Every corrupted system tells the same story if you dig deep enough—the roots weren't planted in bad people, they grew from broken incentives. Watch how a DeFi protocol withers when governance tokens concentrate power. Notice how a blockchain project spirals when early backers face zero accountability. The pattern is relentless: misaligned incentives create perverse outcomes. A trader facing liquidation pressure makes reckless moves. A validator prioritizing MEV over network security erodes trust. A DAO where whales vote themselves rewards eventually hollows out. It's not malice—it's mechanics. You can design the prettiest smart contract, but if the economic game rewards defection over cooperation, corruption isn't a bug, it's the feature the system was always going to ship. The fix? Restructure the incentives before they reshape the institution.