A beautiful game board delivering a hostile investment memo.
apps · Tier 2
First Original Apps
The first apps that could not exist anywhere else.
Apps built for this chain's specific property — its speed, its cost, its unique data structure. If the app would work just as well on Ethereum, it isn't Tier 2. It's Tier 1 wearing a new coat.
How you’d recognise it
The test is brutal and simple: would this app break if you moved it to a slow chain? If no, you don’t have a native app.
A chain that sells throughput has to produce an app that consumes throughput. The honest diagnostic is transactions-per-account: a high-frequency on-chain orderbook genuinely needs the speed; a lending market does not. Most "high-performance chain" ecosystems fail this test — their flagship apps would run fine at 15 TPS.
What it buys
The first real answer to "why does this chain exist?"
What it does NOT buy
Users. Original ≠ wanted. Most native apps are novel solutions to problems nobody has.
Necessary waypoint. Usually mistaken for the destination.
“First Original Apps” — The Ecosystem Tech Tree (v1.0). https://pareen.xyz/eco-techtree/tile/apps-t2. Last verified 2026-07-12.