I've been wasting eight years in encryption

From:Aevo co-founder & nbsp; Ken Chan

Compile Odaily Daily Planet@OdailyChina); Translator Azuma()@azuma_ethI'm not sure

Editor: This weekend, an article by Ken Chan (@kenchangeh), co-founder and chief technical officer of Aevo, was painted on the extranet under the title:I wasted eight years in encryptionI Was 8 Years of My Life in Crypto。

Ken Chan's attitude in the article was extremely negative, arguing that the industry had lost idealism and turned into the largest and most heavily involved super-casino in human history, and that he was disgusted by his contribution to the casino。While we do not share Ken Chan’s view that the article was followed by a large number of counter-arguments from practitioners, its presentation objectively does reveal the deep-seated problems of the current industry’s lost beliefs and values。

The original Ken Chan content, compiled by Odaily Planet Daily。

The original motive

I was a politically motivated person when I was a teenager. Of all the books that have made me more radical, it's actually Ayn Rand's work that affects me the most (e.g. Source, Atlas shrugging). In 2016, I was also a vision free willist who had contributed money to Gary Johnson. In addition to the firm Landerism beliefs, I like computer programming, so encrypted money is a natural home for me. The spirit of the Punk code attracted me. Bitcoin's idea of being a private wealth bank fascinated me -- the ability to put a billion dollars across borders in my head -- has been a very powerful concept for me。

I don't knowOver time, I feel like I lost my original goal in the encryption industry。With full-time involvement in the field, the tempting silence over the power of encrypted monetary change is beginning to fade. I'm disillusioned with target users and real clients. I completely misunderstood who the real users of encrypted money are and took publicity as a reality. The encrypted currency claimed to centralize the financial system, and I bought it completely, but in fact it was just a supersystem of speculation and gambling, just a mirror of the real economy。

It hit me like a truck. I'm not building a new financial system. I'm building a casino, a casino that doesn't call itself a casino, but it's the largest, all-weather online, and countless people in our generation。Some of me wanted to be proud at least to spend the whole 20-year-old time building this casino, but others thought I was completely wasted in 20-year-olds. I wasted my life on it  -- but at least i made a lot of money from it。

It depends on what they do. Don't listen to what they say

ENCRYPTION MONEY IS A CONFUSING THING. ON THE ONE HAND, YOU WILL HEAR ADVOCATES SAY THAT THEY WANT TO REPLACE THE EXISTING FINANCIAL SYSTEM ENTIRELY WITH CHAINS. AND I CAN TOTALLY IMAGINE THE WORLD -- ALL YOU HAVE IN YOUR BANK ACCOUNT IS USDC OR BITCOIN, AND YOU CAN SEND A BILLION DOLLARS TO ANYBODY IN A FEW SECONDS. THIS VISION REMAINS STRONG AND I CONTINUE TO SHARE IT。

But the incentive mechanisms have completely distorted the course of events. In reality, all market participants are willing to throw money in and finance the next so-called “Layer 1” (Aptos, Sui, Sei, ICP, etc.). The only winner of the 2020 battle in Layer 1 was Solana, which gave rise to a strong speculative drive to compete for the fourth place (bitcoin, Ethera, after Solana?), supporting hundreds of billions of dollars in market value。

BUT DOES IT REALLY DRIVE US TOWARDS OUR IDEAL NEW FINANCIAL SYSTEM? ALTHOUGH VC WROTE 5,000 WORDS TO CONVINCE YOU, THE ANSWER IS NO。IT DOES NOT CREATE A NEW SYSTEM AT ALL; IT ACTUALLY BURNS DOWN THE FUNDS OF ALL, WHETHER DISPERSED OR VC, AND MAKES EVERYONE IN THE NEW SYSTEM POORER。

I'm not targeting Layer1. I can cite countless examples of this: live DEX, lasting contract DEX, forecast market, Meme platform, etc。The mad competition on these tracks does not substantially lead to a better financial system。CONTRARY TO WHAT VCS SAY, WE DON'T NEED TO BUILD CASINOS ON MARS。

Economic model gambling

If I say there was no financial motive for joining the encryption industry, it's a lie. As a reader, you might think I've made enough money to decide to quit the industry. Yeah, maybe I amBut maybe I'm just sick of my contribution to this mosaic of financialization and gambling。

Normalizing the zero-sum behaviour of “quick-for-one” is not a long-term way of creating wealth。Looks like it, but it's not. Eight years of encryption have completely destroyed my ability to identify sustainable business models. Here, you don't need a successful business or product to make money。This industry has a long list of high-market zero-user tokens -- it's completely against the logic of the real world。These zero-sum business models can't work if you want to bring value to customers, not just gambling, but entertainment。

Concluding remarks

I once thought that “financial nihilism” was a lovely and harmless concept. It doesn't matter if you keep putting zero-sum games in the next generation. I have no doubt that bitcoin will eventually rise to $1 million, but it has nothing to do with the financial games that the industry is making。

This industry is extremely toxic, and I believe it will lead to a long-term collapse of social mobility for the younger generation。You can already see it happening, and we must have the courage to resist these meaningless games。

CMS Holdings says, "Are you here to make money? Or are you going to prove yourself right?"

This time, I chose to prove myself right。