You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?
You may remember me from 2 years ago, when Ethereum was selling for 7 USD and officially dead. That motivated me to submit a lengthy explanation on how it was the future of the internet, the price would eventually recover and there was nothing to worry about. Turns out Ethereum is officially dead again, selling at 130 usd. Why? Because it is boring. The ICO craze is over and we're experimenting a long-lasting hangover. Normal people are saturated with crypto and going on with their lives. Google trends are down. Nobody is here. You can hear the crickets. And that won't change any soon.
But, once again, there is nothing to worry about, as long as you're patient: eventually things will change because, as I've told you before, credit cards are stupid, fiat is mortal, and Ethereum has the perfect momentum to eventually become the worldwide economy; it can't die, by design. Once we have new exciting stuff that makes people entertained and curious, they'll be back. Meanwhile, here are some suggestions to have some fun and speed up this process.
A book series
First, we really need a good series based on crypto. I'm thinking of something like cyber wars, where people around the world realize crypto is money, and money is power, thus online factions fight over control over it all. It should be realistic and reference the real crypto history as much as possible, giving coolish explanations for things like Satoshi Nakamoto, MtGox, TheDAO incident, Bitconnect and so on; there is endless source of material. I'd say a good book would aggregate more value on the field as 3.6 research breakthroughs. Don't underestimate the power of literature to moving people's mind. Any writer around?
Funding developers just to develop things they like
Developers are the most important resource we have They're the crypto equivalent of cattle in Indian culture. They build the towers and castles that protect our lands from all evil. They're sacred. Problem is, developers need food to survive, and that little inconvenience causes most of them to get sucked by projects that have money. And guess who has money? Scammy ICOs. What I'm saying is that, honestly, most developers of this field, today, are working in projects that produce no real value. It is a well-known fact that the most amazing inventions of humanity came from developers on their spare times, working in things they loved. See Gmail, Youtube, Twitter, Facebook and the wheel. As such, I suggest we start a decentralized platform to give developers crypto-currencies to just develop what they like. No question asked. As long as they're building stuff, and they're enjoying it, we should give them $$$. If we can give millions to scammy ICOs, we can do that. I hypothesize that, as a result, mind-blowing things will be created and we'll grow at a unforeseen pace. So, let's do it!
Games
We need to build games. But not games like CryptoKitties which, while cool as a concept, are essentially classic games in a blockchain suit. We need games that are truly decentralized. Think of a huge RPG world where people can travel around, battle, collect epic items and trade them in an emerging economy. But not only that: a game without a central developer, where people all around the world contributing with art, map, code, and a decentralized system for adopting changes. Or, who know, an e-sport such as a MOBA like LoL, or a card game like Heartstone, without a central company behind its development. The good thing about games is that they're so inclusive, people love games, and it takes one good game to make a case for crypto. We need more of them!
A government
You may or may not have noticed, but governments are fueled by money. The only reason you have to pay taxes to the U.S. is that it is powerful (rich) enough to force you to. Once crypto-currencies inevitably become more valuable than fiat, the power of those states will decrease. There will be anti-tax movements, people will stop respecting governments, and eventually the old power will fade away as decentralized governments emerge. That is far from happening, of course, but we can already experiment. So, I have a suggestion: let's create the Decentralized State of Earth! A pretend-to-be universtal state with laws, taxes and even an army. When someone asks, it is just a silly joke, and our army is actually composed by kitten. Of course, secretly, we'll be building a real army of dolphins.
...
That's it. Thanks for listening to this old man! For those who know who I am: shh.
Posted Nov 20, 2018, 11:17 PM UTC
Satoshi? Is that you?
This post really is brilliant and spot on. I’ve been working a host of these things, but some slower than others. The government is where I’ve been most active, and have a detailed outline at r/bitcoin1776
It’s a strong form of government, which in effect means people based & authoritative. Consensus is ingrained, no separation of voters from leaders. It’s actually based on a model proposed by Aaron Swartz, the founder of Reddit and author of the Guerilla Manifesto discussing a technological revolution.
Once you have an inclusive government, paying developers becomes part of the system. And also paying the voters. In this system we pay voters 80% and devs 20% of the budget. The main focus on paying devs is compensation AFTER production, and to allow voters to decide ‘what is a dev’ - preventing dev cartels. Voters / leaders are paid based on the quality of their criticism. Not what they will do but highlighting what is being done wrong. This prevents salesmanship, and guides devs toward productive avenues.
Regarding the book series, I think this is necessary. I had planned to do one maybe but sort of settled upon retelling political history vs blockchain history. A Song of Ice and Fire is a very good series on political intrigue, I cite several literature inspirations on the about page of the website.
Regarding games, this is harder. Instructional games ‘learn to program, for jewels!!’ aren’t really that exciting, and time wasting games are bad for society. The only direction I’ve thought of would be a board game that incorporates blockchain elements without calling it ‘blockchain’. Like you could call it Kings of Ethereum!!! And include ‘smart contract’ elements and the DAO fork, but in a very abstract, fantasy way.
But as opposed to games, I think trying entice young people through work development and political inclusion is better. Lambda School is doing some good shit for people restarting careers. Something similar can be done with high schoolers, and I hope to be a part of that =D
Good luck everyone and take heed to this post! Good stuff.
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