Brook｜Author
Elaine & Sissi & Leia, TEAO｜Translator
Preface to "Protocol Revolution and DigiLaw Engineering" - The Current Situation and Future of the Crypto World (Series Three)
"Introduction:
The chaos and lack of innovation in the crypto world make people wonder: Are we moving towards an ideal future in a substantive way? The preface to "Protocol Revolution and DigiLaw Engineering" explores the essence of the crypto world, the bottlenecks in its development, and the infinite possibilities of future construction from a systematic perspective, providing important thinking for understanding the true face of this new planet.
The birth of emerging technologies is often accompanied by huge doubts and uncertainties, not only because it reshapes our lifestyle, but also challenges our cognition and values. However, the split cognition of iPhones and Tesla cars soon reached a consensus. But today, the crypto industry, led by Bitcoin, has made progress that cannot be underestimated. Why are there still a lot of positive and negative controversies superimposed on each other? Why is the public's cognition of the crypto world still full of confusion and conflict, and why do many people still not see the bright future of the crypto world?
As an emerging product of the intersection of technology and the times, the development momentum of the crypto world cannot be underestimated. However, the crypto field has not seen large-scale killer applications that can solve practical problems in life (BTC will soon be an exception). The public's cognition of the crypto world is still in an extremely torn state. Whether it is a dreamer or innovator who yearns for beauty, or an adventurer or investor looking for a vent, or a charlatan who is not well-intentioned, it is easy to lose their way under the interference of the two voices of doubt and fear and "superstition and worship".
In this diversified cognition, doubt and fear have always occupied an important position. Since the birth of Bitcoin, the crypto world has grown from a marginal field to a huge ecosystem worth about 2 trillion US dollars, but doubters have never eliminated their vigilance and fear, and still regard it as a dangerous "dark planet" and are unwilling to get involved.In addition to the natural distrust and suspicion of new technologies, the lack of understanding of the principles of encryption technology and the huge social changes and progress it brings, it is also affected by the widespread fraud, money laundering, hacker attacks and other problems in the crypto world. With the superposition of these two factors, the doubts and fears of the participants were eventually over-amplified.The sharp fluctuations in market prices, the real speculation, and the frequent negative news maliciously magnified by traditional media have deepened these people's misunderstanding of Bitcoin, blockchain, DeFi, and Web3 again and again-thinking that these are nothing more than empty concepts, scammers' carnivals, speculative casinos, or even organized scams, or worse, hotbeds for illegal activities. They question the true value of blockchain technology and regard the soaring prices of crypto assets represented by Bitcoin and Ethereum as a bubble that will burst sooner or later. In their eyes, the crypto world is like a time bomb full of chaos and uncertainty, which seriously threatens the order and stability of the existing society.
Superstition and worship
There is also a sect of "believers" in this world that is completely opposite to the "skeptics". The crypto world is an extremely bright utopia for them. They regard Bitcoin as a free currency, and cryptocurrency and blockchain technology as the ultimate solution to subvert the modern financial system and lead the future technology. They deify Satoshi Nakamoto and Vitalik Buterin and regard themselves as explorers of the new era. In addition to their own blind belief in blockchain technology, the media's extensive coverage and hype about cryptocurrency, especially stories about people getting rich quickly through it, has also exacerbated these people's excessive worship. They do not pay attention to the actual problems in the application of encryption technology, but only care about themselves - every rise in the market is a victory for their beliefs, and any doubt will be regarded as betrayal and jealousy. Of course, the existence of this emotion is reasonable, and it represents the yearning for a better future. However, the development of most things is spiral upward, and the development of the encryption industry also has cycles, and is also subject to economic, policy and technical constraints. Excessive optimism and faith will only lead to irrational decisions, and ultimately bring about a double collapse of spirit and wealth.
Under the interference of two voices, participants blindly follow the trend and speculate. In this world where doubts and superstitions are constantly pulling, it is difficult for participants to calm down and think about the true value of encryption technology. On the one hand, the complexity of encryption technology makes it difficult for the public to truly understand it, and they often care more about prices; on the other hand, the high volatility and potential risks of the encryption market can easily cause participants to panic, and then be easily influenced by the behavior and speech of others, and their decisions are not based on sufficient independent research and rational judgment. In this case, people tend to ignore the technical foundation and potential value of the project and just follow the trend - superstitious worship and applause in the bull market, blindly investing a lot of money in the hope of getting rich overnight; when the bear market investment is frustrated, doubts and fears follow, and people follow the trend and sell off, suffering heavy losses. Some malicious "crypto veterans" have seized on the public's blind obedience and the mentality of getting rich quickly, maliciously shouting orders, and guiding speculation in some worthless air projects, seriously undermining market rules, causing investors to suffer huge losses in violent fluctuations, and the healthy development of the crypto industry is frequently hindered.
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