Crypto: Warring Tribes and the Future
(An outlook on the current state of blockchain communities and future innovations to come)
Disclaimer: This is not financial advice and I am not a financial advisor. This is for educational purposes only and all readers should do their own research and due diligence.
As the crypto community continues to heatedly debate the future of the industry and what projects should succeed or fail, I couldn’t help but notice the true “discord” between the various cryptocurrency communities. People seem to have chosen sides in a tribal manner and we can see this on display throughout social media like Twitter and the various YouTube channels such as Bankless, UpOnly, Lex Fridman, and others, who have discussed the rift and the toxicity that has sprouted in this industry. Those who believe that only Bitcoin will succeed are branded as “Bitcoin maximalists” and they believe that working on anything besides Bitcoin is a threat to Bitcoin. This sort of groupthink and tribalism can be viewed as a detriment and waste of resources and developer talent. Bitcoin is the novel idea that ignited the industry, however, believing that it is the only crypto that should exist and all others should go away goes against the spirit of innovation and new ideas that the original Cypherpunks who began this all believed in. Other cryptocurrencies have sprouted extreme advancements in mathematics and computer science and by ignoring them and adhering to Bitcoin maximalist mantras innovation may be stifled. Advancements such as zero-knowledge proofs, proof-of-stake, chain key cryptography, etc., are fundamentally revolutionary ideas in the crypto space that must not and cannot be ignored.
Now that I have given more meaning and understanding to the article title, we must also look at a large contributing factor to the tribalism and disagreements; that important issue being the attempt of crypto projects marketing themselves as the coveted 3rd position of “the coin to come after Bitcoin and Ethereum”. A “3rd coin” may come to be, however focusing on that image may be the one thing that holds whatever project back from achieving its goals. We can already see from a low-level understanding how various blockchains will mimic/replace existing legacy software so regardless of being the 3rd coin there will be more cryptocurrencies that rise to popularity because of the technological innovation they provide. It will take time but before we know it I can see us living in a world where all businesses and services public and private are run on the blockchain.
One project that I can see help integrate and enhance the industry is the Internet Computer Protocol. In the same way that the GraphQL and Chainlink help to support Ethereum Dapp’s underlying structures, maybe the Internet Computer Protocol can make use of existing protocols to help it achieve its full potential. I don’t think that the narrative is the next thing after Ethereum, but more or less a possibility for the Internet Computer to enhance the abilities of Ethereum and help take the EVM off of the various cloud node operators that they exist on today. The medium blog post that inspired me to write this one is titled “Internet Computer <> Ethereum Integration Explained” by Dominic Williams, the creator and chief scientist at the Internet Computer Protocol, is one that every person should read in order to better understand that crypto projects can benefit more from integration with each other than integration with legacy systems¹. This is going to be the fundamental change in the cryptocurrency industry that will allow for the network effect of blockchains intertwining and living in harmony together in a value-creating system vs a zero-sum system.
The way I see it, the various blockchains, protocols, and projects need to work together and “plug into” each other in order for some of the dreams that they want to come to full fruition.
Final Note: Someone needs to kitbash these crypto projects together just like how Bitcoin is a kitbash of fundamental mathematical properties from the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Hopefully this post may spark ideas for people to act on, in pursuit of making the world better.
(1) Dominic Williams (May 27, 2021) https://medium.com/dfinity/internet-computer-ethereum-integration-explained-6967456e35f9
