Founders

religious beliefs in technology, crypto, etc are some of the most nefarious 

they’re often rooted in an good, value-oriented impulse, but once enough ppl to form an in group believe the thing and want to memetically signal their belief/choice to others, things get irrational/stupid quick

No, it's not. The Internet wasn't born out of belief bordering on religious fervor. It's good to have values, but trying to impose it on the tech (beyond certain limits) creates problems.

Creative undirector: @2077Collective. Ethernaut. Learning machine. Crazy genius. 

The OP has a lot to do with the original idea that every cause wants to be a cult: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/yEjaj7PWacno5EvWa/every-cause-wants-to-be-a-cult. Ironically, even LW community probably came close to falling into the trap despite knowing about it.

there was a lot of religious fervor before crypto too. for instance Richard Stallman and free software movement. even in the early days of web there were two different camps: open internet vs corporate internet