warning: long post incoming tldr; everything will be fine, probably I've spent a crazy amount of time and money building on stacks over the past 2 years, so I feel I have a good perspective on things atm. I built stxtools from scratch with $0 funding, and it has become one of the most well-used apps in the ecosystem. I launched leo and created the most active community on stacks, hit $30M ath, and onboarded thousands through activations, NFTs, collabs, and more. I spent a lot of money building stxscan too (which failed, and that's fine; these things happen and are part of pushing the boat out). The community on stacks is truly great, and I've met some brilliant friends here during that time (the best thing about stacks, imo). sip-031/endowment is a crucial time for the eco, and a lot hangs in the balance - how the next 3-6 months unfolds will likely shape the entire future of stacks. We do need to support and encourage more builders and empower community members/content creators/space hosts/artists/insert anyone else building. I like degrants (if properly funded) for this particularly, which had such a 'sticky' nature; the dev/builder retention was amazing, and the community owned it. Giving appropriate support will help bring new devs and help stacks find those top 'entrepreneur' builders who can build a killer app. There are a number of apps/people that do deserve funding, and I hope they get it. What I don't support is giving free money to apps if there isn't a fit/need for them. (There should be a clear 'what we need/direction from top down here too to help people with what they are building and if they will likely be supported.) I do think activations this year have been good, and comms have gotten way better than, say, 12 months ago, and there is definitely reason to be positive looking forward. Looking at the roadmap, which if executed correctly is very exciting: new sBTC cap raise, dual staking, protocol tges, (airdrops?), t1 stablecoin, and more. We need to get the right community voices on the treasury committee and not just people who will roll over and give funds out to where they are told. Endowment funds need to be used properly; solid hires are needed for the new entity who 'get it,' and a plan needs to be executed for more users, TVL, etc., etc. Identify the key players here already, those who have devoted time and money, the leaders, the go-getters, the builders, and back them properly. If you made it this far into my ramblings - well done, and I'll see you for my gm post tomorrow.