it kills the extractive design of the bonding curve and redirects volatility into sustainable returns.

Real cases prove: in a high-volume memecoin LP, fee income can reach 32,000% APR—not inflation, but market activity. Pot2Pump embraces the memecoin meta, but leads to a healthy structure with aligned incentives.

The Rise of Hyperliquid: A Successful Practice of Conviction

hyperliquid is a project I studied deeply and invested heavily in. Although I was not the earliest participant, I started at $12-13, leading the community into Hyperliquid and holding firmly. At that time, the market still questioned whether on-chain trading could rival CEX, but I saw its revolutionary nature: Hyperliquid uses an orderbook model, providing a CEX-like smooth experience on-chain, and is known as the “on-chain Binance.”

This project allowed me to earn “peaceful money” for the first time, rather than pure speculation. Its transparency and efficiency prove that decentralized finance can be efficient and reliable. This is not just a trading platform, but a model for Web3 financial infrastructure. It strengthened my conviction: all-in Web3, because the technology here can truly empower individuals, break centralized monopolies, and allow everyone to become a participant in the system. My belief has always been simple, we don’t need to participate in many projects or many opportunities. We just need to seize the big opportunities with certainty. I am very grateful that Web3 has given me such an opportunity to participate.

The Baptism of the 10.11 Incident: From Disillusionment to Reforged Conviction

The crash on October 11, 2025, was the most unforgettable moment of my journey. Market confidence collapsed instantly, and even on-chain derivatives faced panic runs. That day, I stayed up all night, staring at the on-chain liquidation curve, repeatedly reflecting: “How much of the on-chain transparency we pursue has really been achieved?”

The torment of that night made me fully awake: if execution logic still relies on human governance or centralized components, then DeFi is just a disguise. This crisis was not a blow, but a catalyst. It turned my doubts into conviction: the future of Web3 lies in pure on-chain solutions, only then can true trustlessness be achieved. This is also the fundamental reason I am all-in—because in Web3, I can personally build a purer, more autonomous world.

The Ambition of Honeypot: Evolution Beyond Hyperliquid

Hyperliquid gave me inspiration, and 10.11 further fueled my drive to bring trading on-chain. We had already started researching AMM Perp DEX more than half a year before the 10.11 incident. If the ultimate elegant representative of on-chain orderbook is Hyperliquid, then I want to make Honeypot the ultimate elegant AMM Perp DEX. In my vision, the relationship between Honeypot Finance and Hyperliquid is like Professor X and Magneto—different original intentions, love and rivalry.

In matching, achieve true on-chain execution and settlement synchronization; in risk control, introduce dynamic margin and separation of liquidity layers; in price discovery, let AMM self-adjust, breaking free from oracle dependence; in governance, create a closed-loop game between LPs, traders, and the protocol.

What I envision is not just another exchange, but a financial ecosystem capable of self-evolution. Every trade, every liquidation, every bit of liquidity will become the nutrients for system growth. This embodies the essence of Web3: from passive participation to active construction.

Honeypot Finance’s AMM Perp DEX solves the pain points of traditional AMMs through structured upgrades, including zero-sum games, arbitrage loopholes, and capital mixing issues, achieving sustainable structures, layered risk control, and fair liquidation processes. LPs do not face the AMM directly, but deposit funds into ERC-4626 layered vaults: senior vaults have priority fees and last-loss (suitable for institutions), junior vaults take first loss and high returns (suitable for crypto natives), and vault supply is based on oracle-anchored price bandwidth, ensuring slippage is linear and centered. The liquidation sequence is preset and visible, including partial deleveraging, micro-auctions, junior first loss, insurance pool, and limited ADL, ensuring the system is controllable and predictable during volatility, and shocks are isolated.

Borrowing the false to cultivate the real? In the past two years, I am a living example. Since entering with Luna, I have experienced the roller coaster of big gains and big losses—my account once doubled, but eventually was almost wiped out. At that time, I regained my principal through stock market adjustments and recovery, and strengthened my conviction as a builder. Although I was not the earliest participant in Hyperliquid, I started at $12-13, led the community into Hyperliquid, and held firmly. In April this year, during the US stock market adjustment, at the peak of panic, I led the community to bottom-fish the SPY index at 4,800 points and BTC at $75,000, achieving a reversal from the bottom to the peak. This turbulent investment journey is not only a financial success, but also a cognitive upgrade—it transformed me from a doubter in Web2 to a determined builder in Web3.

Be a Fool’s Teammate, Not an Opponent

People often ask: “Is the crypto dividend over?”

My answer: It has barely begun.

The end of the speculation phase is the beginning of the creation phase. When Web3 shifts from wealth transfer to wealth creation, when fools and smart people share the dividends of mechanisms, that is the golden age.

And my team and I aim to be the top builders in the industry. I no longer want to participate as an observer, but as a true industry transformer, building a future that includes everyone.

Postscript

In a pyramid-structured world, people prefer stories that fit their imagination. I can tell stories too, but the truth is often calm and dull: it is debugging code at dawn, failed iterations, and the collapse of risk models.

Behind wealth is not a miracle, but the accumulation of time and the iteration of cognition.

I am just an ordinary person. I have been lost, fallen hard, and gradually climbed back up. Seeking order in disorder, forging balance in chaos.

If Honeypot can represent anything, change anything, I hope it will always represent the direction of the future—no matter how many times it falls and dies, it can always be reborn like a phoenix.