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By now, I guess most people will have heard of the scandal at OpenSea. If you didn't, this is the brief rundown... OpenSea is the leading platform for NFTs on Ethereum... and arguably the leading platform full-stop. Their Head of Product was just yesterday caught red-handed buying NFTs BEFORE they were listed on the featured page of OpenSea, essentially front-running the hype and exposure of the front page listing with his insider knowledge and then flipping the NFTs to make an easy profit.

Now, there doesn't seem to be too much debate about whether or not he did this... the evidence is there on the open Ethereum chain, and for some reason, he didn't take too much effort to hide his tracks... only using different Ethereum addresses that were linked back to his main one... and no effort at using anything like Tornado Cash. So, for someone who is supposed to be working in crypto... it was bizarrely amateurish! Especially if you are doing something that most people would consider unethical.

More concerning to me, was the number of Twitter people (social media... so, grain of salt there!) that came out in a sort of defence of his actions. Ideas such as:

• technically it isn't illegal (NFTs are not stocks, and there is no law for this that is akin to insider trading).
• people in banks and trading firms do it, so why not in crypto?
• Everyone would have done it if they were in the position to do it.
• If it is possible, then there is no reason why you shouldn't.

Now, these are the arguments that I would expect from a teenaged edgelord... and it is quite possible that many of these commentators were exactly that.

But it did get me thinking about how far we have moved away from our original cryptocurrency roots. The original vision of cryptocurrency was to build a better future... and in part, the tools are there... but then money and people got involved, and the space is profoundly different to what many people in the early days had might have thought it would be. Of course, I am sort of naively driven to the idealistic... I have been since I was young... but as I got older, I did develop a pragmatic streak, but that core of idealism is still there in me... often sadly disappointed by the way the real world works!

These days... most of cryptocurrency is all talk of money, PnL and crazy profits and APRs. There are some projects here and there that stick to a vision, but they are always infected by "investors" who have an eye on different concepts of success.

I do wonder, if most of us had the opportunity to be in a position of power and influence... how would we act? There is the old adage that power (money) corrupts... and of that I'm sure that everyone would change if they were given the power/influence. However, there are many people that start with and retain a core of ethics... the idea that every decision has ramifications far beyond the self and their own inner circle. The ones that realise that every decision will hurt someone, and is prepared to take responsibility and feel that weight of that damage.

... however, it appears that those who desire power also have the sometimes psychopathic ability to justify their actions and overlook the damage as "acceptable". I am reminded of the idea that the best leader is the reluctant one.

So, it brings me back to the original OpenSea Twitter debates that started this entire train of thought... yes, maybe it was legal; yes, maybe it was clever; yes, maybe it was possible... but life is full of so much more than maximising the ability to do whatever you want. Shouldn't there have been a little voice in the guy (and his defenders) saying... "I probably shouldn't do this"... or "I probably don't NEED to do this".

Winning those little numbers and the funny games that we play with each other... it isn't the real game. At some point, you have played and won enough... otherwise, there is an endless infinity of numbers upwards from where you currently are. I feel sad for the people who haven't realised that yet, I hope they learn it one day.

I can also be found cross-posting at:
Hive
Steem
Publish0x

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