The C Word: A Contemporary Fable of Decentralized Wealth

Who doesn’t like the folklore fable of Robin Hood and his merry men??

Silicon Valley bros certainly do!

Armed with tights and goji-berry power shakes, they hike in the woods and contemplate liberating us all from the ills of capitalism. That is the ill of non-exponential and regulated capitalism.

On one of these hikes, stopping for berries (power shake) one of them (probably a CMO) stopped in their place and cried out: “I GOT IT!!!”?

“What?” Demanded the CTO, anxiously digesting a (micro-dose) mushroom snack.?

“THE BEST STORY EVER TOLD,” whispered the CMO “A story that would make even Muskhiavelli proud!”

“Do tell!” Approached the CEO-slash-genius.?

“The fable of the CRYPTO gold!” whispered the CMO “….we’ve been doing it all wrong, trying to take our money from the sheriff’s men. It’s the farmers we want.”?

“But they have no gold?!” said the CEO-slash-genius impatiently.?

“No, they don’t…But that’s why it’s the best story ever told…” replied the CMO.?

“So we will be robbing…them?” asked the CTO’s?

“This is the genius! They will both mine it and pay us to trade it for them. All along, they will be praising our name as their saviours!” Called the CMO.

“I think it’s so crazy it just might work!” smiled the CTO.

Their laughter grew louder and wilder as they kept climbing towards the peak.?

And that is how the fable of Crypto started.?

Cryptocurrency IS brilliant because it deployed (in the most despicable way) mass cultural manipulation that almost (!) got us all riding this rollercoaster to hell together. Encrypted data and payments are an important part of our digital future, blockchain technology that enables that is vital. But just because a book is written in English, it doesn't make it a Shakespearean masterpiece. And cryptocurrency might use encryption technology but converts it into something completely different. I would add Charlie Munger’s brilliant quote: “in my life, I try to avoid things that are stupid and evil and make me look bad ... and bitcoin does all three."

The near-success of cryptocurrency mass diffusion highlighted a cultural crisis within our society –? that, more than ever before, technology enables us to behave exponentially in an irrational and destructive manner. What separates a fable from reality is that fables have clear rules and endings. The villain pays. The underdogs win. The lesson is learned. They all live happily ever after. The reality of crypto was evident from the start. Still, the trend bullet train was already using it to buy NFTs (a close circuit value trade that benefited digital art for a split second but also drained it from the long-term value in the process). So let’s talk about what cryptocurrency is NOT:

Cryptocurrency is NOT money. I actually find it quite ironic that in an attempt to create a monetary revolution, the ‘solution’ uses so much financial world lingo and symbols to establish its validity or value. Using ‘mining’, ‘wallet’ ‘coin’, ‘minting’, coin icons and dollar-sign-like stripes, using gold as a predominant colour, should not belong in the ‘stick it to the man’ band of freedom fighters. It walks and talks like a monetary currency, but it is attached to no real-world asset or evaluation system - except for its own perceived value. It’s not even a stock or bond attached to an entity/industry performance. It is a gamble at best (I have too much respect for the wisdom of ancient Egyptians to call it a pyramid scheme)

Cryptocurrency was NOT invented by a mysterious Japanese genius but by a band of ‘boys behaving badly’ (bring forth Satoshi Nakamoto wherever you are, keeping him hidden to prove me wrong). In fact, it is one of the best points I have when someone tries to convince me to invest in crypto - I always say, “I will believe cryptocurrency is real if you could prove to me Satoshi is real”. Crickets. Every. Single. Time.

Cryptocurrency will NOT decentralize wealth. The assumption that we can all get equally rich with crypto requires you to own and access high-level computational means. Not something easily found in the favelas or other tech-deprived demographics and communities. The truth is that those who will gain from it are people with the existing capacity and access to minting farms, extra cash for crypto investment through trading, or hackers. Crypto seeks to decentralize state-led financial regulation to enable the rich to get richer; by default, the poor will get poorer. One clear piece of evidence for that is that the biggest chunk of crypto wealth is held by 0.01% of wallet holders [1]. This is no Robin Hood, but a reverse-Robin-Hood scam.

Cryptocurrencyis NOT a social technology. I understand that the 2007/8 financial crisis proved to us that our economic well-being might not be a top priority for government and banking institutions*. Crypto’s promise to reinstate our individual control over their financial futures might seem appealing. Still, it also made individuals more vulnerable to malicious attacks and loss and, on a broader scope, financed some anti-social activities. Crypto’s detachment from regulated bodies and authorities made it the preferred currency for dark web handlers. The mass popularity of crypto enabled them to seed their ‘dirty gold’ with the ‘fan gold’ that flooded the market. So congrats! Crypto’s ‘get rich quick; gold rush helped launder and fuel more drug, arm, human, and hacked data trafficking [2]. Also, who needs taxes anyways? it’s not like healthcare, roads, public education, or services are things society needs.

Cryptocurrency is NOT a sustainable technology. If I hear ONE MORE tech bro tell me that the energy-munching crypto-mining industry is actually GOOD because it encourages investment in green tech, I WILL LITERALLY SCREAM. I dare-not wish Greentech would be created just so it can provide everyone with energy and heat for cheap (or free) BECAUSE WE CAN. But I'm still a bit naive in that I still believe it should be developed just to compensate for our EXISTING greed and overconsumption, resulting in a sure and steady inhalation of species and planetary elements (present company included). Would it not just make more sense for Greentech to draw a straight line from A (sustainable energy) to B (humans and planet) without the need to have a made-up-energy-consuming-calculation-that-pretends-to-be-money in the middle?

Cryptocurrency is NOT a good investment unless you are into financial gambling. Need I say FTX? I have no violins left for the privileged Silicon Valley investors or hip-hop-stars-turned-tech-entrepreneurs that lost a fortune investing in it. These people that have, or at the very least have access to, financial knowledge could quickly grasp (unless refusing or pretending not to) that Cryptocurrency is a speculative asset at best.? But I will not accept how easily they were let off the hook for trying to make as many people invest in the crypto magic-bean online, on the phone and at family dinners. You see, in an age of mass FOMO and digitally distributed truths, the power of our words and actions matters even more. And yes, we are accountable for our online behaviours and words

Cryptocurrency is NOT the future of tech. Even now, crypto-believers clutch their virtual wallets as their lips move enthusiastically with prayer as they whisper in our ears that crypto will come back and change everything [3]. It will. But I doubt it will be for the best. The misalignment between the desire to produce exponential technological growth and the reality of narrowing natural resources has driven the tech industry to invent new spaces that cannot be limited by mere <snarl> small-minded-haters. The exponential growth fantasy was almost at arms’ reach. The creation of purchasable digital assets (NFT) and spaces (Metaverse) completed the loop of fable-world’s? ‘what’ and ‘where’ you will you use your cryptocurrency [4]. They quickly lured high fashion brands, financial entities from Chase bank to credit card companies and the World Economic Forum (act surprised)) and entire nations [5] to invest in this financial delusion. It didn’t hold water. And the cheap-money bubble had burst. Tech is going into hibernation mode (deny it if you like, but it won’t change reality). Perhaps it is time for the tech industry to build again on long-term sustainable growth by recalibrating tech's ‘why’ and ‘how’–because orchestrating false desires and currencies just don’t seem to cut it anymore.?

The tragedy of cryptocurrency is that it did not solve the real issues of financial inequalities, rigging, and injustice. It amplified them and created more problems than solutions, promises and actions. It is built on the assumption that ‘more’ of the same as what is needed, and code is what will bring it. Algorithmic tools could be better designed to identify and solve causes of unjust resource distribution; it’s boring but effective. Much like world hunger is more likely to be solved by better agrotech versus food delivery apps. The Capital C in this fable does not belong to ‘Crypto’ but to a nearly realized hyper-toxic form of Capitalism that was almost inflicted on us by us. The risk of almost actualizing an unnecessary, overcomplicated, unsafe, unregulated, polluting and unjust tech paradigm that could have robbed us of everything in our (real and virtual) wallets.

#WeDeserveBetterTech #TechForHumans #Impact #Cryptocurrency #Bitcon #SocialJustice #GetRichQuick #Monetization #Capitalism #FutureTech #Fintech #Greentech #Deeptech

[1] https://www.wsj.com/articles/bitcoins-one-percent-controls-lions-share-of-the-cryptocurrencys-wealth-11639996204

[2] https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/cryptocurrency-crime-2021-hits-all-time-high-value-chainalysis-2022-01-06/

https://www.outlookindia.com/business/darknet-market-brings-billions-of-revenues-in-crypto-world-finds-study-news-183428

[3] https://www.forbes.com/sites/billybambrough/2022/12/04/the-next-generation-blackrock-ceo-reveals-8-trillion-funds-huge-crypto-prediction-after-bitcoin-and-ethereum-price-crash/?sh=7604bc286d2f?

[4] ‘The A word’ about AI art and 'The M word’ thought pieces about the M***verse are coming next.

[5] https://ca.investing.com/news/cryptocurrency-news/bitcoin-el-salvador-on-the-brink--the-whole-shocking-truth-2847827

This series of thought pieces are meant to open up a critical discussion that had been so absent from the tech industry. Whereas tech’s rapid growth brought forward an unfortunate culture of tech-totalitarianism advocating for rapid implementation of tech-driven tools and platforms with no delay or thought. As a tech thinker, creative and developer, it had been frustrating to witness toxic behaviours towards people and opinions who challenge a technology or platform or propose an alternative outcome.?

Feel free to debate and discuss the pros and cons of my writing; please take a big breath before you respond to others, to figure out the point and intention behind the words written and whether (you and others) might be right, wrong or both.

Thank you for contributing to a discussion versus an online street fight!