Fergus Mathieson
A Different View on Cryptocurrency. A Balanced Take.
The digital goldrush?
Where I started…
Discovering Blockchain and Cryptocurrency a few years back and realising the opportunities and possibilities it presented, I started to feel a kind of gold rush fever, the start of some brave new “decentralised” frontier, quite fittingly described by many as the wild west.
In the digital wild west, there was no riding out across the open plane to stake your claim, risking life and limb in the process; you could pan “digital gold” from the comfort of your cabin.
Soapbox preachers and their converts had plenty to shout about through the new telegraph of the web; Bitcoin halving, cycles, market cap, projects on the chain, all-time highs/lows, the team, not just for the adventurous prospector, but the armchair one as well.
Just like the good old west, the chance of making a dollar brought snake oil salesmen aplenty, spouting from the new digital wagons of YouTube and Instagram on the next 1000X token that was your financial cure-all, thanks to their special Crypto Tonic. The price had changed, though, a cheap cure for likes and thumbs-ups, the good stuff without the rusty nail and worm, a monthly dollar subscription!
What else to do in this rush but stake my claim and join in?
What a rush it was, digital gold seams opened everywhere, miners hodling tokens in technical saddlebags of ledgers and pools, NFTs tribes springing up across all horizons with smart contract regulators hot on their heels, discord communities of Degen outlaws shooting wild alpha and riding into Metaverse Towns flexing Non-Fungible digital art. People had money to spend, and the saloons were filled with the new breed of dancers and ladies of the night, “celebrity influencers” took to their stages on mass, supplying their cheap brand of whisky to feed the frenzy.
Now the early crypto gold finds had produced the Saylor’s, Winklevoss’s and Bankman-Fried’s to replace the Hearsts, Wells and Fargos, and even lowly prospectors were cashing in.
But unlike the original gold rush, there was a major difference, Governments might not get their “rightful” share, and the banks could see future saddlebags shrinking. Worryingly, this new digital gold rush had been built on a premise for everyone!
What could they do?
Humans, history and greed…
Well, with perfect timing following the free for all frenzy, the answer came from the people parading as general provision stores that were supplying the rush. The store owners were bandits, and the Terra Luna, Celsius and 3 Arrows gangs made off with the digital gold.
Governments had already been consulting with the more respected of the snake oil bankers with wanted posters of FUD repeatedly being stuck to the social media telegraph poles. With the gangs, you need law, so time to employ a new Sheriff in town, armed with his silver CBDC badge and his deputies of institutional tokens.
Robbers, regulators, and new mining methods have cooled the initial adventurous rush, new seams are turning out to be a fool’s gold of meme coins and the Jamie Dimon`s et al, want us to believe that their larger centralised saddle bags are better.
Is the rush over then?
What comes next?
No, turns out that it is inventing at a pace never seen before. Hardened naysayers are quietly joining in; the digital frontier is taking shape. Now, as to what shape that will be, who knows? Part of it will be virtual, part of it will financially enable millions like never before, part of it will rob and defraud, and it will be a territory like no other.
There is still some panning frenzy as well, albeit a more educated and community one. This rush is set to continually evolve, whether Governments and Banks continue to dynamite the people`s decentralised towns whilst building their own centralised cities; the people want to own their claims and the data that goes with them.
For me, as the new railroad infrastructures of Defi, Tokenisation and DAO`s open further frontiers, I will be tending to my claims, farming the yields, and listening to these communities, as I look for the new “San Francisco” that this Digital Gold Rush will ultimately provide.
As I start my writing journey, a lifetime of Monty Python and Blackadder has given me a different take on life, hence the comparisons drawn above.
I hope you enjoy my thoughts on this Polarising topic.
Thank you for your time reading…
Check out my other articles here.
PS. Read up on mushrooms; they will surprise you…
