2. Delay Toward Hyperbitcoinization
This is a tricky one, because one day I believe we’ve been delayed, the next I think we have lightened the load and we’ll make it there quicker. I’m not sure where I stand, but there is a fair argument that says, “Had all of these stupid distractions and shitcoins not existed, and had the fraudsters not frothed and blown things up, perhaps 2021 and 2022 growth would have been a little more steady and sustainable — and we’d not have to go through this cleansing.”
It’s akin to the argument that you wouldn’t need to detox if you were more sensible with your diet in the first place. And this may be true. But alas, if society were a single human being, it would be an obese degenerate eating Cheetos and watching Netflix, who is in desperate need of a detox. Should we expect more?
3. Infighting
This one is also tricky, because I have been a very vocal advocate of weeding out adversaries, spooks and stupidity through unfettered discourse, which at times can and should be toxic. But…. I’m at the point where I think it’s unhealthy — and I, for one, have been a culprit in making it that way. I think a lot of us took on the mantle of “toxic” a little too literally, and instead of being useful, helpful or inspiring, we’ve just turned into a bunch of keyboard-warrior trolls.
I no longer think this shit is healthy. Instead of fighting the enemy, we’re fighting each other. Instead of producing meaningful content, we’re constantly making memes — which, granted, are very, very effective pieces of content, but at this point, many of them are just “in jokes” and don’t serve anyone or anything outside of a small click.
That’s fine if you want to just spend your days trolling, but similar to my own personal and stupid tirades on Twitter and often controversial (and sometimes ridiculous) takes, they don’t help anyone. I think many of us are so frustrated (I was squarely in this camp for 2022) that we can’t have the impact we want, that we’ve picked targets closer to us. Perhaps that’s the effect that Twitter has on people. My hope is that the discourse improves, and I intend to start with myself and perhaps inspire others. Time will tell.
4. Wealth Effect Shattered
For many Bitcoiners, (I think) we’d made plans based on an increasing purchasing power and envisioned a style of life that a greater bitcoin price could accommodate.
I personally did. I went hard at the beginning of the year after a few changes in personal circumstances. I didn’t keep much dry powder and, as such, I thought I had completed the greater part of my stacking, and that any future additions (flow) would only be marginal in relation to my stock. As such, I was caught in a tight spot when I had to juggle getting married, with sourcing new forms of revenue and reinventing myself as a content creator, in the middle of a bitcoin bear market, among other things. I get the sense that I was not the only one caught off guard in that sense. I, and many others, managed to find a way through it, but in many cases, it was not an easy process and I think it may have added to the subconscious frustration that manifested on Twitter. I’m calling myself out here first and foremost.
Other than these four standouts, there was obviously further insanity in the broader geopolitical and macroeconomic landscapes.
The stupidity of the State continued to exceed all of our expectations, which leads me into the final section…
The Ugly
The ugly part of 2022 was the utter injustice of everything.
The world is morally, socially and psychologically broken. Up is down, down is up. Bad is good, good is bad.
The things I listed in “The Good” section have their ugly parts.
Alex Mashinsky and friends at Celsius, Voyager and others, after blaming Bitcoiners for their woes, paid themselves some fat bonuses and resigned to a healthy retirement. No ramifications.
The ramifications for Do Kwon? Unknown. He’s at large , probably living it up on some island, enjoying the money he scammed out of people.
Su Zhu and 3AC? Nada. Zhu returned to Twitter months after disappearing, to give people life advice in tweets as if nothing ever happened. I’m not sure if they embezzled or stole money, or just blew up from bad management, but from what I can tell, other than a little Twitter backlash, there’s been little justice.
And, of course, the absolute insanity of the SBF and FTX situation.
He was walking around, doing podcasts and Twitter Spaces as if nothing ever happened .
Prior to the blow up, the media hailed him as the next coming of Jesus, and what’s worse, after the fraud all came out, the media kept protecting his image! The sheer audacity and injustice of it all was maddening.
He straight up stole $10 billion and was lined up to speak at a finance event with Janet Yellen !
After a couple of months of this crap, he was “arrested” only to somehow post bail for $250 million , which, God knows where the money came from, and was recently seen flying around in business class to spend Christmas with the family, because he can’t get any vegan food in the prison he was in.
You can’t make this shit up. Steal $10 billion, go fly business class. Next step; Make him Time’s man of the year.
As I said, if any of this ugliness tells us anything, it’s that the world has lost its moral compass entirely. The evil are praised and bailed out in plain sight, while the good are locked up, and the key thrown away.
Ross Ulbricht is serving two life sentences for the alleged “crime” of building a goddamn online marketplace for consenting individuals to buy things from each other. The fact that the items are “illegal goods” as per the dictates of the State matters not. That’s just a ridiculous position set out by bureaucratic parasites who will often do the drugs themselves. Whether you’re pro or against drugs (I’m personally against them), the fact remains that Ulbricht took nothing from anybody and is suffering the severest of punishments for simply connecting people online, and protecting his business interests.
Edward Snowden is another example. Like Ulbricht, it’s not a “this year” thing, but he’s living in exile somewhere in Russia , as if he’s a criminal for “leaking” the truth to the American people.
And likewise, Julian Assange is rotting in a cell somewhere for literally reporting on the truth.
As Shakespeare wrote , “There is something rotten in the state of Denmark”
It’s hard not to get black pilled in the face of such absurdity. But I do believe there is some hope. My hope lies in the fact that, as I’ve said before, Bitcoin’s greatest impact on the world will be the reintroduction of localized economic consequences. The downstream effect of this, I believe, will be better governance and better, more just leadership — because without a money printer, you cannot paper over bad decisions and you are held to greater account.
I can only hope that such economic and mega-political impacts occur within the lifetime of people such as Ulbricht, Snowden and Assange, who are unjustly serving sentences for crimes not committed.
If not, then at the very least, it’s my belief that the era that our children or children’s children grow up in will be on a Bitcoin standard, and that such stupidity will be much harder to get away with.
It will be a more beautiful place in that sense, because beauty is a harmony and a symmetry.
Right now, the world is so out of center, so out of symmetry that we are seeing criminals walk free and fly in luxury, while heroes and leaders languish in cells.
And for those who want to claim that “beauty is subjective,” I’m sorry, but you’re either myopic or stupid. Beauty is an objective pattern, just like the fractals that exist from the microscopic through to the galactic.
Economics, society and civilization themselves are beautiful when they adhere to such symmetry and harmony.
It’s my hope that Bitcoin’s neutral, unchangeable presence will make beauty a reality once more, and I hope that by the end of the decade I am writing a guest piece called: “The Good, The Bad And The Beautiful” to commemorate how far we’ve come.
But, until then, we have a battle on our hands. So here’s to a better, more wholesome and meaningful 2023, where we each show up with greater strength and integrity than we have in the past.
This is a guest post by Aleks Svetski. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.
