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Home > Unchained > Does High REV Signal a Blockchain's Strength or Its User Exploitation? - Ep. 841
Podcast: Unchained
Episode:

Does High REV Signal a Blockchain's Strength or Its User Exploitation? - Ep. 841
Category: Society & Culture
Duration: 01:22:00
Publish Date: 2025-05-27 16:00:00
Description:

A debate has been heating up on crypto Twitter about Real Economic Value (REV) — a metric meant to measure the value blockchains accrue from user activity. REV includes transaction fees and MEV tips, but excludes issuance — the inflationary rewards paid to validators. Some say it’s the clearest window into genuine usage. Others argue it’s a flawed and misleading proxy.

So we brought the argument to Unchained. Tom Dunleavy, Head of Venture at Varys Capital, says fees are headed to zero, and blockchains shouldn’t be valued like companies. Meanwhile, Austin Federa, Co-founder of DoubleZero, believes REV offers a real lens on activity, maturity, and demand.

The conversation covers:

  • Whether REV is a meaningful metric (and how to game it)

  • Whether L2 tokens are fundamentally broken

  • What happens to security when fees (and MEV) go to zero

  • If high REV signals product-market fit or just economic noise

  • How to value blockchains, if not with REV

Visit our website for breaking news, analysis, op-eds, articles to learn about crypto, and much more: unchainedcrypto.com

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Timestamps:

0:00 Intro

2:50 What REV actually measures and why it’s sparking so much debate

4:33 Why fees that don’t go to the protocol are included in this metric
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