Original author: 1confirmation
Original title: Purists and Tourists in Crypto
Satoshi Nakamoto published the Bitcoin white paper and open-source code in 2009, and since then, the crypto industry has maintained an open spirit. From the start, anyone can copy the code, change the marketing and launch their own token and network. Tens of thousands of tokens and networks followed, many of them copycat.
The open spirit of cryptocurrencies runs counter to traditional business philosophy, which says that when you create a product that people find useful, you should protect it and prevent others from copying and competing. The spirit of openness prioritizes collective progress over short-term profits for any one group - by making it easy for anyone to copy and build a product, you can foster the intelligence and creativity of the entire world, which in theory leads to more progress . This spirit of openness works well, and without it, cryptocurrencies wouldn’t make sense in today’s world — though it comes at a cost.
The good thing about the open spirit is that anyone can improve on existing products, bringing more utility to the world. The price of openness is that anyone can simply copy the product, marry the narrative to the marketing strategy, and contribute nothing to progress while squeezing profits from people. There is an argument that imitating value extractors contributes to long-term progress - even if unsuspecting retail gets duped by a flash in a pan-mimetic chain (Terra/Luna) or an investment scammer (3AC), maybe it will increase anyway. Awareness and long-term staying power of the space. But value extractors are clearly hurting a lot of people (and industry perception), and its important to explore whether the cost of openness can be reduced.
Some argue that gatekeepers (regulators, trusted brands) are the best way to reduce the cost of openness. But that doesnt just reduce costs, it kills them. Understanding the spirit of openness and the mental model of purists and tourists is the best way to cut costs, and the goal of this article is to help anyone start thinking about this concept.
Purists and Tourists
Purists are people who are deeply versed in the history and nuances of craftsmanship – they understand the nuances and consider all that came before before building, have an appreciation for the real and bring something truly new to the table. Purists make products that may be too niche for the mass market, but they are original and carefully built.
Tourists are people who dont care about history or nuance, and just want to create a product that resonates with people. What theyre building may resonate for a while, but visitors come and go easily. If a product is too touristy, it wont have long-term staying power, and what was hot one day is gone the next.
Tourist - The mental model of purism was created by fashion designer Virgil Abloh. Namely: the greatest influence in the design comes from the intersection of purists and tourists. Based on this mental model, he created and led some of the worlds most influential consumer brands, such as Louis Vuitton and Off-White. When I learned about his method, I realized it was the same method Ive used in the crypto space for the past decade.
Heres how I look at purists, tourists, and the intersection of the two from the perspective of crypto companies, cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and founders:
purists
Blockchain.com is OGs self-custodial wallet company. The founders believed that the true utility of BTC was its ability to allow people to be their own bank and maintain resistance to censorship, and to this day the core product still adheres to this and demonstrates a deep understanding and appreciation of the space. But they have struggled to grow beyond a niche user base and failed to adapt when ethereum came along - it turns out that custodial wallets (Coinbase) and ETH self-custodial wallets (Metamask) that offer easy buy and sell functionality are the bigger idea .
Bitcoin is the OG cryptocurrency. It spawned an industry. Works really well as a scarce store of value that doesnt change, but there hasnt been much development beyond that. BTC maximalists are right to point out the many scams that followed BTC, but also wrongly call the real innovations that move the space forward, such as Ethereum.
Rare Pepe was created in 2016 as a collection of NFTs on Bitcoin, predating all NFTs on Ethereum. The Rare Pepe NFT was created on Counterparty, a Bitcoin-based protocol that never gained traction beyond a niche user base for a number of reasons, including a lack of interoperability with BTC wallets. Rare Pepe still has a strong brand and collector base among crypto-natives, but in terms of mainstream attention, it is surpassed by collectibles built on Ethereum like Cryptopunks and BAYC.
Hal Finney was an early bitcoin user who received Satoshi Nakamotos first bitcoin transaction on January 12, 2009. He was also a core engineer at PGP Corporation, the most important cryptography company before cryptocurrency, and arguably the most important early contributor to the cypherpunks list server and the BitcoinTalk forum. His work was important for the industry to get to where it is today, yet only a small percentage of users have heard of him.
tourists
FTX is an exchange founded in 2019. The company isnt offering anything new and additional to the space, but theyre aggressively marketing and grabbing market share during the 2020-21 bull run. Given that the team that built the exchange also runs a trading firm called Alameda Research, and theyve pumped a lot of tokens on their platform, which is rarely disputed, theres a questionable history here. Right now, the company appears to have a strong media narrative behind it.
Solana is a"ethereum killer", launched in 2019 and markets itself as"Blockchain Built for Mass Adoption". The project didnt bring any original ideas, but they made some design tradeoffs to make it a cheaper and faster chain than Ethereum in the short term. I believe these design tradeoffs have allowed Solana to succeed in bull markets where retail money is pouring in, but ultimately they will prevent it from being successful in the long run. When a blockchain is purely about optimizing for efficiency, there is nothing culturally or socially interesting about it, and there has been a real lack of new products pushing the field forward, then the upside is limited.
The Bored Apes Yacht Club is a Profile Picture (PFP) project launching in 2021. It came after thousands of other PFP programs, but was able to gain early grassroots adoption and then huge support from celebrities like Justin Bieber, Jimmy Fallon and Stephen Curry. Michael Saylor is out to promote Bitcoin in the 2021 bull run. He didn’t build anything interesting in the crypto space, and he didn’t have anything interesting to say about it — he just parroted what the Bitcoin community has been saying for over a decade. But his MicroStrategy company has gained attention for buying BTC, and he has become a media celebrity.
purist x tourist
Coinbase is an exchange founded in 2012. It was the first product to allow users to easily link bank accounts and buy BTC, and has been at the forefront of innovation in making crypto accessible to the masses for nearly a decade. The companys early decision to hold cryptocurrencies on behalf of users added some centralization that purists dont like, but theres no denying the products importance in getting newcomers to crypto.
Ethereum was launched in 2015, 6 years later than BTC. Without Ethereum, we would not have decentralized finance or non-fungible tokens. Compared to Bitcoin, Ethereum has made some sacrifices in terms of decentralization, but it is undeniable that most of the innovation in this field in the past 7 years has come from the Ethereum blockchain and the developer ecosystem that appeared on it. .
Cryptopunks is the OG 10K PFP series that helped catalyze the creative empowerment revolution led by NFTs today.
in conclusion
in conclusion
The purpose of this article on purists, tourists and purist-tourists is to help builders and investors think more deeply in a space full of noise. There may be many doubts about the concept and analysis of this article, which is only for discussion.
