#116 The Crypto Grift Is Being Exposed

Good Morning Everyone,

The term cryptocurrency, or crypto for short, is one that in a perfect world would never have existed. Not because it lacks relevance to the cryptographic nature of bitcoin, but because it has been hijacked by a class of grifters who seek only to enrich themselves regardless of who has to lose to enable it. A class of people intent on playing short-term zero-sum games, instead of long-term positive-sum games.

Previous musings on the distinction between bitcoin and “crypto” can be found here.

Many people get triggered and often angry at quote-unquote “bitcoiners”, when this is pointed out. Typically these people are the “shitcoiners”, whether they realise this or not. I think very often not. It’s not that they are inherently evil, or have consciously nefarious intentions, it’s simply that they don’t know what they don’t know, and they, in most cases, lack the humility to enquire and deploy curiosity toward this.

Perhaps this is because they are puppets to sensations and patterns of energy inside them, things we call “feelings” and “emotions”, and the term shitcoiner triggers said patterns of energy and short-circuits their cognitive faculties. Perhaps it’s the fact they’re emotionally attached to whatever b******t story they have been told by these COMPANIES and their marketing teams and it threatens the beliefs they have been GIVEN and since adopted… about how they get their risk-free yield, or how their token is going to change the world.

I hold nothing against these people, only love, as I know first-hand bitcoin is not easy to see. In order to really uncover what it exposes requires a deep amount of work, a radical level of openness; and most are simply unwilling or unable to do this, or they just haven’t done it yet… and it can take time.

Forgive me father, for i have sinned. I have shitcoined, and realise the wrong doing of my ways, and I repent. Although it was a long time ago, i seek your forgiveness. I am a changed man, father. I now see that none of these companies are decentralized, rather decentralized in name only (DINO). They are simply manifestations of the same existing structures already existing in todays society, and enable the same level of corruption and single points of failure as all other centralized entities, and as a result are completely unsuitable as a form of money. I can see that without this decentralization none of the necessary properties can be assured, the very properties bitcoin makes possible, and without these and without millions of dollars spent toward marketing these scams and deceiving people into believing complete lies, they would never make it on their own merit. These companies are fragile like something built upon quicksand. They require rulers in order to exist. Bitcoin on the other hand is anti-fragile, and requires no rulers. Only rules. The innovation of bitcoin is so alien, that despite having existed for 13 years, most people still cannot see it. I now see how these shitcoins are an attack on this innovation, and are in opposition to the best interests of humanity moving forward. Please forgive me.

Over the last couple of months the truth continues to be exposed as one by one the crypto grifters begin to fail. It began with the implosion of Terra Luna, the so-called algo “stablecoin”, and continues to expose the true colours of many including Celsius, Block-Fi, 3 Arrows Capital and most recently some unknown-to-me lending platform called Voyager.

There was no shortage of “Toxic Bitoiners” who were willing to point out the truth about these companies, however unfortunately for many, greed is a powerful state of being, and as is often the case, pain is required to wake us up and calibrate us with reality.

The simple fact is that these companies people refer to as “crypto projects”, are infact centralized, unregulated and like it or not, illegal securities offerings. The sooner they are exposed as such the better for everyone. As such it was of no surprise to me when i saw an article this morning showing Solana are being accused of violating securities law.

It shouldn’t be news to anyone reading this that i’m in favour of free markets as opposed to central planning, but it seems obvious that with the current iteration of society and legal framework that exists, the appropriate thing to happen is for these scams to be treated accordingly. It definitely does raise an interesting philosophical point; should these scams and the soulless parasites that promote them to unsuspecting idiots (of which i have been) be able to continue their grift until enough people have lost money and realised they are infact scams, or not?

That is something i will have to think more deeply about, to form a thoughtful view. My initial sense is that if the markets were truly free, then these things would sort themselves out much faster as these people would be held accountable, instead of being able to weasel their way out, enabled by money and a flawed justice system.

Irrespective of this, despite being unfortunate and painful for many, i believe the exposing of these individuals, companies and projects and the subsequent cleansing of nefarious actors offering nonsensical things like yield - let alone RISK-FREE YIELD - is a good thing. It’s healthy. It’s good for bitcoin, and ultimately it’s good for humanity. While the fragile descend into the quicksand they were built upon, all roads continue to lead to bitcoin, and the “old and boring“ technology that is the most sophisticated monetary network in human history continues to produce blocks and facilitate transactions for anyone on the planet, without needing anything from anyone.

Onward.

Hope you have a great day. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.

P.S if anyone knows Saifedean, I applied for a research position with him, and would love if you could put in a good word 🧡

AK

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