Disclaimer

Wait a minute, wait a minute before you go on, please read the disclaimer. This isn't some random click-bate, rock-em sock-em joy-ride for your eyeballs or some self-serving coin analysis to tickle your lower extremities. There's plenty of that going around already, so if you're looking for eye candy, please go elsewhere. Don't get me wrong, I like ah da candy and I'm involved in several of the platforms and investment vehicles discussed below. However, this is an honest discussion about the various spheres of influence and the potential impacts they're having on the world of Cryptocurrency right now. Namely government policies and rampant shilling as it relates to Crypto. The overwhelming amount of marketing, regulation, and hype being spewed about this topic seems to be a bit too much now a days, doesn't it? I mean, look at Dogecoin (seriously, just look at it).

Fate loves Irony

Now, there's FOMO and then there's the downright exploitation of information that's going on at levels we've never seen before. Sure, you could pawn all this off on some super-cycle bull run, or the fact that we are all sooo connected that we're finally seeing the network effects of irrationality but ask yourself this. Do those explanations hold any water to what's really going on? Let's take a look at everyone's favorite industrious Billionaire, Elon Musk for example. Most of us learned through a Super Bowl commercial (watch here) that he believes Dogecoin will likely become the next form of currency on Earth because, in his words, "...the most ironic outcome is most likely." On February 4th he tweeted that, "Dogecoin is the people’s crypto" (original tweet found here) and most recently him and Snoop Dog made headlines because of the effect their tweets had on the price of Dogecoin.

Dogecoin jumped as much as 31% Monday after tweets from Elon Musk and rapper Snoop Dog over the weekend sent the meme-inspired token soaring to record highs.

The cryptocurrency surged to a record $0.083745 at 5:29 PM on February 7, and ranked in the top 10 digital coins...

Now, I'm a big fan and supporter of Elon but when my Step-Brother asked about "That new doggy-coin" Musk was talking about, I almost fell over in disbelief. Keep in mind, he's never once asked about cryptocurrency before that day but was dead serious when he asked me about Dogecoin. Here's the kicker, after I explained to him a bit of the history and what it was, he actually ended up buying the 'Doggy Coin' as one of his first crypto purchases. Despite the hilarity of it all, if you know the story of Dogecoin, you're right there with me in disbelief over just how far this thing has actually come (I bet Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer never saw this type of network effect coming). Needless to say, me and the boys roasted him thoroughly for that one. Although, who will have the last laugh is yet to be seen (I'm rootin for ya Mitch).

Initially, the big selling point of crypto was to unite our collective power to decide how the future of currency, capitalization, and investing would be decided. An idea based off of solid economic foundations and a collective desire to get away from the centralized monetary policies plaguing the world. Once adopted, it spawned this illusion that we've been creating a decentralized monetary utopia, where 'we the people' call the shots and steer the direction of commerce (enter Dogecoin 2020). Well, as Bon Jovi likes to say, "Whoaaaaa, we're half way there..." Hold it, hold it, stop singing! Do we really believe with everything going on that this idea will end up the way it was intended to, or are we just (ok keep singing) "Livin on a prayer..!?"

Photo by Karolina Grabowska from Pexels

A Buffet of Lies

Here in lies the problem(s), the very ideas designed to free us from the constraints of centralized governance are also the ones choking us down with an unabashed, unbound, and unforgiving amount of information designed for one thing and one thing only, control. That old saying, 'let the free market dictate' should not be used as an argument in the case of crypto anymore and utility, simply forget about it. Most newcomers don't even know what the coins actual utilities are, let alone the basics ideas underlying blockchain and cryptographic technology (I think its safe to say most people don't). Simply put, most of us are hypnotized by the idea that the price of our crypto-investments will only move higher because well, that's what's been happening. 

However, behind the scenes what's actually happening is the rapid construction of Finance 2.0. The promise of exceeding profits have bull-dozed our common senses with grandiose financial instruments designed to make us even more money seemingly, out of thin air. Please help me welcome Yield Farming and Decentralized Finance to the table. Buying low and selling high are pretty simple concepts to think about when making a return on an asset but what about this: a synthetic token, earning fees from a Liquidity pool, whose LP tokens are now being staked into a platform that's earning another reward token, which is then being collateralized and borrowed against to purchase a stable coin, that has also been deposited in another platform earning more interest than the original borrow rate. Easy right!?

The decentralized finance space has quickly become, for lack of a better term, absurd. Just scroll through the food related names in DeFi and it quickly becomes apparent what I'm talking about. To give you an idea, here are a few of the more popular ones: Pickle Finance (PICKLE), Beefy Finance (BIFI), Sushiswap (SUSHI), Pizzaswap (PIZZA), Yam Finance (YAM), Pancake swap (CAKE), rotten (ROT), the list goes on and on. Wait, I almost forget my favorite one of all, yftp (Yearn For Toilet Paper)-Toilet Paper Finance. These fickle financial instruments have been fabricated into existence to exploit the very same ideas they were born from, turning the whole damn thing into a elaborate financial buffet that resembles an ouroboros. 

Photo by C Technical from Pexels  

Now, we aren't talking about anything ground-breaking here; what we're talking about is greed, pure and simple. You know, the Wolf of Wall Street, Big Short, and Boiler Room type of greed. People are shilling their brains out and the people paying them to do so are becoming the ones driving the direction of the markets. The people with the most money have always been calling the shots and if you don't like it, you can bet your bah-tootey an influencer on YouTube is going to shill that rationale out of existence. Not to mention the fact that the government has been trying to mold crypto into a replicant of the previous financial system this entire time.

One of the most important aspects of cryptocurrencies from a civil liberties perspective is that they can provide privacy protections for their users. But EFF is concerned that the U.S. government has been increasingly taking steps to undermine the anonymity of cryptocurrency transactions and importing the widespread financial surveillance of the traditional banking system to cryptocurrencies.

Our path forward is a very treacherous one to say the least and honestly we could go in either direction at this point. Either we head toward the original vision of a financial masterpiece driven by a community of rebellious individuals (shout out to Wallstreetbets) or suffer the consequences of an insatiable beast that grows into an unstoppable force of surveillance and oppression.

For a better understanding of what's going on with financial regulation and how it's effecting crypto, hop on over to this article from https://www.eff.org/ after you finish reading mine.

So, Where Are We Heading?

To some of us, what's going on might seem pretty obvious. You have the mega-wealthy groups trying to exploit information for capitol gain (nothing new there), and the powerful government types trying to exercise their control over the financial rebellion so they can shape it into something they can ultimately handle. Together they are dominating the Crypto/Defi landscape with their spheres of influence and if we're not careful, the results of where they're taking us might not be so pretty. There are a lot of 'Aha!' moments happening right now and if this blows up in our faces a lot of people will end up saying, "Yup, that was a huge warning sign back there." Together, we should be pondering the deeper consequences of turning a collective blind-eye to all this absurdity and get back to the decentralized roots that attracted us here in the first place. We need to land Finance 2.0 on its feet so the power of this collective instrument always ends up in the hands of the people using it. 

What does all this mean for you and me? Have we become so enamored with the notion of success that we'll literally just throw money at intangible ideas we know nothing about? Is it because Elon or my step brother said so? These things have and will continue to go on without a doubt, and I think it's safe to say we're truly at a tipping point with our beloved crypto. The financial markets have always been fueled by that unavoidable animal spirit, GREED. As Stanley Weiser and Oliver Stone's Gordon Gecko character so eloquently put, "Greed, for lack of a better word, is good." It does have its place in the world, especially in finance. However left unchecked, it can turn into a vial behemoth that swallows up everything in its path; including you and me. So, just a friendly reminder; be your step-brother's keeper, look both ways when you cross the street, and don't forget;

“The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist”—Charles Baudelaire

Photo by Mitja Juraja from Pexels

Do you agree, are we heading toward a financial dystopia? Will the mega-rich and powerful manipulate us out of the very freedoms we think we're fighting for? Will Mitch sell Dogecoin? Let me know what you think in the comments below and don't forget to follow me for more.