"I can't take this anymore..." The politics. The drama. The speculation. The scams.
I was done with the entire cryptocurrency/blockchain sphere.
So I quit.
But here I am. One year later.
So what happened? Am I just a hypocrite? A dog returning to his vomit? A prodigal son returning?
This is a look into why I as a peaceful anarchist left the technology and community I loved for a whole year. And why I returned.
THE BEGINNING
Publicly gushing out my deep love for individual liberty in a Pushkin-esque fashion would leave you bored and rightly fit me as a dry, narcissistic, and pompous grandstanding ideologue. (I mean, as long as I admit it to myself then it's ok, right??) So I'll just get to the chase: My Christian upbringing and experience with politics both domestically and in post-Soviet countries gave me the intellectual and emotional light that lead me down a path from complete statism to the humble roots of liberty.
After this conversion process, I sought ways to rid myself of the centralized oppressive shackles found in governance, social media, and data transferring. So, a few years ago, while working full-time at a marketing internship in the country of Moldova, I found what I was looking for: the Bitcoin protocol. I believe I heard about Bitcoin from a Ron Paul podcast episode. And then a few months later I found myself at a Students for Liberty conference in Prague. There, an entrepreneur presented a concept of voting through a decentralized network called a blockchain.
I had no idea what this blockchain thing was, but it sounded amazing! It sounded utopian! Could my wishes of forming a society without the monopoly of force finally be realized??...
THE MIDDLE
As 2016 rolled by, I frolicked the fields of online forums, blissfully engaging with others on Reddit and watching YouTube videos about the technical aspects of Ethereum and how to code Solidity. I quickly shared this good news with friends and we started having our own private Meetups, watching documentaries and talking about Bitcoin, the Cypher Punks, Edward Snowden, Ross Ulbricht, and blockchain's potential impact in the world's poorer economies. It was wonderful! And I was so excited to see this technology fundamentally change the mode in which data is transferred, stored, and shared. However, the crypto-speculating clambering masses finally flooded the gates to the conversation enclaves for blockchain ideologues.
And I was caught in the cross fire.
Pretty soon the online boards became hostile territories and noob fests. Please note, I use the term noob to refer to the sudden pinned posts informing new crypto-trading users the basics of trading or informing them of alternate threads or subreddits that were created for that purpose. But that didn't help. At all.
Luckily my best friends still understood the true meaning behind Bitcoin and blockchain technology. But soon the public domain -- both online and offline -- became a senseless space of crypto trading.
"How do I buy Bitcoin?"
"What's the best wallet?"
"To the moon!"
"I can't wait to buy a Lambo..."
"Should I trade and sell now?"
"Should I buy now?"
"#HODL"
"Hey everyone! Please invest in this ICO!"
It was all so superficial and to me, everyone was missing the point!
And maybe they were, but in their shoes these people saw this a financial opportunity and understood the concept of this currency as such.
I don't blame them for their ignorance. Heck, even I was a blockchain noob once and understood nothing. But I was saddened to see my K'un-Lun overrun by barbaric outsiders who did not appreciate nor see the beauty I saw. And these crowds eventually pushed away a lot of the intellectuals of the space.
The light was gone.
What was I going to do about it?? Well.... I quit. I got married, went to college full time, and worked full-time. I eventually lost interest in the superficial cryptocurrency space. And even though I truly believed in blockchain/decentralizing/distributed technologies in my heart, I couldn't bring myself to walk among the heathens. I turned my back and went down a different path of life, never thinking I'd return.
THE END
Now you may think that my actions were childish and petty. And you know what.... You are totally right.
Looking back now I shake my head at my lack of vision and devotion to the idea. I could have been there as a teacher for so many others, unveiling the beauty that I saw so that they could show others. But instead I quit. I mean, how could I ever see the world changed if I don't do anything about it?
And even though the ICO get-rich-quick rage is still foaming at the mouth, I find myself back amongst the blockchain preaching individuals. Why? What happened? I lived a year in the "real world" and realized (again) the horrors that centralized governments with the monopoly of force can bring about on the peace of mankind. I see family fighting in a military devoted to fear, anger, power, and greed. I see friends with cancer unable to utilize private financial help because of over-burdening taxes and regulations. These things break my heart and I decided that instead of complaining about them, I need to provide the solution.
And that solution is dismembering and decentralizing the evil organizations of the world and distributing that power of liberty back to the individual. The solution is moving forward in decentralized, distributed technologies and turning our hearts of fear and anger to love and understanding.
Here's to a brighter, freer future.
-Ben