Onboarding the Next Billion Users: Infrastructure for Cycle-Proof Growth

Описание: 1/ Griffin Dunaif shared insights on building infrastructure for cycle-proof growth in Web3. Their mission: connecting applications to on-chain commerce through software-level abstractions that make blockchain development accessible.

2/ Halliday Payments solves a critical problem: accepting payments in blockchain apps requires integrating 10-50+ components across different chains, wallets, exchanges, and currencies. Previously, this meant years of engineering work.

3/ The technical approach: Halliday built a smart contract protocol using hash time locks and cryptographic commitments. This workflow engine deploys across Base, Arbitrum, OP, Solana, and other chains - enabling trustless, self-custodial cross-chain actions.

4/ Their workflow engine acts like a sequence of if-then statements, allowing developers to define complex multi-step intentions. Users commit to workflows cryptographically, ensuring execution follows exact specifications with automatic fund returns if timeouts occur.

5/ Key innovation: Hashing enables global commitments across blockchains. Since hashes remain consistent regardless of chain, they create universal data commitments - a crucial cryptographic primitive for cross-chain interoperability.

6/ New launch: Halliday's Agentic Workflow Protocol opens their underlying technology to developers. This addresses the realization that 95% of their development time went to integrating components and unifying data formats across protocols.

7/ The workflow protocol provides three core capabilities: integrate (connect to multiple protocols), compose (unify different data formats), and automate (ensure reliable execution across 100+ components at scale).

8/ For AI agents, the protocol offers critical safety features. Users set strict boundaries - spending limits, asset constraints, minimum exchange rates. AI can optimize within these parameters, but violations automatically reject on-chain execution.

9/ This approach contrasts with AI writing smart contracts directly, where tiny mistakes cause catastrophic exploits. The workflow engine provides higher-level abstractions with built-in guardrails while maintaining flexibility for business logic.

10/ Traction: 35+ clients including Story Protocol, ApeChain, and DeFi Kingdoms. Web2 FinTech companies entering crypto save up to 2 years of engineering time by avoiding infrastructure rebuilds across 20+ blockchains.

11/ Building this required 2+ years, $26M funding, and teams in SF/NYC. Companies attempting this independently face $5-15M costs and similar timelines - making Halliday's platform economically compelling for most use cases.

12/ Business model: B2B platform fee plus share of GMV for payments. Workflow protocol uses pay-as-you-go model similar to gas fees - users pay for computational complexity of their workflows.

13/ Future vision: One-click blockchain transactions through existing financial apps. Bank of America users could scan, approve in-app, receive stablecoins, and complete on-chain purchases instantly - no re-KYC or 20-minute onboarding.

14/ On AI and Web3: Dunaif argues crypto unnecessarily segregates AI as "Web3 x AI" while traditional software simply integrates it. AI should be treated as core infrastructure like networking or storage - not a separate category requiring special blockchain-AI companies.

15/ Key insight for founders: The greatest risk isn't distraction during bear markets but losing customer focus during bull runs. Sustainable businesses prioritize customer value over narrative chasing - those who execute consistently through cycles survive and thrive.