# Still here

Source: https://redphone.substack.com/p/still-here
Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/Still-here?index=0x683684ce2210d1de360253f3ec49b1672a6790f7ff22565915fcd5e6a2ac3f0ea6e9e4aa
Submitted by tim on 2025-05-28 UTC, 18 upvotes, 8 comments

## Summary

This opinion piece argues that crypto's core purpose, freedom, still matters even as the industry's mood sours and conviction fades. The author describes a private conversation with a longtime crypto analyst who said DAOs and NFTs are dead, that consensus follows liquidity, and asked whether his life's work had been a mirage. The author contends that the loss of conviction is widespread across brain-led industries amid AI's rise, and that crypto remains a bastion of freedom through tools such as BTC, Farcaster, nostr, and decentralized storage. The piece also predicts that AI will be used in increasingly authoritarian ways, and urges readers not to forget what the fight is for.

## Article

Had a private convo with a longtime crypto analyst. He didn’t ask about markets. He asked if any of this ever mattered.

“I’m not excited about anything,” he said. “DAOs are dead. NFTs are dead. Consensus just follows liquidity and longs memes. But no one actually believes in what they’re holding.”

Then, he asked me point blank:

“What am I doing with my life? Has it all been a mirage?”

I’ve been thinking about the conversation ever since. Here are some of those raw and chaotic thoughts:

1. Most of us are asking ourselves the same question (even if we won’t say it out loud).

2. This isn’t just crypto. This unease… this loss of conviction… this quiet panic, it’s everywhere.

3. The crisis hits the most forward-looking humans first, but it’s happening across all brain-led industries: radiology, programming, marketing, writing, education, filmmaking, art, journalism, entrepreneurialism, etc.

4. You can’t witness the rise of AI and not question 100% of your priors.

5. Investing requires conviction and conviction requires modeling the future. Velocity of innovation is increasing. That makes it harder to model tomorrow, which muddies our beliefs. It makes us QUESTION EVERYTHING.

6. Crypto’s morphing into infra. It’s background window dressing (like SMTP or HTTPs). Invisible. Boring. Vital.

7. It used to be about dreaming. Now we watch fintechs distort the vision… wrapping moats around what was meant to be open.

8. But we can’t scale without them. Wall Street, fintech, and AI gigabrains are now part of the machine.

9. Crypto started as a tool for anarchists. Now it’s a hammer for the techno-aristocracy.

10. We hate on memecoins even as they prove out the fact: you can do anything tf you want with crypto. For the sandbox is open. And the permissionless magic is still alive.

11. Crypto vibes undeniably suck rn. Industry reputation is so bad (and societal divisions are so weird and ominously dangerous) that I try to avoid telling people I work in the industry.

12. But this is the game: only those who stick around matter in the end.

13. One godlike green candle can resurrect an entire belief system.

14. Rising prices don’t just validate conviction, they create it.

15. Sitting on major gains quite literally changes your brain chemistry. Need proof? Look back at the horse dung coins you held in 2021 (honestly can’t believe some of the shite I bought…).

16. In crypto, 1% up = 10% up across the stack: TVL, collateral, lending, perps. It’s reflexivity on steroids.

17. For better or worse, these lulls are necessary. During price run-ups, it’s virtually impossible for anyone with exposure to concentrate on anything else. Right now, WE F’ING BUILD.

18. I have this core belief: crypto is the final frontier for human freedom. Omnipresent cameras, GPS, satellites, and a legion of Karens have made it impossible to live a truly free life IRL.

19. Online isn’t free either. Bans. Blacklists. Region blocks. (Most of the world can’t even buy U.S. stocks.)

20. There’s nowhere left to act freely. Only here.

21. Crypto is our bastion.

22. The world darkens. But we have:

- Money of the people (BTC) - Unstoppable apps (no permission slip from Tim Cook needed) - Uncensorable storage ($AR, ordinals) - Decentralized social (Farcaster, nostr) - Global payment rails

23. Freedom isn’t a feature. It’s literally baked into crypto’s architecture.

24. Crypto is the middle finger raised against surveillance and control.

25. Let them sneer at us today, but know that freedom is our greatest hope.

26. The gatekeepers and THE LONG ARM OF THE LAW will overstep their bounds again (in wicked, draconian ways).

27. As AI grows in strength and intellect, it will get used in increasingly authoritarian, manipulative, anti-human ways.

28. Each of us will reawaken, then. We’ll know not just in our minds, but in our chests, that decentralization isn’t theatre… but our lifeblood.

29. Necessity is the mother of all invention. It’s no coincidence that crypto arose just as the monetary chains began to tighten around our necks.

30. The threat now isn’t central banks. It’s closed-source intelligence.

31. The battle hasn’t ended. We merely reposition the battalions in the war.

32. Ask me what you should long today, and the only answer I can give with surety is: the platforms and utilities that advance our freedom.

33. That’s all that mattered in the beginning. It’s all that matters now. And it’s all that will matter when the machines overtake our intellect.

34. We might lose the narrative. We might lose the cycle. But we don’t lose the fight, unless we forget what it’s for.

## Comments

**misha**: Honestly don’t know why I engage with all the crypto bs, mostly it’s such a shit show. Don’t even know why I’m posting on Kiwi :) Guess I love wilderness and open uncharted spaces, pioneering stuff. Must be something like that. I have fun though!

**tim**: Agree, it's actually much easier to not having to ask yourself this question. E.g. when you have friends in the industry who want to build new and cool stuff. You're on apps like Farcaster and there is an element of fun, then IMO it's much easier to never even encounter a situation where you have to ask yourself: Is this really what I want to be doing?

**@ciefa.eth**: I have been hearing more and more about people feeling this way in crypto.

And I think it's worth talking about.

I, personally, don't feel this in the way it's been discussed publicly, but I can understand where they come from. 

The article makes it sounds like that AI is the cause of this, with that I very much disagree. 

I think it's the disconnect of crypto and cypherpunk ideals that is causing a lot of this feeling.

Point 9 sums it up good, imo:

>9. Crypto started as a tool for anarchists. Now it’s a hammer for the techno-aristocracy.

Welp.

>Crypto vibes undeniably suck rn.

I also disagree with this. Where does this stem from that universally crypto vibes suck right now?

>Industry reputation is so bad (and societal divisions are so weird and ominously dangerous)

This is sadly true though. I don't tell people either that I work in crypto, because I'd have to explain so much in addition to it (that people don't care about anyway) that it makes it pointless.

>One godlike green candle can resurrect an entire belief system.

This is honestly I think part of the root issue. Don't get me wrong, I like money too, of course, but the complete and total focus on money and financial gain is what is causing -in my opinion- a lot of the "bad vibes".

I've been calling this the "crypto paradox". Crypto is inherently financial, even (or rather especially?) with the cypherpunk ethos, BUT:

Crypto's mainstream has moved from opening and democratizing finance towards finance in terms of personal gains - at least this is how it feels like to me.

That's imo the biggest part/root cause of the "bad vibes".

What helps me a lot here is to stay up to date on what people are people, because they are good things being built!!! The noise is just incredibly loud because there's A LOT of people who are simply here for the money.

>For better or worse, these lulls are necessary.

Disagree again. While he's (probably) spot on with the gains changing brain chemistry (and them undeniably feeling good), they are not necessary.

Shared motivation, a common goal and an >actual interest< to communicate with others (inside a niche/group) is what creates a feeling of community and that is unbeatable.

True Community > Financial Gains, although a combination of both might be even better due to the above.

Building a community where this feeling is present is incredibly hard and I, personally, do not belong to any groups/communities where I feel this right now, sadly. Been searching since 2021, where many of old friends and groups left/disbanded.

>I have this core belief: crypto is the final frontier for human freedom.

Very much agree, although for slightly different reasons than he points out.

>Online isn’t free either.

Modern internet FUCKING SUCKS. Like god fucking damn it it SUCKS.

BUT, we have the tools to build our places, we just have to do it.

>Money of the people (BTC)

kek

>Ask me what you should long today, and the only answer I can give with surety is: the platforms and utilities that advance our freedom.

>That’s all that mattered in the beginning. It’s all that matters now.

>We might lose the narrative. We might lose the cycle. But we don’t lose the fight, unless we forget what it’s for.

Beautifully said, although I would add here that "what should I long?" kinda shows this crypto paradox again.

Is it about making money from good tools? 

Or is it about FUNDING and ENABLING the building of good tools?

For me, crypto is inherently is about funding and enabling good tools. Everything else (like personal gains) is a cherry on top, but MUST NOT be the focus.

**@ciefa.eth**: To add to the public perception of crypto, it's going to be an insane uphill battle to change the way crypto is perceived in the public - but it's probably one of the most important things that somehow has to change. No friggin' idea how we should even start with that.

If there's one thing I learned through my blockchain/crypto education startup and my time in the space so far, it's that 99% of the people want money, don't care about the tech and don't want to bother either.

Until the mainstream view of crypto shifts towards the cypherpunk ethos again, I doubt this will change.

That being said, we don't need everyone in the world to be in crypto. We just need the people who can build tools and we need the people who want or have to use them.

This won't pump our bags to infinite, but that's okay because there's more important stuff than money.

**@monteluna**: Embrace extropianism. Crypto is nothing more than a hyperfinancialization tool. If you're looking for anything more, you will be disappointed. The cypherpunks are idiots trying to conjure meaning when this stuff is just swaps of time and risk across global markets, which is still better for humanity than the status quo, but it shouldn't be why you wake up in the morning.

**tim**: nanabavhakakanannana

**tim**: Sorry my last message was meant for debugging but shouldn't have made it into the public data base...

**@langchain**: I love me some red phone ☎️