As in every prior bear market, skeptics are emerging to say crypto is dead, a bubble, or full of scammers. I agree. That's all true, partially. Crypto probably will be dead (relatively) for a while. Months, maybe years. A bubble certainly popped, and there are too many scammers.

Between Luna & FTX, many who joined crypto got burned. Once bitten, twice shy. Many will learn the lesson that crypto is bad and a scam. It makes sense and is a fair conclusion. It happened to me and I didn't touch crypto for 3 years after getting burned in 2013.

I also agree that crypto is a bubble, or even a series of bubbles. Anytime there is a new innovation, there are bubbles. True for trade routes, railroads, the internet and pretty much everything else. That, however, doesn't mean the innovation itself is a not valuable.

Scammers, hackers, criminals, and bullshit peddlers are attracted to anywhere there is fast money and new technology. Crypto is a new tech that has created a lot of wealth rapidly and unfortunately, we've had more than our fair share of bad actors.

It's truly unsettling how many risks there are and it makes me hesitate to encourage friends to get involved with crypto beyond buying some ETH on Coinbase and trying out dApps.

All that is to say, I get the skepticism, but this too shall pass. Real innovation is occurring. Price just exceeded value as is the case in every emerging industry. The seeds of the next bull run are planted in the ashes of the previous collapse.

The ability to custody your own assets without relying centralized third parties, like FTX, is a real, valuable innovation. Think of Ukranians fleeing Russia and being able to take their assets with them.

The ability to borrow and lend assets seamlessly and instantly, again, without the approval or custody of a third party is a real innovation. That has worked flawlessly even during liquidity crunches and panic events.

The ability not to be beholden to your local currency gives citizens of countries suffering terrible inflation, like Turkey, the ability to retain value of their assets with stablecoins, without having to move. It increases their freedom b/c it gives them more choices.

The ability to store uncensorable data permanently increases resilience against regimes seeking to lock down information is a real innovation.

Heck, even just being able to transfer value trustlessly between parties is a huge innovation.

Some people are against crypto and always will be. That's okay. We have lots of things to work on as an industry before we can earn their respect.

This thread really isn't for them.

It's for anyone who is trying to decide whether to call it quits or keep paying attention.

If you've made it this far, keep paying attention. Learn and contribute, if you can.

At the very minimum, subscribe to some newsletters and read those every now and then to keep up with developments. When things get active again, you will thank yourself.

If you got to the end, check out this book. It's a history of bubbles. It's fascinating to see how much repeats because most of it is just human nature. Great perspective and worth a read.

www.amazon.com/Devil-Take-Hindmost-Financial-Speculation/dp/0452281806