I have been involved in the world of cryptocurrency for about 5 years now. During this time, I have gained some understanding of the nature of this space, what prompts adoption, and how different narratives are formed within this space. This knowledge is crucial as it enables us to maneuver the crypto space more efficiently and make the most of our time.
IT ALL STARTED AS A GOOD IDEA
The crypto story starts with Satoshi Nakamoto and Bitcoin, although one can argue that there have been attempts in the past to create a decentralized digital currency. Bitcoin was the game changer. However, we started as an ingenious project geared towards freeing people from an oppressive and corrupt financial system and governments turned out to be the biggest advanced Ponzi scheme.
Buy low, see high
Crypto and Ponzi are two words many people, especially crypto enthusiasts, do not like associating, but this is how most of the world sees the industry. The ironic thing about this issue is that stakeholders in this industry pushed this narrative in the way crypto was/is promoted which has led to two big bubbles over a decade.
The first was the ICOs/ITOs era which is the equivalent of selling penny stocks. People bought cheap worthless overhyped tokens with the hope of selling them later in the future to a bigger fool at a higher price.
The industry did not learn its lesson after the ICO bubble burst. In 2020 the NFT narrative was created, leading to another pump and burst in late 2021.
INDUSTRIES OF DRIFTERS AND DEGENS
Unfortunately, this industry attracts the worst of the worst. Earlier today during the cryptoholic space we spoke about scams and scammers. There were a handful of names/projects that made this list and these were industry leaders or leading projects. Unfortunately, they all turned out to be drifters and we the community enabled them.
Today anyone person with an idea or clout wants to run a crypto project and wear the tag of founder, because why not? It is easy money and there are many gullible people in the space willing to part with their money for the prospect of future gains. You only have to come up with a convincing story and have friends in high industry to gain people's trust.
We cannot have this discussion without also mentioning the invisible hands of whales/VCs and crypto influencers who are consistently manipulating the market and gatekeeping the industry. They prop up shitty projects and make a fortune out of them at the expense of their community. These are the things wrong with crypto.
Will things ever change?
I doubt.
At its core crypto offers real value to people who need a medium to create, send and store value without having to deal with corrupt governments and regimes. It also makes it possible that people's wealth or source of livelihood is not tied to a certain geographical location. This is very valuable and cannot be understated.
There is also the free-speech narrative that blockchains like Hive are trying to push, in addition to creating creators' economies that benefit a wide range of creators. These are the important things and probably the not-so-talked-about things in the space because most people are focused on chasing the bag (money) and unfortunately, that will not change any time soon.
There will always be good projects within the space but they may never get the recognition on a large scale level which is totally fine. As long as there are people willing to work and support these projects they will continue to exist to serve the people. Hive is one such example. There are thousands of people across the globe including myself who are invested in the project and want to see it grow.
Nevertheless, if we ever get past the hype and scams in the crypto industry, maybe we do have the chance to onboard the masses, not for speculative reasons, but for the utility this space provides. Unfortunately, this is far from what's obtainable today. The mindset has not changed (might not change) and we have to expect things and work along those lines.
CONCLUSION
If people only want to make money, then platforms must structure themselves so they can extract as much value as they give to sustain their ecosystem and ensure that resources go into the best hands–a meritocracy of some sort. We still have the chance to create automated systems that are fair/equitable, devoid of human influence/error/bias., which is why I look forward to the integration of AI and blockchain and how that will impact core aspects of blockchain like governance and token distribution.
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Check out this short thread on projects with potential airdrops.