Did the World of Crypto Let Us All Down?

It has been almost ten years since I first came across the whole idea of "cryptocurrency." At the time, I was probably a lot more idealistic than I am today... and I thought that it would be amazing to have these global borderless currencies that could be easily transacted by everyone.

It seemed like such a great idea! I still think it's a great idea.

But sometimes I feel a bit let down because it seems like the entire concept instead ended up dominated by what I can only call "Wall Street Greed." These days, it seems like most people in the Cryptosphere are more concerned with "When Lambo?" than with whether or not we're creating something groundbreaking and game changing for the world.

Instead, I find that I can invest, but I still can't just go buy a cup of coffee with crypto. And when I walk through the shopping district of our town, there are definitely not a bunch of "We accept Bitcoin!" signs in the windows... as I had really hoped there would be.

In fact, I've only see such a sign in the window of one single yoga studio... and they took it down after about a year.

Maybe it wasn't really crypto itself that let us down, but greedy people who saw this technology more as a way to make a quick buck, rather than a new way to build a business.

I remember some of my early conversations here on Steemit, in which I found myself repeatedly telling people that merely "being on the blockchain" didn't magically exempt us all from having to deal with the sketchier sides of human nature.

I really like Steemit — not just as a community, but because here we have an actual use case for crypto in the social blogging platform. It's not just a bunch of so-called "vaporware," leading to nothing at all.

Nowadays, people talk a lot about the future, using the term "Web 3.0."

Again, this is a great concept, but we still have to get past the obsession with profiting from crypto in an unhealthy way. People forget that the tokens are not the product — you have to build an actual business and the tokens are merely the "juice" that makes the business go.

I think it's one of the reasons we are seeing so many tokens essentially go to zero: They didn't actually have anything tangible to offer, just a token and some promises.

Building something substantial and tangible that'll live and thrive in the long run is not only a daunting proposition... it's also a lot of work.

And you have to have a lot of patience and perseverance, as I have often mentioned.

As such, I am very glad there's finally something new in the works, here on Steemit... in the form of a front end interface to "modernize" things a bit. This matters because we do have this real and functional use here, and it's worth nurturing and building. So, if you're reading here for the first time, I do hope you'll support the new development proposal - see below for more!

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great remainder of your week!

How about you? Do you feel like crypto has lived up to its original promises? If not, why not? Leave a comment if you feel so inclined — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

On A Different Note: Please Support @the-gorilla's DAO proposal to modernize the Steemit interface!

If you have not been here for a long time, you might not be aware that Steemit is largely community driven. That means many changes and updates aren't created by "some company or management," but by individual community members.

The "look and feel" of the Steemit interface has not changed significantly in the seven years I have been here, and it is terribly outdated. @the-gorilla is a professional developer who has proposed to create a "modernization." And for that to happen, he needs your vote, much in the same way we vote for Witnesses.

I encourage you to read the proposal and vote in support of it — it's the 2nd one down from the top! Every vote counts, little and large!

(All text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is ORIGINAL CONTENT, created expressly for this platform — Not posted elsewhere!)

Created at 2024.02.07 23:28PST
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