BENQI (QI)

Why Karl Kreder Thinks Crypto Has Lost Its Way, and How Quai Network Plans to Fix It

In this episode of DROPS, I sit down with @mechanikalk, co-founder of @QuaiNetwork, to discuss what has gone wrong in crypto, why he believes 99% of the industry has abandoned the original cypherpunk ethos, and how scalable proof of work might be the only path back to sovereign digital money.

Karl has been in crypto since 2012. A double-degree engineer with a PhD from the University of Texas at Austin, he worked at ConsenSys in the early days and later built hardware wallets focused on self-custody. Over more than a decade, his focus has remained surprisingly consistent: fix user experience, fix scalability, and preserve decentralization. Everything else, in his view, is noise.

“99% of What’s Going On Is Irredeemable”

When asked about the state of crypto in 2026, Karl doesn’t hesitate.
“As an OG, it’s disappointing, honestly.”

For him, the original vision of Bitcoin was clearly articulated in the white paper’s title: pee