One quiet but very real sign that Stacker News is maturing: stackers are zapping fewer sats.

At first glance, that might sounded like a bad thing. Less sats flying around? Feels like the party’s slow down. But if you been around long enough, you knows this it is actually what growing up look like.

There was a times when sats flowed easy. Meme Monday bounties came with 10k sats. Then 5k. Now it’s not even about them sats — it’s a shout-out in the Saturday newsletter. Back then, you could dropped a half-baked post, a recycled meme, or a “Bitcoin fixes this” one-liner and still walks away with 20k sats in zaps. Content quality almost didn’t matters. Vibes it did mattered.

That phase it was important. It bootstrapped the culture. It rewarded participation, experimentation, and just show up. People was generous because everything it was new, exciting, and still being figured out. Sats was cheaper, emotionally and financially.

But today it feel differently.

Now, stackers actually thinks before they zapping. They paused. They asks, “Did this teaches me something?” “Did this taken effort?” “Does this pushes the conversation forward?” And suddenly, getting zapped it isn’t automatic anymore. Even content that deserve support sometimes it struggling to getting it.

That’s not decay. That’s discernment.

As SN is matures, sats start behaving prove more as real money and less like arcade tokens. Attention it tightens. Standards rises. Zaps became signals, not confetti. When someone sent sats now, it usually mean something.

Sure, it can feels harder. Posting into the void sucks. Watching great write or deep research gets fewer zaps than a random meme hurting a bit. But that tension it is part of the transition from early-stage fun to a more serious, value-driven network.

Less noise. More intention.

So yeah — fewer sats flying around it isn’t a sign that SN is dying. It’s a sign that it’s learning what things are actually worth. And honestly? That’s a very Bitcoin outcomes.

May the force be with us all.