Crypto's Image Problem - The Daily Gwei #495
We don't look very appealing to the outside world.
The crypto industry has a pretty horrible image problem and it seems to be only getting worse. I often find myself browsing Reddit and Twitter threads where ‘non-crypto people’ have an incredibly poor view of our ecosystem. As I said below, most of tem think it’s a scam or adding no value and even worse, many of them are actively cheering for governments to outright ban it!
So, how do we fix this image problem? Well, I strongly believe that most of the people who are “against” crypto are just uneducated and I don’t believe they have any sort of inherit bias against crypto. In my own life outside of crypto, I find it quite easy to give a quick pitch to those who may have the wrong idea about crypto (they think it’s a scam, that the government will ban it etc). Once I’m done pitching them, they at least see the value in what’s being built. It’s important to note that in my pitch I’m not trying to get them to buy anything - I’m simply explaining why I like crypto and what I think is valuable about it.
It also really doesn’t help that the mainstream media only ever focuses on the “clickbait worthy” content in the crypto ecosystem. This comes in the form of reporting on the scams, the pump and dumps, the prices in general and also focusing on the people behind it all. I mean, just look at what the most popular crypto-related things are to the outside world - Dogecoin, the Bitconnect guy, and the enormous energy use of PoW. No wonder the non-crypto world thinks that it’s all a scam - they’re only exposed to the negative news about crypto!
On top of all of this, when most people do end up actually checking out our ecosystem it’s usually just to gamble on some tokens at the tail-end of a bull market. This means their only crypto experience iss setting up a centralized exchange account and losing money - not much of an experience now is it? Obviously we all hope this will change in the future when on-chain products are much easier to use than they are today but while the front-door for this industry is still the “shitcoin casino”, I believe crypto’s terrible image problem will remain.
All in all, I do think it’s important for us to be cognizant of this image problem and work on fixing it. The worst thing that could happen is that governments really do start banning crypto-related things simply because they and their constituents are uneducated about it. In saying that, I don’t really see a reality like that playing out - but we still must remain vigilant just in case.
Have a great day everyone,
Anthony Sassano
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All information presented above is for educational purposes only and should not be taken as investment advice.
Crypto's Image Problem - The Daily Gwei #495
I’ve been thinking the same thing. Crypto has had an image problem since Silk Road. It’s not going away. Old money won’t allow it. I don’t think we’re winning that battle for now.
The real coins - and there are maybe 75ish out of thousands? - will start generating enough revenue and impact that people will stop being ignorant. But that’s gonna take at least another full cycle.
So as cliche as it is: we build!