After years of observing DeFi projects, one phenomenon has become increasingly evident—compliance and privacy are being artificially pitted against each other. In simple terms, the technical solutions have always existed; it's just that too many projects are too lazy to implement them.

Currently, projects either claim to be compliant, tightly holding user privacy, turning DeFi into on-chain banks; or they embrace extreme decentralization, outright rejecting regulatory adaptation, ultimately just self-hyping within small circles, with institutional funds unwilling to get close.

Recently, I started paying attention to a certain DeFi ecosystem project mainly because its approach is not extreme. It uses a layered privacy KYC framework, not to scrutinize user details, but to give users the choice. If you want a zero-threshold experience, you can; if you want to connect real assets to increase yields, you can unlock compliance permissions in tiers. User data is not monopolized by the project—this is what DeFi should look like.

What’s even more impressive is its transparency requirements for ecosystem cooperation. Many projects in the crypto space rely on PPT pie-in-the-sky promises, with actual implementation entirely dependent on luck. But this project openly discloses license progress, regulatory updates, and cooperation details, allowing users to verify for themselves. In the short term, it may not be as flashy as hype, but long-term trust accumulation is the real asset.

Ultimately, what DeFi needs is not wavering compromises between idealism and realism, but the infrastructure to find that balance. The crypto world isn’t short of dramatic rises and falls; what’s most lacking is an ecosystem that allows people to participate with confidence for the long term.