Fri, 25 Sep 2020 22:31:57 +0100

Notes on crypto culture

Crypto culture has gone into its adolescence. Let’s give it that. We cannot call it mature, as nobody big on the market will consider them seriously. Warren Buffet will never own a single Bitcoin. Just like an average person outside the West will not own a stock. Such is the world. Then, what is the culture of cryptographic currencies and is it capable of not dying like a drunken teenager in a stupor?

This is by no way a technical article. It is one of my attempts of trying to build an audience by writing for technical people without selling anything. Should also write on that. If you want technical knowledge…

I am pretty sure you have it, bud. If you don’t - do your homework.

Childhood

It all started with Bitcoin when the hacker culture realised that cryptographic algorithms could be used for creation of value. We still do not know who is behind it. Anyways, discussing that is a complete waste of time. I mean, what if it is you who made Bitcoin. You could have spent all you had on cheese pizza or cheese pizza. That is about how much it matters.

2017 happened. It was the moon. The dream of growing out of childhood was fulfilled. Equivalent of drinking the first beer. Maybe a handjob. I would say that a handjob is nearest in the terms of excitement to what happened in 2017. The joy of people in the culture was on this level. Not really a display of seriousness.

Adolescence is the anger at a hustler saying that a handjob is nothing.

Now, it was not 2012 anymore. No more articles in tech magazines (whatever that has to do with anything). We are big now. We are serious now. We are real now.

As with a handjob, one wishes to consider it part of their skill or personal qualities. It’s never luck. It’s never accidental. It was planned. It must have been a result of rational choices which had allowed this. In reality, this success was a result of speculation. A tradition as old as money. You speculate in time and in space. A derivative can go up, down, and not change. That’s it. Nevertheless, a handjob is a sexual encounter.

A mania is a value(ability) encounter.

Adolescence

2017 is over. A volatility of the biggest market is lesser. Manias are local. Chainlink one day, something else the other. There is no general mood of miracle now. Maybe on some forums, but far from excitement. There are ideas for the future. Maybe becoming a real currency, everlasting adolescence, reliving the handjob, whatever.

These do not resemble anything more concrete than a teenager thinking about their future. Cause future is fucking different. Random things show up.

Be happy with the gigs you have. There are business that need you. There are places where you are useful. Adolescence is not eternal.

Crypto is not a person, it is a technology. It can do stuff from adolescence, but will go onward. Can it do it with such culture?

Culture changed once, and will change again. It might remain with certain elements from now - the element of enthusiasm and hodling is still there. Now it includes the awareness of 2017.

Adulthood?

What will happen is l'avenir. The model with which Derrida came up for some boring interview is perfect for this case. The speculation of possible changes can sound like excitement.

I can talk only about continuation of adolescence.

L'avenir stands for the future to come. That is the unpredictable, the unknown. I cannot give any guarantees. Nobody can. Covid-19 taught me that speculation is… fun. I think excitement does not lead to its dreams. No dream is going to get fulfilled. All fulfilment will be empty.

Imagine the world with a particular crypto adulthood. Consider it being a world currency. Perfectly administered by some authority. Look into your fiat money. Somebody in the past considered it exciting. Reality becomes the norm.

Fulfilment ends dreams.

The future reality will make crypto next technology, without culture. The culture has to die for it to grow. No more excitement, no more surplus enjoyment. That, I can only predict.