1-min summary of “We can’t all be friends” by Tony Sheng

This is a summary of We can’t all be friends: crypto and the psychology of mass movements by Tony Sheng published on 21 August 2018.

1-minute summary

• The player of mass movement in chronological order are: (1) Anti-establishment intellectuals, who spread ideas about “truth”, (2) Fanatic leader, who unifies the masses around those ideas in an instant using hate and hope, (3) “Men of action” who maintain and legitimise the movement
• Applying to Bitcoin — (1) Cypherpunks’ ideas lead to the Bitcoin Whitepaper, (2) fanatics like Andreas Antonopolis, Fred Wilson, Roger Ver evangelize Bitcoin, promising freedom legacy financial systems, (3) we are not there yet
• Applying to Ethereum — (1) Bitcoin critiques lead to Ethereum Whitepaper, (2) Vitalik Buterin, Joe Lubin, and “Silicon Valley” promise freedom from the tyranny of internet monopolies, (3) we are not there yet
• Different crypto projects often display fierce opposition because they compete for true believers within a finite pool of crypto-enthusiasts, where a critical mass of true believers in a competing idea could overthrow previous mass movements
• Crypto projects’ tendency to apply irrational certitude might root from certitude’s ability to initiate a mass movement
• Should a mass movement within crypto grow very large, the established powers of the world will turn against it, likely violently