On my first day no longer at the workplace, I got a reflective message on Monday in a chat with two colleagues with one saying:
While watching the numbers go up day by day, it's worth remembering that Taraz, you introduced me to crypto. Not sure if I would have ever jumped on otherwise. Now this roller coaster ride looks like it's paying off.
After two years of deliberation, he started buying in when Bitcoin was around 7,000 and while I have no idea what his total is, I am pretty sure he is very happy with the outcomes so far, even if he hasn't capitalized on any of the gains yet.
In reflection, everything is easy.
However, I messaged him today again as of course we have also talked about the 100K threshold for Bitcoin for a long time, and for him, it was always a pipedream. Like most people and even many who are in crypto, it is hard to image what upper limits there might be, especially after all of the ups and downs in between. Zoom out and it is a pretty clear trend direction, but in those daily moves where our emotions reside, it can feel pretty rough.
My message:
I know it has been a bumpy ride, but hopefully your investments over the last few years make a positive difference in your life :)
And ultimately, this is what it should all be about. A positive difference in our lives. And I think that while there are many caveats to consider in this respect, crypto in general is about generating a positive difference in the lives of users, by making them less reliant on authority and government. Have a look at what is happening in the world of centralized governance today with wars, martial laws, forced budgets and no confidence votes, denial of the wants of voters, crushing of social services and profit-seeking - and realize that the best way to kill a community of any size, is to centralize the control.
Yes, there are optimizations and simplifications in the process that can give short-term gains to a society, but in the long-term, it always fails. And ultimately as a species, we should be looking at our long-term survival and wellbeing, not satisfying our short-term desires. And this is one of the major issues with governments globally and the way they operate, because they should be planning for the long-term future, because individuals are going to favour the short-term needs and wants. But, they can't and won't do that, because they are short-term positioned also, satisfying individual and small group wants and desires, at the expense of everyone.
Crypto doesn't solve this problem.
What it does do however is highlight the problems with the current systems in place and hints at possible directions where our technology and behaviours can go to improve the outcomes. There is more to it than financial freedom as some might state, because what is really at the core of freedom, is responsibility. For instance, the person quoted above is very left in his thinking, very social, very state can do good for society. Yet, over the last few years of being in crypto and spending a little time researching and reading, he has come to realize a lot of the floors in his thinking. He has recognized that the reason he thought as he did, was because he wasn't willing to take responsibility for himself, but hid it under the guise that he wants what is best for others who can't look after themselves.
Crypto doesn't solve this problem either.
But again, it can point us in directions where we can perhaps come to some kind of equilibrium point in society where we are able to look after ourselves and look after others in society who might be struggling. In the legacy economy, this just doesn't scale because of the centralized structures and the way they operate to maintain control over those who fund them. but in a decentralized economy like crypto, it might be possible to run it at scale, whilst still maintaining a sense of community and obligation to others.
We are not there yet.
We are a long way away from it in fact, because we are still largely conditioned by how we were raised and the habits that have separated us from each other, disconnected us from our communities, and made us believe that the ultimate goal is to maximize ourselves as much as possible, and then buy protection from others. As I said the other day and for a very long time now, the majority of crypto people are in crypto only to buy a better fiat life. This would have to change over time, but it is going to take time for the culture to shift.
A better life.
I don't know what that means for everyone, but while money can play an integral part in building one, it isn't enough on its own to have a good life. We as an animal are far more complicated than that and if we were to break it all down, money only gets us so far along the way before we realize we need more. We need people to share and care with, and we need to feel that we and those we care about are safe. Being locked up in gated communities doesn't cut it, because we will continually fear every time we are outside, and fear those who will attempt to break in. While nothing is guaranteed, safety as a society only really happens when society is functioning well, when the average person is healthy and living a good life, and those who are struggling, have access to the help they need to thrive.
Again, governments fail hard in this area.
And this is because they have forgotten that an economy is there to maximize the wellbeing of the people, not to maximize the economy itself. All of those numbers are utterly meaningless if not tied to the outcomes of society, no matter how much they grow. It doesn't matter what the GNP of a country is if only one company generates it with robots and AI, and everyone else starves. It doesn't matter how brilliant the technology is, if it only benefits a handful of people and plunges the majority into misery. Because, there will be rebellion.
There is always rebellion.
Every centralized control structure in history has failed, because of rebellion. At some point, too much control ends up in the hands of too few, and too many suffer who will get to a tipping point and fight back. It is an inevitability. Countless times and in many ways it has been tried in history, and it has always collapsed. We keep resetting the board, but instead of doing different, we repeat the mistakes of the past. And we do this, because we as individuals aren't willing to take responsibility in our communities, and pay others to do it for us.
We might want a positive life, but we keep expecting it to be provided by others.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
