https://www.citationneeded.news/the-year-of-technoligarchy/
"In 2021, crypto was all about
hype. Enthusiasts swore the “killer app” was
just around the corner — the thing that would finally reveal blockchains’ vast
potential to the normies who still couldn’t see the vision. It was suddenly
everywhere: Fortune 500s pushed NFT drops and on-chain metaverse wearables;
celebrities flaunted Bored Apes as status symbols; crypto firms plastered their
names on sports arenas and ran supermodel-fronted ad campaigns.
Zero-interest-rate-fueled venture capitalists flung cash at any pitch deck that
featured buzzwords like “democratization” and “trustlessness”. Early adopters
expected a windfall when the crowds of latecomers poured in, and so they
manically tried and tirelessly promoted each new app. “WAGMI” —
we’re all
gonna make it — was the chorus, as “communities” sprung up around tokens and
apps and assured one another that everyone was going to wind up rich.
2022 was the
collapse. Prices slid, and businesses built on the premise that
“number go up, forever” went with them. The Terra algorithmic stablecoin lost
its peg in May, entering a death spiral that vaporized $40 billion. In June,
the hedge fund Three Arrows Capital blew up, exposing the fragile web of
high-risk lending endemic to the industry. As margin calls mounted and lenders
demanded repayment, we saw bankruptcy after bankruptcy after bankruptcy. The
forced unwinds dragged prices even lower; bitcoin fell more than 60%. The year
culminated in the dramatic implosion of FTX, and by Christmas, its CEO and
former industry darling Sam Bankman-Fried had been arrested and extradited to
the United States to face criminal charges.
2023 was the
cleanup. Crypto winter dragged on as prices stagnated, users
drifted away, and venture capital redirected its firehose to shiny new AI
projects. After years of treating the sector as a fringe curiosity that might
just go away on its own, regulators began enforcing long-standing financial
regulations and pursuing the rampant fraud. I spent the year buried in court
documents as I tracked dozens of bankruptcy cases, regulatory enforcement
actions, and criminal prosecutions. Outside the die-hards, most people tuned
out, believing crypto to be well and truly dead. But within the industry, the
previous year’s destruction was reframed as a necessary cleansing that would
strip away the froth and fraud to expose the potential they swore was
still
only moments away from being realized."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
