Thats an interesting way of looking at things. Best place would be to look at what top uni research labs are publishing. Usually when academics get curious abo

Thats an interesting way of looking at things. Best place would be to look at what top uni research labs are publishing. Usually when academics get curious about something they start labs dedicated to in depth study. Eg: https://dci.mit.edu/ https://dci.mit.edu/ https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/research/publications/Pages/default.aspx?q=Cryptocurrency https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/research/publications/Pages/defa... Look outside the US too. Its to early to find good sources though imho, given the ever dangling financial incentives. And as you rightly point out, there is a mindless buffoon class who have discovered showing raging growth (by handing out free stuff to unsophistacted people) will get you more funding (to buy more growth, to get more funding...). This cycle is happening at high speed these days which makes fixing issues that require time extremely hard. Thats a big weakness of anything receiving hype these days. Bitcoin might have some resemblance and overlap with emergence of religion but it doesnt really satisfy the Needs that religion does. As in there are Needs and Issues people have that finance wont solve. For example, go to a Cancer Hospital anywhere in the world and watch a doc tell parents their kid is not going to survive another month. There are so many similar situations people get thrown into. Many of whom have no great education or access to mental health care. Therefore Religion has survived inspite of all the cults, superstition, wars and death it has produced.