You know what I mean. The "crypto future." It's not going to happen by itself.
It might be easy to kick back while the market plows ever upward. Certainly there are many making "passive" income on the current strength of crypto markets, but that approach is not sustainable.
We know this. We know about bubbles. 2017 was educational, but many entering into crypto now do not understand its historical record, the importance of the past.
Consider Dogecoin. Meme-y and fun though it may be, it belies a truth at the core of many crypto projects. It is no longer in active development and it's a bad, inflationary currency. It was a silly game for its developers but now it's out of hand. Money pouring into DOGE does one thing, inflate a bubble.
Now consider some recent BCH numbers (that we're all justifiably hyped about):
transactions are up!
price go up!
NVT ratio is still low!
Coin Fair Value says* we're absurdly undervalued! (I've written about this, as did user @Omar recently here)
This is all good news, and it does speak to real changes and improvements in the community. Developer morale is high, as seen in the February developer livestreams hosted by BCH Network Discussions. But it could fall apart. We could get distracted by problems that don't need to be solved yet. We could keep watching that price point, and all those happy charts that say "We're really doing it! We're the real Bitcoin!"
Yes, these metrics mean things are happening, but couldn't there be more happening? What can we do as a community to help?
I don't mean to discourage anyone here. I'm speaking specifically to the laymen in the audience, those that can't contribute to programming or business development or the like. I am in this group. There is a place for what we're doing here. read.cash is somewhat of a peer review process for BCH thinking. We are building and confirming our understanding of a revolutionary technology, and that takes time.
We are leaders of a sort. By writing and engaging in this community, we are fostering potential economic growth. Upvotes are a powerful endorsements of thoughts and methods. This the aim of the site, but it becomes the aim of its users as well, if/when they realize the potential of BCH.
The worry, however, is that these sites will become echo chambers, voicing the same ideas over and over while time and society move onward. So what can we do? How do we avoid empty talk and meaningless token swapping that inflates our numbers? As members of the BCH community, I feel we should strive to:
learn and grow along with the network
engage with ideas over people
give honest feedback
Learning and Growth
This is the crux of the issue, right? A blockchain is only as strong as its network protocols, and programming means nothing if it's not being run. This is what separates a Bitcoin from a very shiny rock, after all.
We need to keep distributing that ledger. The more nodes the better. The more users the better. The more wallets the better.
We, the BCH community, need to understand our product. For the majority of users, that does not mean node software. It means a wallet and basic cryptocurrency management. What wallet should we recommend new users? While we're asking, why are you using the wallet you use currently? What do new users need to know to use a wallet safely and effectively?
We need to be clear about cryptocurrency terms. For example, can you tell me what HODL means to you? Can you explain your thinking? Do you think that definition applies or should apply to someone else?
We should be prepared to point to appropriate resources when we're asked something we don't quite understand. We above all should look to provide accuracy. What are our most reputable sources? As a decent example, take this post by user stewbits on noise.cash:
Think about how Wikipedia functions: many people coming together to put forth their knowledge, with the understanding that they will be fact checked by others. Accurate information arises from group investment. There can be momentary distortions, but they are overcome by a plurality of correcting signals.
Ideas over People
Uhh, lerk, didn't you just write about how you were here for the people? Yes, emphatically yes, but I also recognize that I'm not going to get along with everyone. This is a fact of large groups, the varieties and vagueries of human nature. But this doesn't mean I won't try to listen or engage with your thinking.
We cannot become a loose confederation of feel good BCH splinters, each ignorant of or blinded to the next, trying to do our best for BCH but finding it so hard with all those competing interests out there! Guess what? We all benefit when we can work together, and that means listening respectfully, speaking respectfully, building on each other's ideas regardless of our politics.
The world at large may try to cast the BCH community as hardline libertarians that like the idea of gold and assassination markets, and we need to understand where that judgment is coming from to appropriately respond. We need to understand the appeal of cryptocurrency to people from diverse political and socioeconomic backgrounds.
Diversity of perspective can help build a better end-user experience, a better network experience, a better money experience.
Honest Feedback
Death to 🥰
Death to drama.
Give your opinion if you feel it is valuable to the group cause to do so. Let others have space to voice their opinions. Remove yourself from a situation that might go over this line of respectability. The record will show how everyone has acted. We are here to share our ideas and build a network. We benefit from staying united in this regard, but we do not need to agree on everything.
Take for example here a recent article by @dave_gutteridge, and in particular the comments from @RowanSkie. It is so necessary we continue to have these types of conversations.
The Bitcoin network benefits from a diversity of node software. Likewise we benefit from a diversity of perspectives and attitudes.
We must be wary, however, of useless feedback, meaningless comments, noise. Here we can include critique without reasoning, linking others to unrelated content, misleading or scammy advertising, censorship or misinformation. If we, as laymen stewards of BCH, are to create meaningful improvement and growth we need to appropriately manage our social media platforms. We cannot become /r/bitcoin.
Yeah, but that's just, like, your opinion, man.
Yep, it is. Thanks for reading.
A quick final note: this is NOT the article I was talking about in my most recent mini-post. The words must flow and all that. Stay tuned!
Lead photo by James Wheeler from Pexels
Footnotes:
*Coin Fair Value makes no speculative claims. They provide an analytical model that can be useful in cryptocurrency valuation.
"The worry, however, is that these sites will become echo chambers, voicing the same ideas over and over while time and society move onward. " Agree with this but we should look at BCH adoption as big social movement wherein different people have different roles depending on their capacities and inclination but still marching on same cadence toward single goal.
I would see that there will still be some people who will be speaking the same thing but remains relevant even with time. They could do the marketing and PR but this is not enough. We also need people who will connect this technology to politics and policy.
People who will engage BCH in entrepreneurship, sports, entertainment, education, religion and other aspect of our social life. People who are into formal and informal organizations of BCH that will continue to provide leadership and guidance to community at large. And then, people who are just using it simply because it benefits them. We should not discount this group of people for they are the greater majority.