The crypto space is dominated by selfish projects that share one goal: transferring monies from the gullible to the deceptive -- vampiric systems. I am not attacking the nature of crypto itself, just its awkward, gangly, drunken inbetween phase. This phase is what invites other authorities to impose order, punish those involved, and take more of the market for themselves and their friends. **SEC enters the chat**.
Coins and their infrastructure are often set up solely to benefit the liar-creators; yes, the people who are in first deserve to be compensated for the risk they assume, and likewise, they deserve to be punished for defrauding coinholders in the case of pump-and-dump ops. The exceptions don't define the norm, which Solana exemplifies.
Exchanges are ripe for abuse. Coins disappear, fees increase, transactions don't complete, new document requirements appear (ahem Cake...erm...Bake) and what recourse do coinholders have? Not much. The phrase "Not your keys, not your crypto" exists for a reason. The large CEXs seem to be doing fine, but you never know. The spectre of Mt. Gox looms large.
Betting systems, even those that advertise as being "provably fair" (freebitco.in) prey upon people with low impulse control and pressure others to discard their common sense and financial restraint. Who benefits? Not the players, but the system. In other words, Vegas looks so good because the casinos makes lots of money; they make lots of money because people lose lots of money. The cryptoverse is a digital Vegas.
Airdrop Telegram games, faucet-based games, and on-blockchain games prey upon people's desire for goal completion, looking better than others, or having more arcane items/skills than others. They run on the old engines of status and envy, whispering that spending money will make you important.
What gives these vampiric systems life is the lottery mentality -- you will be the one that beats the odds. You will be able to bet, win, and step away. You'll be able to time the markets exactly right and make a fortune. You'll be special.
The number of these fortunate people always be small, but without that siren song, how could these projects succeed? Like Hollywood needs a continual supply of actors willing to do anything to succeed, so do certain political campaigns, and so do crypto projects. All of them need whores, suckers, clowns, the desperate, and those who go and make whores of others.
At least crypto doesn't breed personality cults, but it still encourages cult worship; specialty language evolves like a thieves' cant, both to shore up the individuals in their suffering, but also to make them seem unreachable by common language and appeals to the transcendent.
Conclusions?
The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.
I'm not the lucky one. You're not the lucky one.
Invest. Don't play games with your money.
Only when people start building crypto-based systems that do unique things will the situation improve. Let's get over the drooling fascination with cryptocurrency. It's similar to teenage guys -- they don't get dates with actual girls until they can master their fascination with female body parts. We need to build systems that use crypto, not systems that milk people for crypto.
Let's drive a stake through the heart of vampiric systems.
(All art original by me.)
