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I'd like to follow @cryptochamomile's tradition and end the year with praise for groups I either consider outgroups or otherwise don't normally praise, both inside and outside the crypto space...
1. Many in the Bitcoin community legitimately care about non-cryptocurrency "freedom tech" that I think is very important and valuable and that much of the crypto space has a tendency to forget about, eg. open hardware:
2. Bitcoin culture is definitely on the "survive" side of Slatestarcodex's thrive/survive dichotomy (slatestarcodex.com/2013/03/04/a-t…) and this has genuine benefits...
3. ... for instance, I definitely expect a higher percentage of the bitcoin community to remain actively engaged during a very severe government crackdown than the communities of many (most?) other cryptocurrencies.
4. They've also done an impressive job getting the lightning network to where it is today without relying on ICO funding.
5. National fiat currencies have for the last few decades done a reasonably good job of being stable, and deserve credit for this. Monetary policy is complicated!
6. The governments of the world have so far successfully maintained what is despite the noise a mostly peaceful and stable world order since 1945 that has facilitated over 1 billion people climbing out of extreme poverty and many more being born lucky to never enter it.
7. The Trump administration... is now supporting a seemingly totally sensible and needed criminal justice reform bill: washingtonpost.com/politics/trump…
8. The many centralized apps I use (including Twitter itself!) do a great job of being convenient and easy to use.
9. Religions clearly contain some deep embedded knowledge about how to motivate people and drive them to work together that cultures that try too hard to remove such tendencies often lack.
10. @davidgerard, @JorgeStolfi and friends at /r/buttcoin provide a much-needed service in shedding light on the crypto space's worst excesses, and good crypto communities should welcome their scrutiny.
11. Some in the mainstream media have done a great job of pointing the flashlight at things in the crypto space that deserve to be praised and criticized.
12. Proof of work does a really good job of being simple and explainable to high school students.
13. Coindesk staff showed great integrity in not retaliating against my public boycott of their event this May.
14. I did drop out of university, but I still learned quite a lot from my first year at Waterloo. I also benefit greatly from frequent interactions with academics based in universities that support their research.
