# Cogs in the Crypto Machine Source: https://paragraph.com/@cryptonao/cogs-in-the-crypto-machine ## Summary The author, who spoke at a crypto event under the title "Marx for Crypto Bros," argues that crypto has adopted the same growth-at-all-costs playbook as Big Tech, turning users into addicted, mindless "cogs" through frictionless design, automation, gamification and incentives. Drawing on Marx's concept of alienation, the piece identifies three forms in crypto: alienation from the industry's original values, from one another (illustrated by a debate over tokenizing a screenshot of a woman from a dating app on Zora or pump.fun), and from human dignity. It closes with advice for humanist builders: avoid enslaving users to the product, offer real user agency, and respect user dignity. ## Article Two weeks ago, I spoke at a crypto event for the first time in ages. I was nervous af, but apparently this did not impact the delivery as many people walked up to me sharing positive feedback. As a writer, I figured, while the recording isn't out in the open yet, I might as well try to write down the gist of it šŸ˜ Initially, when I was nudged to submit a talk, the title I gave it was "Marx for Crypto Bros." I'd been called a Marxist by crypto people before, because I dared to question the individualistic, greed-driven mindset. Upon closer inspection I realized, none of these people ever read Marx, at best their takes were "well Lenin's implementation didn't work so that's all you need to know." And if we know one thing, it's that leftish thought is the most disdained in crypto; which is funny when we have sexists, fascists, and obnoxious AI peddlers. Tag yourselves, Iā€™m the technofascist While there are entire talks to be done on what parts of Marx's writing make it conducive to dictators sacrificing present generations to a bigger cause, that's not what I spoke about. Instead, after being told I'm in the app track, I went back to reading some Marx and figuring out how that's relevant to apps. My exposure until then had been primarily in the realm of a critique of Capitalism... I quickly realized there was more to it than that. A concept that perfectly described much of how I felt about crypto: Do you ever feel like just a cog in the crypto machine? If so, I think that's by design, and by the culture we've built. It's easy to feel like the main character of Tokyo Ghoul, all you wanted was to go on a date (make life-changing wealth), but instead, you got turned into a Ghoul (airdrop farmer), utterly dependent on external factors to provide you with meaning, or a sense of direction (or turn you into an even worse monster if you read Tokyo Ghoul re you know). true story It's hilarious (not) how we, as a supposedly contrarian industry to Big Tech, have adopted much the same playbook. Think of the advice you're given when scaling your app. It's rarely go talk to your users and figure out what it is they seek.. It's more often, you should add the following to your thing: frictionless: you don't want people to stop and think, the ideal user is a mindless cog giving you money automation: as you wouldn't want to limit yourself to the times humans are awake. Anyway, it contributes to the previous point gamification: everything that can be measured can and will be gamified, you might as well lean into that and make sure people come back. It's worked for pigeons, when they provided predictable rewards, the birds would eventually stop trying, but with unpredictable rewards they continued... incentives: because if there's no actual good reason beyond that, and if we view a human as a purely "optimize for gains"-driven being, might as well slap those potential tokens on there. Plus, creating it is free. The main goal of these things? Growth... and that's best achieved through? Addiction. Then you won't have to worry about users coming back. This might just work short-term, but what's crypto if not an industry running on short-termism? "Todayā€™s terror of short-termism ā€” which, with fatal consequences, we mistake for freedom ā€” destroys the practices that require time. " Byung-Chul Han Imagine you're hooked to such an app. Actually, you don't even have to imagine. I bet you have at least one semi-addiction to one of the social media platforms of your choosing, where.. You find yourself going back to it, scrolling on despite a lack of actual joy derived from it. A sense of not being in control often accompanying that binge. I'd assume that Sysiphus if asked whether he'd prefer the boulder or doomscrolling, he'd chose the first. And we know what's driven this model in Big Tech: Capital. There's no crypto exceptionalism. Similar tendencies are playing out right before our eyes, think about all the vaporware L1s that the VC cabal is pushing down our throats. I'm sure someone in crypto is selling you sky tokens.. And yet, the second you try to point this out, you're a Marxist. So let's talk about Marx, the guy so obsessed with economic conditions as what's holding his contemporaries; mind you not him because he was bourgeoisie and had a sugar daddy; down. Especially when reading his Economic and Philosophical Manuscript, one theme stood out. It wasn't a critique purely of the distribution of capital. It was what it did to people, especially the factory workers working under gruesome conditions, stripped of their dignity and intellect. Now thinking about it, not so different from an Amazon warehouse worker, but we all love our convenience, so we push this aside. The result is alienation. It's worth noting that Marx believed humans to have an inborn desire to create, to labor, to shape the world around us, and create tokens of our existence. That's why people will continue creating art even if they're not paid for it (I know this is really hard to understand for some capitalist tech bro who believes that humans are just machines) By stripping men of the time, the energy to follow this calling and instead creating such dumbed down labor that anyone could learn the steps in week, Capitalism didn't just alienate these workers from their own human essence, it also alienated them from each other; since everyone was now a competitor, fighting the threat of being replaced; and from the environment which was now abundant with things created by men but in which none of them were really expressed. Quite depressing. He'd describe such men as a crippled monstrosity, enslaved by things and circumstances. Ironically a diagnosis that aptly applies to our day and age. It's just that the ones who are most alienated aren't the workers using their hands to work anymore, it's people like us. The Tech workers... And we do our fair share to contribute and accelerate that sense of estrangement. It's easy blaming the VCs, but that's letting ourselves off the hook. I believe there's largely three kinds of alineation in crypto. Of course, that's on top of the usual alienation we suffer in modernity ^^ Alienation from our values Remember when this industry stood for something that wasn't trying to rug the others faster than they can rug me? When the main goal wasn't to grow the fastest, to raise the most money, or to hit untenable numbers of users within a week of launch? It seems that we've lost touch with what made this industry special. It just takes a look at Bitcoin to understand what I mean. It started as a decentralized network that everyone could participate in. Now it's more like a currency that companies buy into when they need PR coverage, and as more BTC accumulates in the hands of the few... we stand and clap?! It used to be about empowering, now we just empower people to launch shittier memecoins, or get hooked to yet another app. What happened to banking the unbanked? Zora is another great example of how things can go wrong. The noble initial pursuit of creating a positive-sum ecosystem turned on its head. Alienated from each other In crypto, we often reduce people to wallets, which makes it easy to forget there are real humans behind them with real stories. It also paves the way to not treat them as equals. Adding further abstraction usually contributes to alienation. One appalling example to how we forget or have turned each other into means to an end (the end of making money), was the debate of two crypto bros on CT on whether they should tokenize a screenshot they'd taken messaging a girl on Hinge on Zora or pump.fun. no way crypto bros are arguing about the original ownership of a screenshot of a woman from a dating app and which form factor between pump and zora is better for this instead of even for one second stopping to think about what an insane violation of privacy and consent that is It took an insane amount of time until it was pointed out in the comments that this was gross disregard for the lady's privacy. It hadn't even crossed any of the people's minds in their excitement over potential gains. It also took Zora one entire day to eventually take down the image... you do your own thinking there. Alienation from our own humanity There's a certain crop of crypto and tech bro that's really depressing to spend time with. It's because they seem to have very little regard for the things that make life worth living. Their deeply rationalist approach to life, ruling out any supposed irrational behavior like.. learning for the fun of it, not for gains... everything always has to be optimized for efficiency. It's as if they're alienated from their own humanity, out of touch with makes us human, all these things at best considered inefficiencies or flaws. Crypto's recent focus on PVP doesn't help, disregarding the fact that our species has a track record of collaboration, creating a hostile environment where any empathy is considered weak, solidarity naive. Maybe people have just become numb, apparently, such is the effect of too much time in the dopamine economy, and crypto is a hellscape for rewiring those circles. Dead inside. ..."how can I be virtuous if I am not alive, and how can I have a good conscience if I am not aware of anything?" Marx Is this really how humans should spend their time? Trapped in toxic environments? In communities only bound by the joint desire of making it because the system is rigged? A dog-eat-dog world as imagined by Hobbes? The biggest problem is that, as long as this is the only viable path we present, it's the one people imagine. The one that's looked up to and tried to be followed. If you can make it and disappear with complete disregard for morals, then why shouldn't you? (given you have no conscience ofc) As long as we don't start speaking up against such practices, very little will change. As such, the problem is political as much as it's systemic, and I know tech lovers hate to read things like that. Not every problem can be fixed by tech. That said, since my talk was in the app track, I concluded with a few ideas for people building with a more humanist mindset: Don't enslave people to your freedom tech. If it can only survive when everyone has to check five times a day, maybe it's not all that great. I'm just saying, it's worth a thought, and enslavement to freedom hasn't worked in AOT, why would it work here? Create a true antithesis to the walled gardens of Big Tech: empower in the true sense, not in the way that current capitalism does by selling us shit. Instead, give people agency and tools to shape the environments they're in online. You'd think that blockchain is perfect for more participatory, diverse modes. Listen, respect, and protect your users and their dignity. I know many might not be ready in crypto to start talking about dignity, but I think we should. Especially if we want to be more attractive to real humans, and to create an antithesis to what most of the internet has turned into. "To be radical is to go to the root, and the root is man himself." Marx If being a humanist in this hyper-capital enamored crypto sphere is what gets me called a Marxist, I'm okay with that label. And I've learned to not start fights with people who don't have the curiosity to actually read up on the thinkers whose names they throw around as insults. Thanks to the people who listened to me irl, and thanks to anyone reading šŸ’š Excuse any typos, it's Friday eve and I wanted to get it down before I lose the motivation ha. Once the recording is available, I'll link it here as well. So long, don't forget to log off occasionally. ## Comments **timdaub.eth**: I read all of this, including the recommendations at the end. But what do these things means SPECIFICALLY? How would I, e.g. make Kiwi more like is being recommended? Sure I could not pursue the whole (push) notifications thing. But thatā€˜s just omission. What would be an example of acting positively on those ideas? Iā€˜m in touch with users to a point where I feel exhausted. I listen constantly, bow down and do what they say. In fact, sometime I feel alienated from my own work because people always want more without seeing my struggle. I feel exploited by my users **naomiii.eth**: I admit this was generalizing and primarily aimed at the vc-fuelled apps that tend to build under this entire idea of generating a shit ton of engagement and activity, and an attempt to bring the term alienation into the broader conversation. For Kiwi, I agree, you might listen too much and let's be real, all of us we're not "building" kiwi, we're at best using it; and all of us might have different ideas of how it should look like leading to what you describe that you're building something that isn't even yours anymore. This then, obviously is no fun at all; I can relate in as much as most my ghostwriting feels really unsatisfying to do ^^ There probably is a balance to strike with listening and building based on what one believes to be best. I would assume that also the pressure of you running it by yourself now plus whatever existence is tied to success does little to aid. I'm afraid people don't often consider such things before asking for more from a founder (a solo one at that). Online anyway, it's easy to forget we're all humans. You probably did the right thing to shut down the tg chat as it seemed to have been the one thing that would further this sense of being the one not in control, and anyway, it didn't translate to activity on here afaik. So stepping away from that for a bit probably is a healthy thing for you to do. Not gonna pretend I have the answers, I don't. Maybe one underexplored aspect of this is business models that enable projects to survive without the need for people to be hyperactive... or to scale to millions of people. So that neither founders nor users feel like they're being turned into cogs. Tbf there isn't a whole lot of examples of this in crypto to begin with.. **timdaub.eth**: > Not gonna pretend I have the answers, I don't. Maybe one underexplored aspect of this is business models that enable projects to survive without the need for people to be hyperactive... or to scale to millions of people. So that neither founders nor users feel like they're being turned into cogs. Tbf there isn't a whole lot of examples of this in crypto to begin with.. Agree. To be honest, with the small income that weā€˜ve made in the past with Kiwi this seemed to be sustainable at least for some time. That said, I need to rent a bigger apartment and it is NOT looking good bc my income situation is trash. I think both Mac and I constantly felt like being underpaid a lot, especially for the risk weā€˜re taking. And we also felt tired by having to expose ourselves to the risk as well. But so far, with some exceptions, it has worked. For me thatā€˜s where the desire for greater growth comes from. Just being able to sustain without losing my mind every couple of months. And frankly itā€˜s even hard to tell yourself that youā€˜re doing something useful. E.g. friends will also judge you by the engagement numbers etc. I once met Misha in Berlin and we also talked about this and he said: Thereā€˜ll always somehow be money (speaking from experience as an arist). With which I kinda agree with. In fact, I somehow identify with it. But maybe itā€˜s not good. Iā€˜m not an artist šŸ˜† **naomiii.eth**: Oh damn, as if finding a flat in Berlin wasn't tough enough already. T_T Haha as someone coming from two classical guitar teacher parents, miraculously they also somehow always had money (not a lot but enough for us to not starve) so there might be something to this artist life. Regarding the sustainable business part, I read this essay some time last year called "Returning to human scale" - super relevant to this but I noticed it's been paywalled now (I can send a pdf tho as I put it on my remarkable back when it was free :)) It argues that we are using the wrong scales, which might speak to the friends judging by engagement numbers. There seems to be generally highly inflated expectations in crypto, but also broadly with business and it's likely because we don't have many examples of "smaller" businesses doing just fine, serving their employees well, their leadership and all their customers. Especially not online - locally at least I can tell my local indie bookstop is a community institution, the people working there usually quite happy, so are the people and artists showing up for events or buying books. There isn't really an equivalent for that online. https://www.creativedestruction.club/p/returning-to-human-scale **@timdaub.eth**: > It argues that we are using the wrong scales, which might speak to the friends judging by engagement numbers. There seems to be generally highly inflated expectations in crypto A ton of inflated numbers. There are inflated numbers from paying users (the world coin app case), and then there are the realistically deflated numbers because only 6 people have ever exited funds from ZkSync or smth. Anyways, before Mac quit we also did some calls with investors to see kinda how the space felt. And itā€˜s really bleak out there. A year before or so weā€˜d still get a chance to be part of the Unlonely et al social apps cohort. Now it almost seems as if the space has entirely moved on. Investors donā€˜t see the value of e.g. a thousand MAU crypto users at all. And why? Because obviously some scammer/grifter out there will easily outbid us. Also: Bc there is an incentive to pump projects. The space is in its infancy still. Yet because people wanted to exit their coins they made big promises of how far crypto was already. And now that the cheques are cashed everyone sees the short fall. But also because many actually think that the whole decentralized social thing is basically just cooked and doesnā€˜t justify investing more money because itā€˜s not scaling. Anyways, even the ā€žhuman scaleā€œ thing is hard to make work, no? If I had 100 super engaged users, everyone would have to pay almost 30 EUR or more just to keep me afloat. Feels like a lot. And I donā€˜t even think we have 100 engaged people.