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As wealth disparity rises, people increasingly seem to demonize “the man”…the embodiment of what they feel is holding them down. As such, companies, technologie

As wealth disparity rises, people increasingly seem to demonize “the man”…the embodiment of what they feel is holding them down. As such, companies, technologies and products that “stick it to the man” or reduce the influence of the institution are in a position to thrive. The surge in popularity of crypto is because it’s an outlet for this psychological phenomenon.

GDC7 5y ago
And there are 2 strains for it as well! Bitcoin is for those who blame and antagonize the government and the Fed, as well as the IRS. Ethereum is for those who blame and antagonize big platforms such as Facebook, Google, Youtube, but also JPMorgan, RobinHood, Bank of America.
- ZeroMinx 5y ago
  Could you explain (or source) this difference please? I don't recall seeing this type of grouping before.
  - GDC7 5y ago
    It's a social one. People who gravitate towards bitcoin are the Liberatian types, they are extremely scared of inflation, money printing, government overreach, they hate taxes, IRS, Customer due diligence laws, KYC etc. They think Bitcoin is the way towards techno-utopia and that the single, most impactful thing you can do to reach techno-utopia is to base the entire global financial system of on Bitcoin, so that its inherent scarcity, deflation, no-taxation and freedom would enable countless of positive externalities and effects downhill. People who gravitate towards Ethereum on the other hand are the Silicon Valley types: they don't have strong belief with regards to government , they don't spend too much time worrying about government at all. They spend time worrying about themselves and their surroundings. They are concerned with 2 things: 1) Escaping personal irrelevancy by creating products/services that people will use , but always within the framework of the government 2) Productively channel their inner hatred towards existing products/services, and I'd also add their personal hatred towards the successful creators/administrators (eg. Zuckerberg, Jamie Dimon, Vlad, Ken Griffin..). All that in order to convince themselves, their co-workers and most importantly the public that such old institutions not only can be disrupted, but need to be disrupted ASAP because they are evil, and their creators/administrators are evil, and if they are not disrupted they'd cause harm and spread evil.
    - shiohime 5y ago
      I've definitely seen these sentiments in the crypto space, it's really obvious if you even dip your toes into it that you will see these kinds of opinions and groupings. I also share some of the opinions that you're laying out here. However, please keep in mind that they are generalizations. There are a ton of people in the space that are simply fascinated by the technology and looking to build something cool, and also people that are simply using crypto as a portion of their portfolio as it's been the highest performing emerging asset of our lifetime. There are also people that are just using cryptos as currency. There's countless reasons for being in the crypto space, and generalizing them to two simple groups is not quite accurate.
      - ZeroMinx 5y ago
        I've seen all the sentiments, but hadn't thought it was so divided between the BTC/ETH crowds. It's interesting! (Of course generalizations are never 100% accurate, but they can highlight a theme which is interesting to observe)
    - c21h30o2 5y ago
      I partly agree with both of those sentiments. I think DAOs have the potential to replace nations and cryptocurrency's most revolutionary use case at the moment is being a playground for innovation in governance.
      - UncleMeat 5y ago
        States have people with guns that enforce laws and officials who willingly leave office when they lose elections or are fired. That’s the hard part, not the voting. How does a DAO do this?
        c21h30o2 5y ago
        > States have people with guns that enforce laws (...) How does a DAO do this? The same way the state does it: Paying them money. > officials who willingly leave office when they lose elections or are fired I don't think that will be hard in a DAO since the real power is with the DAO, not with any official acting on its behalf. Anyway these kinds of questions and many more are why we need this playground, to discover all the edges and gotchas and find solutions.
- glaslong 5y ago
  As well as the non-crypto SuperStonk vs The Hedgies variety. Not so decentralized in the technical sense, but the motives are very similar.
kolbe 5y ago
They attract investment from younger people (especially after a year where millions of wealthy elderly prematurely died of Covid, triggering a massive wealth transfer), but that doesn’t mean they’ve discovered sustainable business purpose.
akudha 5y ago
This psychology is totally understandable. My bank wouldn't even help with notarizing documents, even though I have been their customer for more than a decade now. Meanwhile banks launder drug money happily in the billions, and nothing happens to them (other than some tiny fines, which are a joke). They act as they please. My dad worked for a bank all his life - he did a lot of good things through his job, because he was allowed to. The landscape is a lot different today. The sad part is that much of crypto is owned by a very small number of whales, who can and do manipulate the market at will. I really, really hope DeFi or something similar comes up to at minimum challenge the traditional finance institutions. This is very early stage, a decade or two from now, things might look different, hopefully better. There are lots of super smart people working in the space, even if 5% of them succeed, it might bring out some meaningful change

GDC7 5y ago

And there are 2 strains for it as well! Bitcoin is for those who blame and antagonize the government and the Fed, as well as the IRS. Ethereum is for those who blame and antagonize big platforms such as Facebook, Google, Youtube, but also JPMorgan, RobinHood, Bank of America.

ZeroMinx 5y ago
Could you explain (or source) this difference please? I don't recall seeing this type of grouping before.
- GDC7 5y ago
  It's a social one. People who gravitate towards bitcoin are the Liberatian types, they are extremely scared of inflation, money printing, government overreach, they hate taxes, IRS, Customer due diligence laws, KYC etc. They think Bitcoin is the way towards techno-utopia and that the single, most impactful thing you can do to reach techno-utopia is to base the entire global financial system of on Bitcoin, so that its inherent scarcity, deflation, no-taxation and freedom would enable countless of positive externalities and effects downhill. People who gravitate towards Ethereum on the other hand are the Silicon Valley types: they don't have strong belief with regards to government , they don't spend too much time worrying about government at all. They spend time worrying about themselves and their surroundings. They are concerned with 2 things: 1) Escaping personal irrelevancy by creating products/services that people will use , but always within the framework of the government 2) Productively channel their inner hatred towards existing products/services, and I'd also add their personal hatred towards the successful creators/administrators (eg. Zuckerberg, Jamie Dimon, Vlad, Ken Griffin..). All that in order to convince themselves, their co-workers and most importantly the public that such old institutions not only can be disrupted, but need to be disrupted ASAP because they are evil, and their creators/administrators are evil, and if they are not disrupted they'd cause harm and spread evil.
  - shiohime 5y ago
    I've definitely seen these sentiments in the crypto space, it's really obvious if you even dip your toes into it that you will see these kinds of opinions and groupings. I also share some of the opinions that you're laying out here. However, please keep in mind that they are generalizations. There are a ton of people in the space that are simply fascinated by the technology and looking to build something cool, and also people that are simply using crypto as a portion of their portfolio as it's been the highest performing emerging asset of our lifetime. There are also people that are just using cryptos as currency. There's countless reasons for being in the crypto space, and generalizing them to two simple groups is not quite accurate.
    - ZeroMinx 5y ago
      I've seen all the sentiments, but hadn't thought it was so divided between the BTC/ETH crowds. It's interesting! (Of course generalizations are never 100% accurate, but they can highlight a theme which is interesting to observe)
  - c21h30o2 5y ago
    I partly agree with both of those sentiments. I think DAOs have the potential to replace nations and cryptocurrency's most revolutionary use case at the moment is being a playground for innovation in governance.
    - UncleMeat 5y ago
      States have people with guns that enforce laws and officials who willingly leave office when they lose elections or are fired. That’s the hard part, not the voting. How does a DAO do this?
      - c21h30o2 5y ago
        > States have people with guns that enforce laws (...) How does a DAO do this? The same way the state does it: Paying them money. > officials who willingly leave office when they lose elections or are fired I don't think that will be hard in a DAO since the real power is with the DAO, not with any official acting on its behalf. Anyway these kinds of questions and many more are why we need this playground, to discover all the edges and gotchas and find solutions.
glaslong 5y ago
As well as the non-crypto SuperStonk vs The Hedgies variety. Not so decentralized in the technical sense, but the motives are very similar.

kolbe 5y ago

They attract investment from younger people (especially after a year where millions of wealthy elderly prematurely died of Covid, triggering a massive wealth transfer), but that doesn’t mean they’ve discovered sustainable business purpose.

akudha 5y ago

This psychology is totally understandable. My bank wouldn't even help with notarizing documents, even though I have been their customer for more than a decade now. Meanwhile banks launder drug money happily in the billions, and nothing happens to them (other than some tiny fines, which are a joke). They act as they please. My dad worked for a bank all his life - he did a lot of good things through his job, because he was allowed to. The landscape is a lot different today. The sad part is that much of crypto is owned by a very small number of whales, who can and do manipulate the market at will. I really, really hope DeFi or something similar comes up to at minimum challenge the traditional finance institutions. This is very early stage, a decade or two from now, things might look different, hopefully better. There are lots of super smart people working in the space, even if 5% of them succeed, it might bring out some meaningful change