Crypto space is at its early stage and many projects are only promises at the moment. When you have so many projects like we have with similar ideas and goals, it is not easy to know whom to believe and who will fulfil their promises.
It is very important at the moment who is behind which project. Like in any part of life, there are scammers in Crypto world but because of lack of regulations for Crypto, number of them is higher over here. If you look at most successful projects now, most of them have well known people in crypto space behind them:
- Ethereum - Vitalik Buterin
- EOS - Dan Larimer
- Cardano - Charles Hoskinson
- NEO - Da Hongfei
- Litecoin - Charlie Lee
- Iota - David Sonstebo
- Ripple - Brad Garlinghouse
- Bitcoin Cash - Roger Ver
- Tron - Justin Sun
I can go on and on with this but I think that you see the point. This is normal of course, because it is easier to believe for example to Dan Larimer, who already made some successful projects than some unknown developer without anything behind him.
This is all normal, like I said but for me it is VERY DANGEROUS for the projects that supporters of these projects are glorifying and iconsizing leaders.
Each of these leaders have its own cult of supporters who thinks that ONLY their leader is the ONE and that he has answer for any question and solution for any problem. It is very funny for me how people react for example on anything that Vitalik Buterin is saying... Yes, Vitalik is genius and he made great successful project but does he knows everything about anything? Of course NO.
Why I think that this is very dangerous for these projects?
First of all, cult supporters will follow all what their leader is doing. We talk about decentralized immutable projects, than Vitalik decide to reverse Ethereum blockchain and then for his blind supporters that is OK. Yea I know that ETH supporters will say that there was consensus for that, but I am sure that deep down even them don't believe in that.
If some project depend so much of one person, it is not safe project. Imagine if for example Vitalik abandone Ethereum project (Instead of Vitalik can be any of these leaders), I am sure that that would have terrible consequences for it. Probably it would survive, like Bitshares has survived Dan's leaving but it won't be successful like it deserve. Bitshares is great project but its development is very slow since that...
This is why I think that BITCOIN is BEST and SAFEST project out there because Satoshi(whoever his is) was smart enough to leave on time.
I really hate when some people pronouncing Satoshi's vision. This is why I don't respect what Roger Ver is doing with Bitcoin Cash. Satoshi has his ideas back then and obviously he was genius but nobody knows what he would think now about things related to Bitcoin. Technology is developing and Bitcoin is developing together with new technologies.
Thomas Edison was great inventor and he invented many great things for the world. He was genius for sure. Even being extremely smart, he was fighting against Nikola Tesla and his AC current. And Nikola Tesla was right, AC current is much better than DC current because it can go on longer distances. Without Nikola Tesla's AC, modern world would be different If we just have followed Thomas Edison.
Wright brothers invented airplane. Imagine if we have followed Wright brothers vision of airplane. Probably we would fly around in wooden airplanes. I think you understand my point and why I hate pronouncing today Satoshi's vision...
Probably it is not possible in so early phase of Crypto development that we don't follow leaders so much. When Crypto space mature, probably would be different. Take Apple for example. When project is well established, business is going fine even without great leader. Apple is great company, even without Steve Jobs it is dominant in its space.
My point is, we shouldn't blindly follow anything and anyone and we should be open for new opinions and ideas, no meter if we are just users or superstar developers.
I would like to hear and discuss your opinions about this.
We don't need cryptos led by personalities its against the very nature of decentralised cryptos. The founders should be anonymous and should not influence the development of crypto.
Yeah. This. Personality cults lead to bad decisions.
you are right. but when a project is fundamentally profitable and makes sense, the risk of totalitarianism will be minimum.
for ETH I think this has happened. it acts like a platform and I don't think even if Buterin wants to stop it, it would be possible.
maybe I lack in blockchain knowledge, you are more professional with technical issues I see, this was just my opinion. thanks for sharing your info and knowledge
That why I think bitcoin is the best-yes there is no leader but that also what makes bitcoin the most decentralized. Yes there are some small cult followings but not that large. Yes that why bitcoin sometimes is in "civil wars" but that is how it was made.
Very relatable topic.
I do notice myself to be an @dan 'fanboy' and the other side I can't really relate in any way with Roger Ver. I know it should not be a factor when making any investmets. Still I got quite some EOS and no Bcash at all, so yeah... :)
The central failing point of a 'cryptp superstar creator' is something of an issue Bitcoin doesn't have a problem with indeed.
That is funny in the startup world especially with the most revolutionary ideas. The founders always get kicked to the curb, bought out, whatever when you get institutional/venture capital involved. It actually cleans the thing up quite a bit, takes the new tech to a more product friendly environment, making it watered down, but sustainable as a company or ongoing idea. Right now people are very trapped into the cult of personality in ideas. Just mentioning a name like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett gets you an instant reaction before you are even talking about what it is they are doing. The lemmings tend to chase their leader off the cliff, while the innovator is gobbling up market share while idiots hero worship. I guess it's kind of that way in everything to a point. Michael Jordan the player would never play for Michael Jordan the executive.
Agree with everything. Great points.
Hello @cicbar
totally agree with your point of view! That's what Mr. Hoskinson on the Bitcoin Expo on the MIT in Boston explaines as well. As soon as there will be a problem with one of the so called "leaders" the whole project will suffer as everybody within the community associates the project with one person. And for sure there is no way that one single person can handle at this stage a great project by himself. Even if he / she is a genius ... Everybody is just a human beeing with a bunch of talents and skills ... but it doesn't matter how great your talents are - without a proper team you will never achieve the best result.
I recognized that it is quite easy to have just one "leader" - how did you handled it to stay rational within all those popularity around those guys? :)
I really respect Charles Hoskinson because he left Ethereum project after blockchain reverse...
True ... as everyone is staring a project of crypto ..but the main thing is that how to believe if it is not a scam..
Bitcoin is fucking awesome cause there's no one behind it. Satoshi was clever and left right when the tingles of hype started. I can't imagine it's possible to be so selfless and do not sell his bitcoins. He had like thousands.
Just wanted to thank you for your time reading my post and for your generosity 🍀🙇
I try to create better contents :)
I've been a bit concerned at all the forks Vitalek has done on Ethereum to essentially reverse hacks. It's very central government like, but people just follow him like sheep.
Charles Lee really hurt Litecoin when he announced he had sold all his coins. And then a couple of weeks later started tweeting about Nano.
Agree. One more proof that is bad if one project depends so much on one person.
We should never and I repeat, never follow someone blindly.
Of course we all have our favorites and sometimes itis hard to understand that some people have other ideas than our favorite! But instead of calling it FUD and neglect these opinions. We should try to understand their reasonings so that we can come up with an unbiased own opinion!
I didn’t like the example of the Wright brothers, cause they were more or kess the founders of aviation. Others started to develop the idea further trying to make it better!
The comparison between VHS and betamax would have been a better example to fund the article, only here the better solution lost because of different reasons!
Great article! I was snow under therefor my late reply!
crypto's are future....
@cicbar sir I have a good news to share here.. In India Cryptos are not legal also not illegal but Govt. doesn't support any crypto activities.
But recently to make Crypto as a legal tender in India more than 300K people has signed a petition that will be forwarded to Indian Finance minister..
Thanks for sharing
Welcome @cicbar you are also doing great work here.
Comprehensive analysis of the subject! As you say in an emerging field like crypto, it's often one individual that is driving the project, and often stands for it in it's entirety. Blind euphoria and undiscriminate followership are always bad advisors for any investor, yet it's often the achievements of one man that manages to bring things into existence, that no one thought to be possible before them, and your article covers a lot of examples for this. It is not only their originality to come up with a ground-breaking concept, but also their capability to let those ideas come to life. All the brillant minds you've covered like Edison, Jobs, Nakamoto, it's also their charisma and their capability to inspire people, make them believe in something and participate, that makes lets a project fly.
It's like the value of bitcoin, which is real because a sufficient number of people believe it is real and are willing to participate, invest etc in it.
We can't believe blindly what we have to do is little bit of research and rest depends upon the luck.
Nobody knows what will happen, we only speculate. Bitcoin could have peaked; it may now drop and never see the high prices we have today. I don’t think this will happen, but it could.
The main issue I have with blind holding is that it often justifies bad trades or life gambles, for example:
I bought Ethereum at $400, I believe it will change the world, and I am holding for the long term.Sure, what you mean is, I had FOMO, I bought more than I should at a stupid entry point, and now it has dropped to $145 I am shitting myself.
I sold my house and put it all into Bitcoin; I will be a millionaire in 10 years. Sure, what you mean is, I have gambled your life on a new volatile market.
Bitcoin is the most decentralised project out there. However, i believe there is a large section of people that invest in a project for what it is and not because of the founder (although that could also be due to lack of research from some)
And tron is in that list?! The rest may still be legit projects to some extent. There is a lot more wrong with tron other than justin sun!
There's a good quote by well-known psychotherapist Arnold Mindell "Leadership is a group project, and all of us are necessary to fill it. Wise leaders will realize this and encourage their groups to develop their own evolving leadership potential."
A good leader is not about the role but about the goal
Satoshi Nakamoto has managed to find a revolutionary system that is a system that serves to facilitate decentralized digital money transactions.
A decentralized money system is a network capable of connecting users without the need for intermediaries or third parties or central authorities such as banking or government.
Only with Android-based smartphones or internet-connected laptops, you can send and receive money from anywhere and anywhere in the world.
Interestingly again, it can be done anytime and anywhere, regardless of the working day of the bank or government working day, no downtime and transactions can be done in minutes.
The problem we are facing in a centralized system is related to the need for more expenses to pay services to third parties as intermediaries.
In addition, the role of third parties now played by banks or governments must consist of a set of rules and certain restrictions, so it can be said to be far from efficiency and effectiveness.
The problem is what is tried to be solved by the technology that is now introduced by the name of Blockchain.
I strongly believe in and agree what you mentioned,
this period of blockchain technology evolution, is like a brainstorm that any kind of project, with any purpose, will cause the whole sys to evolove more rapidly.
even if someone is not really into the tech itself, generating new ideas and publishing them is a contributing way to intract
ye this is so true we need to be smart and think abut where we are investing are money especially with so many scammy ICO's out there! great post to get peoples attention!
i think Vitalik has made movements to try and distance himself from Ethereum in some ways and by moving onto new projects so has @dan.
This should be the way so that decentralised projects rely on their development community to run them. However, this is an interesting area and we will see how this unfolds.
Perhaps always there needs to be major players who have a strong voice in how these systems are operating for the good of all.
Bitcoin is a much more focused project than one with dapps etc? I'm not a programmer tho.
That is the human nature...
In the programming world, it's not unusual for flame wars to start over which programming language (and its creator) is The One. Guido van Rossum, Yukihiro Matsumoto, Larry Wall, Bjarne Stroustrup,...
Everybody wants to make the right choice regarding their investment of time and resources. Cultishly following the leader (and excusing or overlooking unflattering things) of the project they've invested in is the natural thing to do.
The trouble all those projects have is a well-known phenomenon in the software development world: the so-called Bus Factor:
I'm a cryptonewbie but the more involved folks can go through the list of projects in your post and make a guesstimate which one of them would be ruined by a bus :-)
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I am also agree with you @cicbar. Your point is absolutely correct.We should not believe anyone,follow anything.And of course we should be open minded.We should discuss our ideas and opinions.
Very good content.Best writing with best topic.And thank you for sharing your great idea with us @cicbar.
At the advent of any new technology, leaders with the right charisma and intellect carry the torch. I agree with you that this isn't a sustainable system and can be detrimental. I always look to see how these leaders respond to praise, and I can usually get a sense of their humility.
wow...great artical... That why I think bitcoin is the best... yes there is no leader but that also what makes bitcoin the most decentralized. Yes there are some small cult followings but not that large.... Yes that why bitcoin sometimes is incivil warbut that is how it wars mad.
Great article , i have really enjod your article
Encryption has become a major study
With a lot of electronic currencies, I do not know where I trust in investment
But the Betquin wants to declare an economic war
America fights Petequin
Thats true .. One of the Best Project for me is EOS . My favorite coin ..
hey,,,cicbar,There are many beautiful postcourses, so you have many reputations.
Dan Larimer cult ftw.
need cryptos led by personalities its against the very nature of decentralised cryptos. The founders should be anonymous and should not influence the development of crypto.
great post very informative upvoted and following makes you think one good idea and the world is yours lol
Hello @cicbar! Bitcoin doesn't have a problem indeed. When a project is profitable and makes sense. Bitcoin doesn't have a problem with indeed. A decentralized money system is a network capable of connecting users without the need for intermediaries or third parties or central authorities such as banking or government.
Agreed with that!
thank you very much @cicbar
nice post @cicbar
great post
Well, agree with most of you here. Bitcoin is the ONE.
Thanks, @cicbar for sharing this post!
great article
Very good topic, sadly a lot of sites are a bad scam and we can't trust every site :P Regards
Nice post :D Thats true
EXCELLENT POST VERY INTERESTING THANK YOU FOR INFORMING US
Thanks for sharing @cicbar
Interesante Post. Gracias por informarnos!
very good post @cicbar
great post
thank @cicbar
nice post
thank you very much @cicbar
very good topic @cicbar