I’ve never been a crypto enthusiast. Now I’m a crypto skeptic. How so? Well, I’ve seen several projects inside, I followed several cases and I watch the news (a bit too much). And here is what I now think about the promised land of decentralization, Web 3.0 and tokenomics.
It does allow many people to make good money, but these people are not you. Numerous crypto start-ups mushroom daily and offer new revolutionary platforms with more decentralization, faster, cheaper, more secure and more private transactions (none of the statements has ever been true since the advent of bitcoin). But crypto start-ups are developers’ heavens. High salaries and zero responsibility. Geeks “zoom-room” for hours pretending they are about to change the world, learn new technologies at the expense of investors and do a great job imitating, well, great job: each daily stand-up call is an enumeration of fancy terms like: bytecode, smart contract deployment, sharding, consensus algorithm, etc. (and I’m not even citing the most sophisticated and mind-boggling ones). Few people can catch them and those who can probably would not.
Investors are likely to be among those people and they often don’t mind the status quo. Here is why. Isn’t it odd that numerous half-dead crypto projects continue their miserable existence and keep launching tons of useless and faulty products like almost identical wallets, ecosystems that are DOA and shit coins nobody with IQ over 60 wants to buy? It is odd, but it is easy to explain. Loss making projects are great for money laundering. For example, I have reasons to suspect that a good deal of the grifted US military budget is legalized via offshore Silicone valley projects.
To keep things running, money and spice flowing, crypto visionaries (I should write about the phenomenon of visionaries as well, a new community of totally useless people) come up with new use-cases and give them catchy names. NFT seem to be the last blockchain fad. Try to pronounce the word “nonfungible”, let alone spell it, and you will understand why they like abbreviations that much. Also using abbreviations helps prevent the audience from excessive thinking, it’s just NFT, or Covid, or whatever. Look, stablecoins were not half as popular as NFTs are. Maybe it’s because the word is too long. Don’t fall for abbreviations, remember the DAO case.
Last but not least, there is no anonymity online. If you invested in crypto hoping for more freedom and privacy, feel free to withdraw while you still can. KYC is watching you better than the Big Brother and Russian wallet owners have just received some love from it. I even think it is safe to assume that bitcoin was a geo-political scheme from the inception. Does Satoshi work for CIA? Maybe.
Now why the title, if we all know that BTC mining is an energy consuming process? Well, I do believe that the Green Transition is a scam propped by a set of buzzwords like carbon footprint, climate change, renewable energy sources, molecules of freedom, etc. It appeared because investors needed to invest somewhere while money was cheap. Crypto has pretty much the same origine, but it is even less tangible. Also, turning things green-er is another fad. Look, how PoS is greener than PoW (yes, more abbreviations for you, my friends).
By the way, in both cases we do have some solid technology behind. Distributed hyperledger used in bitcoin is a serious database building concept that is used by many state-level entities all over the world. Photovoltaics and wind power engineering are interesting and have serious potential (for example, solar panels are used in space), but real economics is like real politics (it is actually the same). It takes thinking and planning, and it is not necessarily about making money.
I will end this like all articles from crypto experts end: this articles is for entertainment and education purposes, it does not contain advice or recommendation whatsoever, do your own research before making decisions.
Excellent commentary Maria. When I think of cryptocurrency I recall the Dutch Tulip Madness.
By the way, I’m an American patriot. I love my country but I love Russia too. I was a nationalist which I learned meant I was a Nazi because I loved my country but hated others. The realization was shocking and caused an identity crisis that was very traumatic. It caused much introspection, prayer for forgiveness and redeeming myself.
Ian’s father took the time to make me think. Ian himself helped a lot too. I credit them for saving me from myself.
Ever since Ian introduced me to you I’ve looked forward to reading you. I pray this insanity stops. My government and NATO have been taken over by Nazis and are trying to get us all killed in nuclear Armageddon with their agression since the reunification of Germany.
Kind regards Maria.
Yes, the Tulip Madness is a good analogy. Being a patriot is natural, but yes, love for your country isn’t hating other nations. The more aware we are of other countries and cultures, the less we are likely to hate them. When you appreciate contribution of each nation to the global civilization, you cannot imagine the world without this nation. Synergy is better than pointless hate. I hate to imagine the world without Germany or the USA, and I do hope we are not put before the “them or us” choice (which is likely to result in neither).
Exactly. Patriotism goes to a dark place when you think everything is a zero-sum game. We need to learn how to share.
“We need to learn how to share”. Are you a Communist!?
That’s the first thing you’re accused of by the Neocons.
Actually your point is valid. Instead of contending we should compete in doing good. I also read that we should be more like plants.
Always enjoy your comments.
My wish and fervent prayer is for peace, commerce and prosperity for all our nations. Russo phobia and China phobia must end along with the Nazis.
It seems Russia isn’t finished with WW2.
Best regards.
Thank you for your comments. I agree that peace, prosperity and wellbeing are most important. These are real values all people instinctively understand. Let’s hope reason will prevail.
Hi Maria,
While I agree completely with you regarding crypto-casino and its zealots, I think you underestimate the potential of the technology.
Take for example the Particl Project, a small group cypherpunk/libertarians and yes visionaries. The have realised the long dream of the OG cypherpunks. That is they have built a privacy-centric decentralized e-commerce platform. Its decentralized nature allows it to be censorship resistant. You can directly buy and sell anything you want privately without any third-parties or intermediaries. Finally, it has no comissions or service fees, so whatever you pay for a product or service goes to the pocket of the seller.
What happened with Russia these days, like Amazon/Ebay/Visa/Mastercard/etc undemocraticaly boycotting/excluding Rusdian people from global e-commerce, will be simply nullified by such technologies. In other words, they provide everyone (not possible to exclude anyone by design) access and equal opportunities in global e-commerce.
Check it at particl dot io slash marketplace. Even better try the e-commerce platform yourself. I hope it will change your mind regarding the potential that the DLT offers.