# A few things about crypto

Source: https://twitter.com/RyanSAdams/status/1719928556145275054?s=19&t=hEBEtm0ElzhdM7N0jFGS2A
Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/A-few-things-about-crypto?index=0x6544f54750263a641e4301f60e847392a6767e08d375262bd41e369826074351958f1006
Submitted by macbudkowski.eth on 2023-11-03 UTC, 1 upvote, 0 comments

## Summary

Crypto is a social technology, comparable to the nation state or joint stock company rather than to ordinary inventions like the toaster. Bitcoin will eventually be overtaken, as calculators were by PCs, because it lacks programmable blockspace, and programmable blockchains matter because they support trading, lending, and minting beyond simple transfers. Decentralization's real benefit is corruption resistance, blockchains earn value by selling block space and ordering, and only the most decentralized chains can earn monetary premium over decades, with BTC and ETH holding a strong lead.

## Article

A few things about crypto:

1. Crypto is a social technology, not a regular technology - it’s more like the invention of the nation state or the joint stock company and less like invention of the toaster or television

2. Bitcoin was always be important, but it won’t always be the biggest - it’s missing the feature of programmable blockspace and will thus be overtaken as the calculator was overtaken by the PC (but we still have calculators!)

3. Programmable blockchains are important because they allows us to do more than send/receive onchain - we can trade, lend, borrow, mint, onchain - many assets not just one - to replace the banking system and go bankless we’ll need all the verbs

4. Cryptography is the deep magic that powers crypto and is deeply revolutionary - with encryption a poor man can defend himself against the resources of an entire nation state - power to the people!

5. Decentralization is a holy word in crypto but it’s not a benefit - “corruption resistance” is the benefit we get from decentralization and the reason it’s vital - if we get enough decentralization we’ll have an incorruptible money system open and accessible to all

6. Blockchains sell blocks - both the space in these blocks and the ordering. - in the end, the profit of these sales (sales less issuance) is what makes their underlying currency valuable

7. A small set of blockchain currencies will gain a special kind of status as “money” - this monetary premium is won over decades - only the most decentralized chains can earn this - BTC and ETH have a strong lead

8 Every “layer 1” blockchain - aka a chain that fully secures itself - is fighting for monetary premium against the other chains whether it’s supporters admit it or not

9. Every “layer 2” blockchain - aka a chain that pays another chain for security - is a just a value-added reseller of layer 1 blocks - some of these will be very valuable

10. “The internet of value” is my favorite way to describe Ethereum but “property rights layer of the internet” is a close second - most people won’t care about grandiose statements like these, they’ll need to see the apps

11. While the demagogues and scammers in crypto will fail you, crypto itself is awesome and the values that back this movement will change the world - find the signal through the noise.