1/ On the Nature of the Token Shapes the Nature of the Holders Who Shape The Nature Of The Token.
In the short-run, anything can happen with any token.
What determines the long-run though? What determines what will happen in 5, 10, 20 years?
2/ As always, it starts with Bitcoin. What was the "nature of the token?"
At the protocol level: It was fixed, progressively mined, and had a purpose inseparable from the function of the network (rewarding miners to encourage competition / decentralization of mining)
3/ At the social level, in the beginning, it was not particularly described as a "get rich quick" scheme or even a "get rich slow" scheme.
It was described an experiment in decentralization, as an alternative to corrupted centralized systems.
People and ideas are ferociously competing to live rent-free in your head.
For most people it is worse than that.
It is a high school rager with hundreds of people and ideas spilling beer on the sofa of your head.
Your job: face control
2/ It is impossible to live with a completely blank slate.
A functioning society is built on endless layers of abstraction on concepts and ideas.
Almost everyone, including the based contrarians, are repeating ideas that someone else propagated into their head.
3/ So let's get this out of the way first.
There will be a party in your living room of your head.
Perhaps the Buddha himself saw through the veil of ignorance, the cycle of samsara, and found nirvana, but safe to say that nobody reading this tweet has.
I did a lecture today for @giaglis's MOOC on NFTs and I got the RCSA question.
"NFTs are just a receipt, just a pointer to an image. I can download them and view them without buying them"
A classic question! Here is what I said.
2/ Imagine the Statue of Liberty.
It is very large.
It is on Liberty Island
It was a present from BFF (France)
It is owned by the Federal Government and specifically National Park Services
Anyone can look at it, whether the President of the USA or you
3/ Now, imagine the Federal Government needed to raise money fast.
It decided to sell the Statue of Liberty on the condition that it has to remain exactly as open to the public as it is now (It is both a National Monument and UNESCO World Heritage site)
✅tech/crypto: euphoric
✅nft artists: muted, possibly self-censoring in some cases
✅american east coast friends: upset / some women very upset
✅europeans: utterly and completely shocked/baffled
2/ You have to fight to not end up in an information bubble
This is not a "right" thing or a "left" thing; it is not an American or European thing
it is not about whatever is the "hot topic" of the day
it is about everything
3/ All information sources are incomplete and biased.
Every human is incomplete and biased, including journalists, billionaires and politicians.
An absolutely fantastic outcome for a top-tier human being is that they are great in one thing and mid in everything else.
This afternoon, along with a stranger, I rescued an old man who got dragged pretty far out to sea by undertow in heavy surf. We swam out and brought him in.
Every single cliche about events like this turned out to be true
2/ Cliche 1: "Drowning does not look like drowning"
The old man was not flailing around or yelling. In fact, he could not even talk to us while we brought him back.
He could not speak until he was on shore with wife. "thank you, I thought I was gone out there"
3/ Infinite credit to the stranger (youngish guy) who was there with his girlfriend/wife and figured out that there was a problem.
They were the only people out of hundreds at the beach who started yelling at the lifeguard for help