I found myself in a brief discussion on crypto today and in a strange position where I had to actively defend crypto, as opposed to me remaining silent or letting it speak for itself. Yet the central theme was that most of what we considered positive developments happening in the space were nothing but far fetched optimism and enthusiasm which often led to wild exaggerations.
In a way my friend did make some really good points, which has influenced my decision to put my thoughts in writing. A lot of projects out there, even the good ones, are simply blown out of proportion. There is a tendency to oversell the true nature of things in the space just so we look good in the eyes of outsiders. It might be a business strategy employed by traditional companies, but such moves usually have their own consequences.
There is a difference between stating that something has a high ceiling and potential for growth compared to simply stating out figures that are non existent. For instance, we talk about what Hive could become in the future all the time on this chain, but I don't think anyone is under the illusion that we are marginally close to mainstream level as of right now.
I find being realistic about our positions and predicaments does help us to have proper assessment of where we are at, and the right kind of expectations moving forward. Branding around deluded stats and figures simply will not only discourage us in the long term, but dampen the trust of other people as well. This is why I am an advocate of selling value rather than figures.
Selling Value
When value is sold, it is more difficult to be oversold because there are clear demonstrations of what it does. Figures on the other hand that are blown up can be taken to extreme cases until there are assessments to verify them. Even if your innovation is revolutionary, the chances are that there won't be much of a revolution if nobody is actually using the product.
Conclusion
Value isn't something that needs to be oversold, as it very so often speaks for itself. The optimism we express here on Hive is based on what the chain has to offer. Everyone knows where we currently are but the expectations are that the chain would fulfill its potential. Nothing needs to be oversold here.
Crypto is likely to follow the pattern set during the dotboom and dotbust.
A huge amount of undisciplined venture capital flowed into the market. During the dotboom pundits preached about how the net would create unlimited wealth.
Internet CEOs decided to leverage the viable ideas on the market in pursuit of questionable pipe dreams. When the market corrected the bad ideas swamped the good ideas.
I had the naive hope that the developers of crypto would have learned about the dangers of leverage.
But we see on HIVE the witness are intent on killing the platform with 20% interest on HBD. It is absurd the way that people never learn from history.
It is so sad. Justin Sun killed Steem. The HIVE witnesses want to kill this platform with junk bond interest rates.
Why is it that people are so easily seduced by destructive paths?
It’s hard to avoid the speculative investment in a new technology. Most people aren’t willing to admit that crypto is both a large percentage of hype but also something revolutionary. I am close to a bitcoin maxi but I make an exception for hive because the use case is immediate and real and it forked out the pre mined tokens and controlling company. I’m sure there will be other sustainable and sufficiently decentralized projects one day and not everything needs to be decentralized but I think we need to see companies and projects that start smaller instead of trying to change the world without building a foundation in something meaningful first.
Agreed. Many projects simply do not have the patience to start small. These days I am very conscious about looking out for substance, particularly when a project carries a certain degree of hype
Hear hear 👏
(It's hard not to oversell the value though 😉. It's pretty amazing!)
Love your writing voice. It's simple, direct, calm and to the point. Very believable.
Don't suppose you've written anything on fiat and how that system "works" for people who are totally new to the crypto space and still have major reservations?