Idealists, Builders, and Extractors in a Dream Deferred

Wednesday, November 6, 2024

Crypto is made up of three groups: wealthy philosophers, middle-class dreamers, and poor farmers.

There are no users.

The wealthy philosophers - all deep pockets and utopian manifestos - are the ones bankrolling projects. For them, crypto is either a revolutionary tool meant to free society from traditional financial systems and bring power back to the people, or an ideological tool designed to rebuild society in their own paradigm.

The mid layer are the builders, engineers, and developers who transform the various “utopia” into code, apps, and platforms. They’re mostly middle-class professionals, drawn to crypto for the promise of disruption, freedom, and maybe even life-changing wealth. Their talent and drive translate the philosophers’ lofty visions into usable products that are genuinely bloody good tools. But for the most part, they stay relatively insulated, immersed in the technical side, with an idealistic view of who might use their creations and no real concept of what could go wrong.

Then we come to the farmers, crypto’s current attempt at an end user, often from poor or marginalized backgrounds. For them, crypto isn’t about revolution or freedom; it’s an opportunity for quick gains, a way to hustle and make fast money. They gamify every platform they touch, ruthlessly extracting value with no concern for the long-term health of the project. With every new crypto launch, they flood in, exploiting loopholes, gaming the incentives, and cashing out at the first chance. What’s left is often a hollowed-out shell of a project, its value drained and its dream reduced to rubble.

Without true users—people genuinely invested in the long-term potential of crypto’s applications, who aren’t participating through building or extracting—the cycle remains incomplete. Philosophers fund ideals that remain untested in the real world. Dreamers build platforms, that are never used for their intended purpose. And farmers mine these projects for short-term gains, reducing the dreams they encounter to rubble.

Crypto’s dream of leveling the playing field is undermined by the very people who keep it alive. Until these groups can connect and understand each other - and understand what’s missing - crypto will stay trapped in this loop: funded by idealists, built by dreamers, and devoured by those who can’t afford to believe in any dream but their own survival. It’s a revolution bogged down by the same old divides it set out to destroy.