We just went full cycle — a year of writing
Well, happy birthday I guess.
I’ve been writing every week for a year. Mostly to get to this point today, where I can look back and reflect on what fruits these efforts bore. So, here’s a summary of things I’ve learned and came to realise about the Blockchain Revolution.
With great power comes great opportunity
To abuse it.
Remember the Scorpion and the Frog ?
We couldn’t start mentioning what we learned without acknowledging the FTX disaster, but it can be done quickly.
This was not a crypto problem, it’s arguably the exact opposite — as decentralisation could have prevented it. It’s a human problem, a greed issue or a strong market manipulation. Giving power to the people isn’t a perfect strategy, but it’s the only way to challenge the power in place — think democracy.
And make no mistake, the worse isn’t behind us. FTX fallout is yet to be felt, the USDT crisis needs to happen, regulations need to be set in place, big projects will fail and shake up the market, and it will all be for the best.
Hang on.
What you see today
Is but the tip of the iceberg.
In 2017 we learned about the limits of ICOs, in 2022 we’re defining the requirement and limits of DeFi, we also learned that you can’t make money out of nothing— shocked — but we did strengthen our standards. With NFTs, we saw the market learning that value isn’t just a game of supply and demand, value must be created through narratives and action.
Thinking no one will learn from these giant crashes is insane, thousands of people are working every day to create game changing projects in every field. Most importantly, they’re learning how not to.
The best blockchain projects are not blockchain projects. The best NFT projects are not NFT projects. These are tools, not goals.
Humans thrive by collaborating at large scale. Mostly by sharing narratives and believing in something together — think countries, or religion.
Today’s technology, allows one extra step to this collaboration. You can build an ecosystem, with defined rules, prove belonging with ownership, vote, and most importantly transfer value towards the collective goal.
Innovation, charity, society, gaming, funding, everything is changing, and of course, the transition is chaotic. We have to learn everything from scratch, learn to identify new threats and opportunities. It’s not an easy ride, but it’s exciting.
Crazy projects
Let’s not dwell on the negative aspects of what doesn’t work in a brand new, global, social and technological revolution. Blockchain is neither conceptual nor futuristic. It’s happening now, and mostly behind the curtains.
Projects like Nym, use the blockchain to leverage its economy-creating abilities. People get involved because they’re inspired, they stay because they get paid — or the other way around.
To learn more about the tokenomics and the thought process that went into the creation of the nym token, here’s the article that explains why and how a token can make decentralised collaboration a reality.
On another note, Irreverent Labs is using blockchain and NFT technology to support the economical and transactional aspect of the Mecha Fight Club, at the center of AI, Blockchain and Gaming.
For those of you who know about CSgo’s marketplace, WoW fandom, the $9 Billion generated by Fortnite, the economies already exist, they just lack the tools to upgrade themselves. This isn’t to say that games need NFTs, but ask yourself what happens when you let gamers actually own their progression ?
Until today, money making in video games was mostly linked to number of views: Twitch, eSports, Youtube. Either by placing products in videos or getting paid by leagues, to play and broadcast the game to the community. Tomorrow, playing games to unlock things and monetising your time could become a common full time job. Who knows ? As long as there is an involved community to value what you’re doing, you’re good to go.
Arweave might revolutionise data storage, Helium might be reinventing the way our society broadcasts internet. Our generation starts to feel like our parents did when we‘d tell them we can’t pause an online game. Most people get the “game” dimension but not the “online” aspect, just yet.
Cosmos is transforming the ecosystem by enabling interoperability between blockchains. Hyperledger is offering an alternative ecosystem, where the financial pressure of managing an economy through a token is eliminated.
Society
Soulbound tokens are here to answer a lot of speculation-related issues. The WEF saw ACTUS explaining to world leaders why standards are fundamental in a Smart Contract enabled world. The Canadian Trucker crisis saw Bitcoin at the center of social challenges, an alternative store of value challenging governments — for the better or worse.
The involvement of the people in the economical dynamics of our society might have never been so widespread. Inflation, Bank reserves, the discrepancies in the FED’s strategies, all these concepts are at the heart of our civilisation and alternatives are slowly rising. Blockchain’s goal of involving people in the control of their own finances is working — and wreaking havoc of course. We better learn to walk before we run.
At the time where governments and big banks naturally expose their limits, a new narrative is emerging. Without falling into maximalist thinking and imagining a 100% crypto backed decentralised world, there is no doubt concerning the immensity of the cultural impact of web3. The status quo is being challenged.
Governments just got competitors, and we know how efficient humans can get in a competitive environment.
Finally, let’s acknowledge our own biases, of course decentralisation seems crazy in developed countries. Similarly, we didn’t think we needed mobile payment, and if you’ve asked Europeans what they thought about it 10 years ago, they probably wouldn’t understand the need for it. Yet, Kenyans have been paying with their phone since 2007.
We might not get the utility of blockchains because we’re lucky to live in countries where the governments is trustable — or at least, not a threat.
Conflicts of interest
You must learn to identify them.
HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS of dollars are liquidated every day.
Exchanges make the money you lose, and some of them are market makers, in an unregulated market. Capisci ?
Why would you play a rigged game, while partnering with actors that benefit from your loss ? Don’t enter the casino and ask the dealer for advice.
Learn to own your funds, get a cold wallet and use it. Let the revolution unravel without losing your head.
History is repeating
It seems like we don’t learn.
“Never before has crypto looked so criminal, wasteful and useless”, reads the Economist, calling for the end of crypto. Same goes for the banking industry, but the lack of alternative keeps it together. There are good and bad actors, and a whole lot of barriers to try and rule them all.
What would the end of crypto look like ? Can we imagine all these people just stop building the future they dream of ? I can’t see it happening. Never have I seen such inspired people. It’s a patience game, challenged by speculation and individualism, but nothing’s more natural. We’ve seen bears and bulls, and every time is the last. Bitcoin is dead.
Wait for your grandma to dump her Dogecoin and you’ll know we made it, to the bottom.
Consistency
On a more personal dimension, writing these articles has been an interesting activity, to say the least. Keeping up with the news, learning, making mistakes and connecting with people all over the world.
I try not to turn into a productivity promoting influencer, but consistency always brings unknown benefits. You never know who you’ll meet, what you’ll learn and where it can take you.
Perfection is boring, if you ever thought about creating something, go for it. Let the world see and judge what you do, and learn that people mostly don’t care. Grow and keep showing to yourself what you can achieve.
Don’t create for others, create for yourself. Just keep going until you think differently, or other opportunities make you stop.
It’s been a pleasure to write these articles and they’ll keep on coming from time to time, because you just can’t stop learning.
Final thoughts
The revolution is afoot.
In a world where money bears power, can we imagine a world where, instead of multi-nationals, its the elected representatives of ideological DAOs that lobby and whisper in the ears of politicians ?
Don’t trust those who scream “don’t trust, verify !”
The silver lining of all these scandals is clear: there isn’t a CEX that won’t provide Proof or Reserve in the future. Some of them might even be completely honest and offer Proof of Liability, to show an even more transparent image of their financial health.
The world is changing in deep, violent and meaningful ways. Independent financial collaboration isn’t just a new trick, it might be the strongest tool our civilisation has ever created.
Blockchain offers cheap finance, efficient tracking, crowd ownership, next level funding and most importantly it brought hope of change. Bubbling brains everywhere, searching for paradigms to shift, looking to make sense of the entropy. In the meanwhile, we can’t do much more but wonder, and build.
As always, time will tell.
Thank you for reading.
PS: At some point in the future, I’ll write an article explaining what I’m working on, stay tuned !
