(2024-05-27) A small crypto rant
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The state of things gets... well... interesting but I'm getting tired pretty
quickly. When I'm not as mentally strained as now I'll definitely have a
follow-up on the JJY signal format. For now, I'm gonna focus on something
that I can fit into four paragraphs, not including this one. As hard as it
gets, I'm not going to name names, but I think it will be easy for everyone
to guess what exactly I'm talking about. The reason I'm not going to name
names is because a certain cryptocurrency has developed a cult-like
following, and I don't want to become a target of hundreds of brainless
fanatics thinking that their chosen coin, which in fact fully deviated from
its original vision and essentially became fiat in disguise, is going to be
the future of online transactions and a path to real freedom. People these
days get easily triggered by the smallest amount of criticism, especially
when they cannot into a single bit of critical thinking themselves.
Therefore, my rule of thumb is: if *anything* develops a cult-like
following, run away from it as far as you can.
For now, I'm not even as deep into crypto as most of its (non-fanatic) users,
but from what I have observed, there are about five types of them (besides
those fanatics and self-proclaimed influencers): stackers, traders,
cypherpunks, miners and normies. Let's start with the last category.
"Normies" isn't necessarily a bad thing in this context: they just use
crypto like any other currency, to hold some of it and pay for goods and
services. They don't like volatility so they usually use USDT or other
stablecoins, not caring about privacy implications much. For them, it's just
another way to pay. Cypherpunks, on the other hand, also view crypto as a
mere payment tool, but privacy is of the primary concern. I, for instance,
place myself on the overlap of the normie and cypherpunk category. I don't
like volatility and like doing good things, but only if they can be done
anonymously, because that's the way to go.
Miners, as the name suggests, are usually only working with the first-gen
cryptocurrencies where the "proof of work" is required, because they produce
it themselves. They also may or may not be stackers, believing in the market
stability of the coin they own and mine, but the stacking concept is beyond
the PoW currencies, and most of the time people mine one currency and then
exchange it to stack another. The weakest-minded stackers, however, may
become the aforementioned fanatics, and their amount is a clear indicator of
what cryptos you should avoid. Finally, there are traders, and they don't
believe in the crypto at all but try to make everybody else think they do.
For them, it's just another speculative asset, and they essentially don't
differ much (if at all) from stock exchange traders because the nature of
their business is pretty much the same, only with a little bigger grade of
anonymity, although KYC-only centralized exchanges take away that advantage
as well, and most coin traffic is still going through them. Which, IMO,
nullifies the value of cryptocurrency in the first place, but hey, I'm more
of a cypherpunk type.
Now, where am I going with all this? As with any other topic involving money
(especially big money), cryptocurrencies can and do generate a lot of hype,
controversy and hate. The more money is involved, the more people start
forgetting that it's just a tool. When a tool becomes an object of
speculation, it's bad enough already, but when it becomes an investment,
it's outright pointless and sometimes even dangerous. This equally applies
to, say, luxury watches as well as cryptocurrencies, and the existence of
some real marketplaces where one can buy the former for the latter just
indicates how spoiled the society has become on so many levels. And the
apparent ease of entry, by the way, attracts more gullible general public
that doesn't have a clue how to behave in this space and falls prey to
multiple scammers, which, by the way, are among the loudest crypto endorsers
out there. All this paints an even more negative image on the technology
itself and certainly doesn't help the cause it was initially designed to
serve.
Let's be real: most crypto users don't even realise why it is better than
fiat. They just want fiat minus some qualities they don't like about it. For
miners, this quality would be governmental monopoly on issuing, for
cypherpunks — governmental control and lack of privacy, for stackers —
inflation, for traders — tighter regulations. Surprisingly, very few people
actually get the entire picture and fully understand why they want a totally
new form of peer-to-peer digital currency, not just "a better cash". And
when they do understand this, there remains no place for hate, arrogance or
fanaticism. Only a desire to make the world a better place by doing what
they can with what they've got.
