I’ve written pieces that champion crypto as a great thing for the world. Every time I do though, I always touch on the potential issues with it. But whenever I do this, I don’t go nearly as in-depth as I could, or maybe should.
A guy named Dan Olson, who runs the video-essay YouTube channel ‘Folding Ideas’ recently made a two-and-a-half hour video that absolutely shreds crypto-enthusiasts. He does everything but call crypto 'The Devil,' pretty much.
But despite how harsh he is on defi, this video isn’t the ‘ravings of a lunatic’, it’s a relatively clear-minded, rational, well-researched look at crypto, NFTs, and DeFi, with a lot of valuable perspective woven throughout.
Yes, Mr. Olson has a massive anti-capitalist bias, and yes he gets pretty heavy-handed at points, but none of that really discounts the points he’s making, the research he’s done (sources listed in video description), or the pitfalls of crypto he’s spotted.
I don’t often sit down and watch 2.5 hour videos at 1x speed, giving them my full-attention, but I felt compelled to this time, and I’m not the only one.
Folding Ideas’ usually gets about 500k views per video or so, but this crypto ‘hitpiece’ got six million views in under a month. It went absolutely viral. Many people have something to say about it (and you might too.)
And I get why, because this is literally the best anti-crypto video I’ve seen so far. If you decide to watch it, I suggest tempering your expectations. It’s not perfect. In fact, it’s pretty inflammatory, accusatory, and doesn’t show much empathy, but it clearly took tons of work to produce and makes huge inroads into why crypto might not be the savior many enthusiasts make it out to be. It should at least generate substantial food for thought and make people think twice about their own level of crypto-enthusiasm, at least for anyone open-minded enough to give it due consideration.
Now, I could’ve avoided watching it since I like crypto but I love informing myself of different perspectives and what the ‘other side’ has to say…
After watching, I tried to find a coherent rebuttal to Mr. Olson’s, uh, ‘ crypto-hate,’ but most of them amounted to something like this:
Yikes.
“Bitcoin is the 1st example of people collaborating to a common goal”
Say what now?
Straight up, kneejerk replies to a well-reasoned two-hour thinkpiece by a team of people who truly care about making a case against crypto… don’t make the crypto-community look too bright. I was hoping to find better.
Now personally, I still like crypto and see it’s value. I still expect it to cement itself further into society as time goes on. I’m not instantly convinced by Mr. Olson’s arguments. But I don't dismiss them either. I do find them to be worth consideration and thought, and I’d love to hear counterpoints.
So I’m posting this here, hoping that some bright, rational crypto-fan has a true, honest, well-considered rebuttal to Dan Olson’s video. If any of you are willing to watch it fully, beginning-to-end, and avoid jumping on Dan’s clearly anti-capitalist bias… I’d love to hear reasons why crypto, NFTs, and DeFi aren’t the ‘devil’ he practically makes them out to be.
In particular, I'm interested in 
Either way, thanks for reading, commenting, sharing, voting, or even skimming. I appreciate you and wish you a great day.
Much love,
-J
