/thoughts — between greed and changing the world (crypto)

Dominic Wilhelm
Aug 23, 2017 · 3 min read
Photo by Mike Wilson on Unsplash

Wandering through crypto-land in the last couple of weeks, it almost seems to me as if there are often two extreme parties when it comes to ICOs, crypto companies and the mutual benefit of those:

On the one side there are the “crypto fundamentalists”: Giving power back to the people in a decentralised manner and opening the way for you and me to become investors through hedge-fund vehicles, “crowdsourced” venture funds and direct participation in ICOs. On the other side though, there are these rather greedy-looking projects and teams behind them. ICOs without a working product, with barely even a white paper that raise absurd amounts of money. Many of them advertise within Twitter, Facebook and so on, even lacking a solid community backing them.

These two very different sides seem to clash sometimes in daily Twitter discussions, forums and other channels. Why can’t they adjust themselves to the other side and become less radical? Can you not both believe in the theoretical foundation of decentralisation but admit to some central mechanisms at least in the beginning. Or raise money via an ICO but only an amount suitable for a reasonable 1–2 year runway and certainly less than $100m in under 4 hours? It must be possible to combine the idealistic view of what can be a liberating movement for a majority of the world’s population with the notion of making some money along the way.

I guess the radical views as well as the idealistic notion that is attached to blockchain technology in general drive the current publicity of the crypto space. Partly, this excessive media coverage helps as even the general, less tech-savvy public becomes interested and the user & investor base keeps growing. But simultaneously, in these relatively early stages too much media coverage could hurt. What you see right now is that law-makers are starting to step in because more and more money is being invested, triggered by this excessive media coverage and the tremendous growth rates. A tightening in regulations across the world — starting with the SEC in the US — might possibly pose a threat to future projects’ financing. Yes, regulations are necessary at some point in time but rushed sanctions and overzealus regulatory frameworks may greatly hamper developments within the community.

Nowadays, the SEC and alike are stepping up their game because they have to: Some people have been mugged by either certain projects and/or the usual bunch of scammers and fake websites. Or take dumb money that was invested without thinking, simply to make a quick buck. Of course you could say each on their own but nevertheless, this may indirectly hurt generations after. Not doing an ICO because of SEC regulations may certainly prevent loses on the consumer side in some cases but more often than not it may also prevent great ideas to be taken to fruition.

After all, I just hope for the community in whole to be able to grow in a healthy and somewhat regulated way in order to help lead this recently forming revolution in technology. Just my 0.02$.

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VC @eventuresVC / swabian in berlin / tech startups & developments / thoughts

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