I'm finding the "positive sum" language around coins really misleading.

It's literally the opposite. If the way users make money from their content is when other users buy it, it's literally zero sum, financially. Not everyone can be making money, unless external capital is being injected from a another source (which is losing money).

I think this misses the bigger picture. 

if you treat coins purely as a closed system with buyers and sellers, it looks zero sum. but that ignores the fact that attention and discovery are not fixed resources.

the “positive sum” comes not from everyone making magic internet money, but from the system enabling value to emerge where there was none before.

leads to better discovery, better content, and more people opting in, that is net positive. also remember that money is infinite, and if not injected here, its injected elsewhere.

This is all nice in theory. But just not really true in practice 

Look at the data. None of what you’re describing is actually happening

building @emptyblock / prev director of research @coinmetrics

it is happening.

users with an audience are making $.

no platform is going to pay you if you don’t have a mix of audience/influence.

Are these users in the room with us right now? 

I’d love to know who you’re referring to