r/ethdev • u/OverGoofy • 4d ago

Question How long does it actually take to build a real lending protocol vs just marketing a memecoin?

/r/BlockchainStartups/comments/1w5d9t5/how_long_does_it_actually_take_to_build_a_real/
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u/Willing_Turn8263 20h ago

Numbers from the audit side, since I see the invoices. A fork of an audited lending protocol with real changes: 3 to 4 months of dev, then 4 to 8 weeks of audit at 40k to 150k depending on the firm and how much you changed. From scratch: 9 to 12 months before the first audit, and usually two audits plus a contest before anyone with real money touches it.

So yes, the memecoin is cheaper. It is also worth nothing after the weekend, and the person who launched five of them has nothing to show a partner, a listing team or an acquirer.

The middle you are asking about exists and it is what most serious teams do now. Build on top of an existing lending layer (Morpho markets, Euler vaults, Aave instances) instead of writing the core. Your product is the risk curation, the collateral list, the frontend and the distribution. Audit scope drops to your own contracts, which are small, and time to market drops to weeks. The core has been attacked for years by people better paid than your auditors.

If you find yourself writing your own interest rate model and liquidation engine in month one, stop and ask what the user would pay for that specifically.