Let's just say I've been evangelized as a Bitcoin maximalist. Instead of redacting my previous thoughts on the crypto industry, I will read through and respond to myself from one year ago. A bit of self-reflection, if you don't mind.

I will state that I am not anti-crypto, per se, but I am anti-whatever I am about to describe.

I am now anti-crypto, but pro-Bitcoin.

I think crypto can provide a useful utility for people, namely transferring funds elecronically without an intermediary (kinda).

I now believe that Bitcoin is a very useful utility, namely one that gives people the chance to control their own wealth and transact without the interference from a government or bad actor. Beware the money printer and war-machine.

Do I think the world would be worse without crypto? Not really.

For some people, possibly. Even a shitcoin, like the one that is widely used in South America (forgot the name and don't want to promote it either) could be making peoples' lives much better by helping them store dollars while their local currency is extremely volatile.

I am content with Bitcoin and Ethereum, but beyond those I have not actually found a coin that offers "life-improving" technology.

After spending a lot of time reading up on Bitcoin history, I believe it to be a tech and open source phenomenon, similar to Linux, which can definitely improve a person's sovereignty. It's organic growth in the beginning is fascinating, just like Linux's, and is something to read about even if you aren't invested or interested in the technology.

Ethereum is just the most popular scam platform. Perhaps useful at this current time, but not providing anything with real longevity and is bound to be replaced. Bitcoin cannot be replaced because of its organic and decentralized nature.

I am going to completely generalize here, so take it with a grain of salt. Keep in mind that I am a "nothing-to-show" dev who hasn't created such "successful" projects before.

Still valid!

After reading through and working with many crypto projects, there are practically none that seem impressive anymore. They are either poorly documented, hastily written, over-engineered or just faulty. Rarely do they promise something life-changing or revolutionary, no matter how much they hype it up on social media. With confidence I can say that the majority of them are just purely copy-pasted code and ideas that add one extra feature in hopes of securing a voluptuous cash grab.

Still valid.

It's gotten to the point where it's laughable to me when a new crypto project appears and it's just a fork of Ethereum or some other code with a few changes added and a shiny, new website with some marketing.

These are all scams under the surface. Even if they are not blatant rugpulls, they are long term scams which work within rules and regulations.

Sometimes I think of all the code written for these projects and man-hours wasted. It's comical, actually, especially since the code is just re-written over and over or just abandonware at the end! This may be an issue with the software industry as a whole, but it's amplified here.

I still believe this and I see it to be true even in Bitcoin. Everyone is obsessed with technology, coding and making more disposable fluff projects. There is a certain type of dev that cannot sit still or "complete" a project. Everything must be rewritten or modified continuously without a clear end goal. LLMs have contributed to this, allowing a dev to write even more slop to "advance" a project.

Compare these types of projects with real engineering marvels, like a bridge or a skyscraper, or even a missile launcher that will end up blowing up some hospital far far away.

I think the image of comparison still holds, but I still can't articulate it in a poetic way. It's hard to make a value judgment on certain technology. Sadly, the latter part of what I said is becoming more true as time goes on.

Money and Tech Obsession

This section still stands true with me.