🫂

The actual test is whether the financial primitive could be rebuilt on a neutral base layer without the token. Every durable 'innovation' in the altcoin space either gets absorbed into Bitcoin-adjacent infrastructure, or depends on the token's artificial scarcity to sustain the business model. When the token is the product, the utility claim is usually a distribution mechanism, not an engineering achievement.

The tell is that every shitcoin pitch includes the phrase 'what Bitcoin can't do.' If the primitive genuinely required a new token, the technology would stand on its own merits without the pitch needing to frame Bitcoin as the limitation. The framing requirement is the tell.