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406 sats \ 7 replies \ @jack 18 Aug 2023 \ on: industry men take themselves so seriously. . .a girl's take on meetups bitcoin
This particular part hits close to home. When I'm at crypto meetups or events or just talking to crypto-pilled folks, if I lead conversation into what the Value of bitcoin is (ie what leads to its current USD price), I can sense people souring like I'm not a "true believer" and that makes me an outsider, even if I'm excited about the tech.
For example I was at that bitcoin bar near washington square park in new york recently. A bunch of crypto guys that worked for a bitcoin company that did something with L2 contacts (Stacks I think?) were there. We were having a good chat, I'm asking them questions. But I asked one of the guys something like "what are people using bitcoin for nowadays?," an honest question about what the typical use cases for bitcoin are in 2023. Like what is the purpose of the transactions they do, what are people using it for in their experience, who will be using their tools, or generally what is bitcoin being used for from what they can tell looking at the chain, etc.
The vibe shifted and they didn't give me a good answer. Someone said something about how it was used for NFTs a lot, but nobody really had an answer. It seemed like I was making them uncomfortable by asking questions around business cases for L2 contracts or generally what use-cases bitcoin had in their professional experience. Or maybe I was just reading the situation wrong.
Moreso than a lot of other industries and meetups I've had experience with, asking hard questions about bitcoin/crypto (specifically around Value and Utility) elicits a chilling reaction.
For a people that work for bitcoin-specific companies and organizations it makes sense since a certain kind of faith is what's keeping you employed and doing business, but there's just so much blind trust and religious attitude that stifle curiosity and more realistic discussions.
Most of these businesses are speculative and/or attempts by the established finance world to contain Bitcoin. So they bring leverage, KYC, and scam tactics to try to win users and investors.
The proven use cases for Bitcoin, savings and mining, don't need leverage or KYC. Bitcoin mining is a brutal business which requires a lot of capital, tech expertise and a solid supply chain. As we saw with the last cycle when financial games attempt to be played with mining people get wrecked. Bitcoin as a savings tool just needs hardware wallets, and the better it gets (here comes discomfort) the more it challenges established finance.
Discomfort is the proper vibe when NFTs are the best thing you can come up with, when you don't make hardware, or you're not building for mining or savings.
When I first learned that Bitcoin wasn't just beanie babies and that it would challenge the dollar, I looked at it like a techie who was used to upgrades and troubleshooting. Mail got an upgrade, so why not money? Little did I know the power that would cling to fiat and fight the true innovation. Imagine Windows vs. Linux except the stakes are the ability to tax and control economic value, not software licensing fees.
tl;dr Savings and mining are Bitcoin's proven use cases. Discomfort is natural when you go beyond that.
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How is savings a proven or good use case?
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Bitcoin is a provably scarce asset which is immune to debasement. Yes, the price fluctuates and the common refrain to any sort of stated gain is cherrypicking of the date range, but time has proven that with proper opsec and risk management it has succeeded so well as savings that it turned into a moonshot. Even from here, we know 21M is the kind of hard cap possessed by no other asset in the world.
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That new york bar sounds like shit. There are a ton of meetups in my region and the people at them are always open to having interesting and tough conversations.
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The bar has been a great time the two times I've gone. I might have encountered those dynamics there in this example but the people themselves were fun to talk to besides this. And I've had other great (albeit non-crypto non-tech) conversations there. Pubkey Bar 85 Washington Pl check it out
I have had some real dialogue about value/utility with people in other situations, my viewpoint has shifted based on these conversations, and I'm sure if I spent more time in the community I would find more of this. My point is that I've seen this kind of "true believer" dynamic more in crypto than any other domain I've been in. I've also met some of the most talented software engineers in the space.
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stackers have outlawed this. turn on wild west mode in your /settings to see outlawed content.