@phildaian: why we're still building in crypto despite the doubts

building, motivation, and crypto [ₐ ₗₒₙ₉ բₒᵣₘ ᵤₙₕᵢₙ₉ₑₔ ₜᵥᵥᵢₜₜₑᵣ ᵣₐₙₜ] One of my best friends is hopelessness. That's a joke, but it's also not. I remember Osaka devcon vividly. 2019. The magnificent chaos and proud order of a place like Osaka. But, everyone I talked to there, hopeless. The money of the token boom cooling off, the grifters surrounding the devs, with the devs asking themselves "what is there left to have faith in?" and the grifters asking "what is there left to invest in?" Proof of stake was the kick in the ass we needed to get out of it. Thank you, Vitalik and everyone at the EF. Sincerely. What a gift to the space. I've talked to at least ten people in crypto in the last few months asking me the same questions they did then. What is there left to believe in? How do you find faith in chaos? Why are YOU still here? If you've never felt that way, this isn't for you. You are probably a happier person than me, or us, I don't know. I am happy for you, sincerely. Otherwise maybe something here resonates? I go back to the fact that hopelessness is my best friend. I have never created anything without it. Maybe my brain is fucked, IDK. But these questions don't seem to bother me on an existential level as I see in some, perhaps because they are so familiar. So, I thought it might be helpful to recap. Part of this is my own catharsis. I am ranting here, not thinking. But, why the fuck are we here? Well, let's talk about a few things we care about? decentralization /ˌdēˌsentrələˈzāSH(ə)n/: Cryptocurrency in general, and in my personal opinion ethereum, are by far the most decentralized ways to organize critical aspects of society. The experiment can no longer fail. We have already proven to those that are paying attention that the cost of freedom, knowledge, and control in your money is lower than expected. This form of freedom is going nowhere, and it is now up to us to ensure good outcomes as early stewards of it. I think everyone knows that to me, decentralization is distribution of power, out of a 4-block radius in NYC not far from where I was raised. We are doing it already, we have the best shot ever at it. Let's not fumble it now. empowerment /imˈpouərmənt/: Permissionlessness, cryptography, and openness are empowerment. I remember "be your own bank". I remember the Ubers, the machines, the AIs owning themselves. I remember dreams of a system that was fairer than Wall St., that didn't come with the middlemen and the rents and the exploitation. But more than that, I remember a broad research community that legitimately cared about the best way to build open systems. I remember being welcomed in the table as someone who had little reason to be. That is still happening today, across the space, and we should cherish and be proud of that. Of course we can always be better stewards of power transfer, but if you compare our world to that of entrenched institutions playing games with their capital? I still believe this is our best shot of the "better" we deserve as a species. privacy /ˈprīvəsē/: I think one thing that binds anyone who could possibly be reading this deep into anything I've written is privacy. We were all offended by the Snowden revelations, and the thousands that followed across the world. Privacy matters for finance, and we have a unique ability to catalyze and deploy tools that go far beyond traditional finance and even communications infrastructure. If you talk to any applied cryptographer, unlike ten years ago, there is no doubt remaining that our froth and our degeneracy is an accelerator of the most sophisticated versions of these technologies into production, today. Let's keep it that way. automation /ˌôdəˈmāSH(ə)n,ˌädəˈmāSH(ə)n/: Many of us are still naive techno-optimists in some form or another, and I think we may all share a core belief that through automation and mechanization, we can create better outcomes in which society can share. There is no doubt that the deterministic rules, speed, and adversarial nature of crypto provide an incredible opportunity to build and research tools. These tools are already impacting the fabric of how our society processes information, builds reasoning machines, and starts human organizations. While we need to do more to ensure the benefits of this aren't restricted to our in-group and the grifting class, I am still optimistic that in the long term, we can build fair systems with enormous social benefits. free software /frē ˈsôf(t)ˌwer/: In 2016, I ramped down from a full time position at a previous startup I was at [shout out Runtime Verification, security GOATs]. I wanted to work on free software. I accepted that I would have to explain to everyone in my life, forever, why I was constantly scraping by on the margins instead of collecting a paycheck at some advertising company or fund. But what I knew for sure is I needed to work on something I believe in, where the net outcome was a power change in society for the good. And to me, that seemed mutually exclusive with making a living developing software. Crypto changed that. We are paid to work on free software, usable outside our own ends, with no restriction. In fact, often, other than a few servers or some funny money, the free software is all there is. What a beautiful thing 13 year old me, tinkering with Linux and dreaming of owning my own technological life, could never have even dreamed of. Part of me still thinks I will be eking out an existence one day, and that is fine. But today, I believe in this stuff, and we get to build it in the open. SO.... when you are sad, I'll ask you. What has actually changed? What are you actually building? Why are YOU here? Because if something has changed, that is worth revisiting. But if your doubt and fear lies in the response of the world, in the churn of the times, I urge patience. We are impatient animals in a social universe where change takes a long, long time. Building better does not come for free. We know well at this point that crypto sucks by default. So, yes it is hard. It isn't obvious sometimes. You will doubt yourself. You will probably internalize that sometimes, too. That will feel hopeless. And there will be people that you don't like, people that demotivate you, people that don't get it. Sometimes the world will even push back and not get it. The world often needs time. Open yourself to it, for that is life and creation, and what makes the juice worth the squeeze. If it were easy, would it be worth doing? And in what other way could you possibly expect it to be hard? None of this is specific to what we are working on. Regardless of your project, ecosystem, token, corporation, whatever the hell else, if you are building these ideals, I don't personally want you to stop, because I need it. So if nothing has actually changed. And you wake up in your room, and the paint looks just that little more dull? Let's change, let's build, let's paint, let's grow, LET'S FUCKING GO 🥰🌈 Happy Valentine's Day, especially to all my fellow weirdos who are reading this today.... I love you all and thank you for keeping life interesting, both when I have been motivated and not. [ps fuck the price, who cares and it's such a stupid distraction, ok you bought yourself some nice trinkets gg, it's all cringe unless you've built not destroyed 🙏]