https://polynya.mirror.xyz/ptscXuh3J3KOj2uJAn0vrEanpn2nauwA7iytYZ4cM9U

In retrospect, it was inevitable. Masses never cared about decentralization, permissionlessness, pseudonymity, etc. They didn’t care about PGP in the 90s nor about giving away their privacy on Facebook in the 00s. 1

The money use case of crypto has always filtered/selected for grifters (on the supply side) and degens (on the demand side), since even the early days of Bitcoin. It’s a disproportionately powerful narrative and incentive that “the tech” can’t compete with. 2

Best to hope for is that crypto effaces itself from the front end and silently starts powering the backbone of not just DeFi but also TradFi/FinTech. And for the rest of us, best is to ignore the grift/degen, touch grass, and focus on building/exploring.

In this context your writings will be missed. 3

One more though: another, less wordy way to say this, is that the tech, and even the builders, can be cypherpunk-aligned; and yet, the community and users not at all.

Maybe our early mistake was to assume downstream alignment to a common ethos