FDI method

Growth Cartography is the method behind Marketing Engineering: evidence first, one supervised loop, measurable handoff.

The series · Decentralized markets · As of 2026

Decentralized, owned.

Marketing within crypto-powered networks — Farcaster, Lens, DAOs, onchain identity, and the agent settlement layer — where the participants own the rails and no single company controls the feed.

What is a decentralized market? Participant-owned markets organized through crypto protocols, portable identity, and onchain coordination.


No feed to win

Discovery on Farcaster and Lens is distributed across open protocols and community channels. There is no advertising product to buy placement inside. Reach is earned through participation, contribution, and the on-chain reputation that accumulates from both.

Wallet-based identity

A wallet address and its associated ENS name, attestations, and token holdings are the same across every EVM-compatible protocol. brand.eth resolves everywhere. SIWE (EIP-4361, implemented in wevm/viem) lets any application verify wallet ownership without storing a password or trusting a platform.

The agent layer

Three open primitives are building the agent-to-agent commerce stack: coinbase/x402 for HTTP-native USDC payment, coinbase/agentkit for managed agent wallets, and google-agentic-commerce/AP2 for pre-authorized payment mandates. Agents can now discover, verify, and pay for services onchain — no human in the loop.


Own the structure

The Network-Native Org.

Owning the assets is half the answer. The other half is an organization shaped to run them.

Structure as code

Blueprints, not slide decks

MarCom OS ships the Hourglass org blueprint, the Use, Compose, Build capability calculator, and the Riverbank governance system as editable working documents, with a free starter pack to try before you buy.

Shared comparison model

Decentralized across eight axes.

Every marketplace uses the same practical questions so the differences stay legible.

Who owns the rails

Participants govern protocols, wallets, and networks.

How discovery happens

Open protocols, communities, attestations, and contribution.

Whose identity matters

Portable wallet identity, ENS names, and attestations.

Who makes the decision

Participants and communities coordinate through protocol rules.

How value or settlement moves

Tokens and programmable onchain settlement.

Which signals marketers measure

Contribution, reputation, retention, liquidity, and attestations.

What a team can own

Portable identity, onchain reputation, and a source-grounded corpus.

How FDI responds

Make contribution verifiable and carry one governed source across networks.


Continue the series

The other two markets.

Each market has a one-pager and a full field guide. Move through the series in any order.

Start here

One method, three marketplaces.

Use the same eight questions to locate the rails, decision-maker, measurable signal, and durable asset in any market.

Comparison axis AggregatedDecentralizedAutonomous
Who owns the railsPlatforms own the distribution rails.Participants govern protocols, wallets, and networks.Callable protocols and agent networks provide the rails.
How discovery happensFeeds, search rankings, and AI answer layers filter attention.Open protocols, communities, attestations, and contribution.Machine-readable catalogs, tool calls, reputation, and citations.
Whose identity mattersPlatform account and persistent first-party identity.Portable wallet identity, ENS names, and attestations.Verifiable organization, agent, and delegated user identity.
Who makes the decisionA person, influenced by platform ranking and recommendation.Participants and communities coordinate through protocol rules.Software agents evaluate and act within human-set constraints.
How value or settlement movesPlatform-mediated ads, subscriptions, and transactions.Tokens and programmable onchain settlement.Delegated mandates, APIs, and machine-speed payment protocols.
Which signals marketers measureReach, qualified attention, citations, conversion, and retention.Contribution, reputation, retention, liquidity, and attestations.Selection, correction rate, citation persistence, latency, and outcomes.
What a team can ownA proven corpus, provenance trail, and permissioned audience.Portable identity, onchain reputation, and a source-grounded corpus.A citable corpus and governed interface agents can query and verify.
How FDI respondsInstrument platforms while building assets that survive rule changes.Make contribution verifiable and carry one governed source across networks.Build a gated, citable interface with human approval at consequential edges.

Join the waitlist

The Decentralized field guide is live. Get the next one first.

Field Guide 003 is live: the full argument for marketing within crypto-powered networks, six moves for the decentralized market, and the three agent-commerce primitives — with the 13-slide deck. Drop your email to follow the series and we'll reach out the day the next guide ships. No spam.

Prefer email? Write us at john@ratcliffe-lee.com.

Open Cartography Lab

Token networks decay on the same curves as every other cohort. Model your node retention, airdrop vs drip dynamics, and sustained active count.

Take it to the Lab →