I don't know when it started. But shortly after Crypto became a thing people started getting culty about it.

Avoiding FUD makes sense. Most of the coins in my portfolio performing the best right now were all ones people started dumping right after the FTX scandal. (Ironically they weren't related projects).

But there is a point where FUD becomes a form of thought control.

It is okay to criticize things that seem too good to be true or to question the long-term value of an NFT ticket for a game you only get to play once.

Likewise, it is okay to not listen when somebody says you should take every single token you've got staked across multiple exchanges and put them in cold storage because one company in the same sector went bankrupt.

However, people have a tendency to put Crypto and anything related to it on a pedestal.

Every game, animation, NFT series and shitcoin is going to the moon. 🚀

And, when it doesn't instead of saying 'Yeah. My bad. That was pretty stupid of me. Maybe I should do more research next time.'

They hop onto the next big project without pausing to consider how much they'd like it if it wasn't connected to the blockchain.

Because everything Crypto is inherently awesome and the best thing since sliced bread.

Think With Your Head, Not Your D**K

People are attracted to Crypto because it's a decentralized, 'anonymous' and safe alternative to fiat with the potential to help everyday people make money in a way that is usually only accessible to the top 26% of people.

However, the decentralized nature of crypto has created an environment where possession is 100% of the law. 

Many of the main issues—fake coins and NFTs stealing people's money, rug pulls, bad investments—could be solved with even the slightest modicum of common sense.

BananoVault is the only Crypto wallet I've ever seen that forces you to accept tokens before they are accessible in your wallet, which would quickly and effectively make fake airdrops impossible. But it's only available for BAN.

Anyone whose ever seen Kitchen Nightmares will tell you you should never take out a loan or mortgage your house to invest in a stock or a business.

Good investors know when to sell a losing stock.

But in the Crypto space, people will go out of their way to push new, gullible zealots into investing every last dime into something like Luna.

And then, when it goes very badly. Instead of people learning from it, they insist on HODLING FOREVER or investing in basically the same thing, hoping things will be different this time.

This confirms for anyone on the outside looking in that Crypto is a weird cult where you lose a lot of money.

And, from where I'm standing it's very clear people are a little too emotionally invested in making crypto their entire personality. Instead of viewing it for exactly what it is—a financial investment that requires a certain amount of financial literacy and risk tolerance.

Gamifying Everything Only Works If It's Good

I have mixed feelings about P2E Mobile gaming. On one hand, some mobile games are really fun and I appreciate the hard work developers put into a few of my favourite games and applications. If they can continue to make money and I can earn some rewards for playing that's pretty cool.

On the other hand, P2E mobile gaming ends up feeling like a chore when you're playing gross, ad-infested garbage.

And the same thing is true for any Crypto project. 

Some NFT collections have incredible art, utility features or cool off-chain assets attached that make them desirable in their own right.

Others squeeze all they can out of some cheap animation, slimy sales tactics, upsells and a wafer-thin premise.

And they MAKE MILLIONS while good projects flounder. Why?

Because people catch FOMO after being lured in by the hype. Everyone is wading through trash hoping to find the next Doge Coin or the next Bored Ape before it goes mainstream.

However, these kinds of investments have a shelf-life.

And the expiration date is whenever people stop being able to make money off of their purchases.

If a sequel to Shadow of the Colossus went on sale tomorrow pre-orders would be booked solid. If a popular boutique or a casino decided to open up its stock for public trading passionate customers would invest.

Despite the time that might have passed between an introduction to one of these things and the opportunity to invest or purchase a follow-up these items would sell because people genuinely like them.

Quality products and services that satisfy a need or a desire are sustainable in a way that purchasing something you might be able to sell to a rich idiot is not.

Crypto Is Only Valuable When It's Doing Something Worthwhile

Here's the TL;DR version.

People like to put every new coin and project on a pedestal in the hopes that they will become millionaires by backing it. They then rope everyone they can in, hoping that somehow, everybody can win. Which is exactly not how trading works.

This feeds into a mindset that every garbage picture, P2E game or startup MUST  be the golden ticket. Regardless of what they actually have to contribute.

Is Axie Infinity really that good? If tomorrow they announced they were moving to a subscription-based model like FF14, how many 'players' would genuinely want to keep grinding in-game for those smooth love potions?

FF14 players will spend thousands of in-game hours for a cute hat or a new cuirass. People will pay hundreds to commission an artist to draw their OC breathing the SAME AIR  as a character from one of their favourite series.

Everything Crypto projects can offer, there is a market for. But the quality is rarely there.

Crypto is cool. NFTs have a lot of interesting use cases.

But until Crypto fans start being honest with themselves about the kind of projects they actually think are cool or would invest in if they weren't blockchain assets, we are going to continue to incentivize low-quality scams and cash grabs.

Why would anybody put more effort in, to make something smart and innovative when you'll buy anything Dillon Danis says looks 'delicious'?