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What if Ethereum isn’t just a network, but a nation? What if Bitcoin is a republic, Solana a technocracy, and Cosmos a federation of city-states? Blockchains are usually described in technical terms, protocols, validators, consensus mechanisms. But look closer, and they resemble something far more political: states in the digital realm. They have constitutions written in code, governments in the form of validators and miners, economies built around native tokens, and even foreign policies through bridges and interoperability. And like any state, they depend on their citizens, users, developers, and token holders who pledge allegiance not by birthright, but by choice.

Why do decentralized exchanges look so different from centralized ones? Until now, most crypto trading on-chain used something called AMMs (Automated Market Makers). These are pools of tokens that set prices with a simple formula. They’re easy to use and always give you a price, but they can be inefficient, especially for big trades. Traditional markets like stocks use order books, where buyers and sellers post their prices and trades happen when they meet. Early blockchains like Ethereum were too slow and expensive to support this model. That’s why AMMs became the default in crypto. Now the tech has caught up. New blockchains and rollups can process thousands of transactions per second, fast enough to run order books again. Projects likeHyperliquid, dYdX, Aevo, and Vertexare bringing this model back, offering more precise trading and advanced features like limit orders and stop-losses. In simple terms: AMMs got DeFi started. But order books are returning, and they could make decentralized trading feel a lot more like Coinbase or Binance, just without giving up control of your funds.

Imagine if only landlords made money in a city, while the people running stores and restaurants paid rent but got little in return. That’s how many blockchains work today. The people securing the network, called validators — get rewarded just for locking up money, while the applications actually driving activity often struggle to survive.