Crypto planet
Why did I fall into the rabbit hole? Why did you?
Will crypto win in the grand scheme of things? But what is actually to be gained?
I had uncorrelated discussions with friends that made me approach these questions differently, s/o to them to enlighten my mind.
I now imagine crypto like a planet.
I also think that multiple planets exist, in fact there is a planet for every thing that is inseparable from our life.
there are two relevant examples of planets that came to my mind.
The shoes planet. It’s been a long time since we wear shoes. The shoes planet is an old lady. But who live there? Humans. In fact every human born since we wore shoes.
But where do we live? Nike owns 60% of the habitable land. So there is decent chance that you were born in Nike. Sounds weird? It should not. Also being born here doesn’t mean that that you’ll live there your whole life. You can leave and come back. But it’s likely that you will stay because nike offers you the best environment to find shoes that you like. Or at least that's what you've heard all your life.
What makes people stay in Nike land isn’t the fact that Nike make solid and comfy shoes with a design level often unrivaled on the shoe planet. The pioneers of the shoe planet chose nike at a time when it wasn’t yet a continent. These people selected what mattered to them at that moment. The strongest expression of the nike power is that this choice made at the origin is considered the reference, the consensus. People believe that nike shoes are the best in the world. This is the only reason why nike is still nike. This simple idea has endured and colonized the minds of billions of people on this planet. Shared and not decided anymore as the influence of the environment governs newborns. Like a self-fulfilling prophecy.
A little recap:
planet: shoe planet
consensus : nike makes the best streetwear shoes
standard: nike
standard’s size: > 60% of the land
The other planet I think about is the monetary planet.
We used money to exchange goods since a long time. Once again, a very old lady.
The consensus I see is the bank note. This is the best representation of money that humans have. If I gave someone a bank note, he’ll consider it as money pretty much everywhere.
The standard and the biggest continent is the dollar of course.
Other currencies exists in smaller sizes, but the vast majority belong to the dollar hegemony.
The monetary planet he went through crises and wars but its consensus was never challenged. The standard is still the same. People seem happy, their bank notes always show the same number and maintain the perception that they allow you to buy the same things.
But things are different nowadays, even the 2008 financial crisis didn’t upset the consensus as much the internet. Internet gave us an opening to get our passport back and have the choice to leave our country.
How? Everything became digital, even the money. Now it’s just numbers on a screen. So if it’s just numbers on a screen, is the consensus different? People can still access the representation of their consensus so it still alive. But a thing changed fundamentally. The trust. From a typical human perspective, the less cash you use, the more you have to trust the institutions that hold your money, the ones that guarantee the correct numbers on your screen. Some would say this has always been the case, I agree, but humans didn't really realize it until they could see how much they had in their bank account just by looking at their phone. The strong digitalization of finance raises awareness.
People didn't leave the Nike continent once they were born there because they thought they deliberately chose to stay there. Some therefore saw the Internet combined with this upheaval in the level of trust as a bridge allowing the creation of a new consensus. Enter Satoshi and the crypto planet.
Satoshi left the monetary planet, used cryptography to create both bitcoin and the crypto planet. The main difference with the monetary planet is consensus. Here, consensus is defined by the law of the code. If you trust the code, you can live and build on this planet. Quite a few people who lost faith in humanity were seduced by this model and emigrated. Today there is a secure bridge with the monetary planet.
Bitcoin was the first continent on the crypto planet and still remains the largest. Ethereum is another one that really challenges Bitcoin's leadership.
Unlike the planets we have always known, no human here has an individual interest in advocating any form of domination. Bitcoin does not seek influence like Nike or a government, Bitcoin acts a bit like a God. The cult exists, people believe in it, but they have their passport. They could leave the bitcoin continent without ever forgetting its ethos, that code is law. These people are therefore more likely to reproduce a model similar to bitcoin to create and develop other continents.
This allows the free creation and cohabitation of various networks and means of transaction. Things have changed a bit since the arrival of Ethereum and it would be surprising to see another continent reach the size and advancement of Ethereum. But this feeling of freedom to live and build everywhere is very real on the crypto planet while it is illusory on other planets, where leadership dictates the behavior of its residents. Nike's leadership would never tolerate another continent that is, say, half its size.
The crypto planet is only in its infancy, everything remains to be done but the foundations have been laid and they are rock solid, almost immutable.
So, as long as you can’t withdraw money en masse (if your size is size), people will not forget that the consensus on the monetary planet is now dictated by the trust allocated to the legal entities which create and hold the 'money. As long as we must trust institutions that have experienced significant failures with serious consequences at specific moments in history, some people will always be doubtful and will turn to alternative planets, in search of a better place where live.
The growing interest and migration of humans from the monetary planet to the crypto planet is accelerating the development of infrastructure to accommodate newcomers. This accelerates growth more strongly than necessary, at the risk of creating speculative bubbles.
So should the relationship between the two planets develop? This is a philosophical question, potentially a religious one.
Balaji explained it in this tweet and I like the analogy.
Should the crypto planet be secular? Yes, this should be the case, and this will be contested by the extremist supporters of Bitcoin and Ethereum, their ideology bordering on deviance will have to be contained. This will strongly influence new entrants to build on these two networks, thus strengthening their dominance. The problem is that the natural dominance exclusive to the crypto planet is lost in men's desire to convince themselves that they believe in the right thing. This desire will lead us to recreate monopolies similar to those of other planets. This is the main test that awaits crypto, to avoid recreating the same opportunistic behaviors. Let's stay wholesome.
The bright side is that these monopolies would be in the hands of Bitcoin and Ethereum. We've had worse contenders.
If Bitcoin had leadership that only wanted to promote its own expansion at the expense of other networks, Ethereum would probably not exist. Bitcoin would likely have multiple layers 2 and a globally adopted lighting network. Would the crypto world have been more advanced and adopted? I do not think so.
I love Bitcoin and am extremely grateful for what it has done for the crypto planet. I like Ethereum smart contracts even more. I think Ethereum is the continent to build on, its security is proven, its inhabitants are generally happy and relevant, they communicate, believe and participate in its development. Things are moving forward. But Ethereum needs to be even stronger, closer to bitcoin and that’s what I want.
If I told you that Ethereum could grow enormously but for the benefit of those who have not yet arrived, what would you do? I would develop the Ethereum continent while convincing myself that those who are absent are always wrong.
Did I just insinuate that I'm willing to kill any potential natural evolution of the crypto planet to just be Ethereum?
Yes I did. If you think that bitcoin and Ethereum should be the ones, then it’s already so over for the crypto planet and its consensus. Ethereum was able to be born despite imposing bitcoin maximalism because there were not yet many people on this planet. This is no longer the case, the influence of each person on each other is stronger than ever.
So I took the bridge to the crypto planet and fall down into the rabbit hole because it offers me the opportunity to be part of a consensus that has kept its purity. It also means that I have completely lost faith in the leaders of the monetary planet.
This consensus will push the crypto planet at levels difficult to visualize. Individual interest cannot dominate the code. Or humans will transform into divinities.