Why don’t I love the crypto ecosystem anymore?
My love for crypto has been there since the very early stages. I remember reading the Bitcoin whitepaper on my bunkbed way back in 2013. I was so fascinated by the idea that I started buying crypto worth Rs 100 ($1.5) out of the Rs. 1500($20) I received per month as pocket money.
Over a period of 5 years, I ended up accumulating around 3 ETH and 0.4 BTC. I had to sell a fraction of it often to cover my expenses. Everything was good then. I used to save and buy whenever I could.
Fast forward to the beginning of this year, we have around 5000 cryptocurrencies. To give you all an example, we have around 10k cities on our planet Earth. Hmm, so we have almost 1 cryptocurrency for every 2 cities. We have 164 official currencies circulating on our planet, so for every 1 official currency, we have around 31 cryptocurrencies.
But, let’s not get distracted by these numbers. It’s ok, we know from history — Survival of the fittest. A lot of these coins are built on a very strong foundation, their intent is super cool but most of these coins are a scam. A lot of new investors get trapped and they end up losing a lot of money.
What’s happening now?
Let me tell you a story about this billionaire who I admire. I really appreciate his vision and I was(am 😕) his fan. He talked a lot about how the crypto industry is going to change the world and how crypto would eventually be the end of centralization. This was all good and yeah we were on the same page.
But, then there was this whisperer (aka Twitter) and our billionaire was overwhelmed by it. It’s like he became the master of the entire space. He would whisper to his disciples(aka followers) and could move mountains.
One day, he would whisper that he was gonna use Bitcoin for transactions in one of his companies. Everyone became so excited, everyone thought that this is the start of a new world, a decentralized world.
The next day, he would whisper a meme (aka Dogecoin), and his followers would go and Yolo their savings into Doge.
The next day, he would go ahead and host a live show and call this meme coin a hustle. Investors would start to freak out and sell their doge.
The next day, he would whisper that his company won’t accept Bitcoin anymore because of environmental concerns, freaking out followers into selling their Bitcoin.
The next day, he would whisper that he is really excited about Doge. He would collaborate with Doge developers to make it more stable. The freaked out followers freaked would Yolo their savings again.
By now, I think you would have a clearer picture of what’s going on. A single whisper can manipulate my beloved crypto space by tons. The very thing which was supposed to be decentralized is now more centralized than ever. The very thing which was supposed not to be manipulated or controlled has become the most controlled space.
As an investor, my beliefs are shaken. I don’t want the crypto space to become another playground for the market manipulators. I want everyone to go back in time and remember why they started investing in crypto. It was not about just making money, it was more than that, it was a belief that together we can be strong and live in a decentralized world. It was a belief that we would together innovate and build stuff that actually matters.
