Crypto Assets: A Pioneer Journey in a New Odaily

Crypto Assets can be seen as a new Odaily that is being developed.

Many critics believe that this is a worthless wasteland, even derogating it as a dirty casino. However, optimists see the enormous potential of this undeveloped area: a place where more advanced financial systems and internet platforms can be built.

All sorts of new settlers are pouring into this new land, including explorers attracted by cutting-edge technology and some unscrupulous speculators. Innovators and researchers are drawn by new possibilities, while the general public, especially marginalized groups on Earth, are also joining their ranks.

The governance system is still in an uncertain stage, with some Earth jurisdictions prohibiting their citizens from going to the new Odaily, while others are seeking to establish a foothold in this new world.

The history of this new Odaily has been marked by cycles of speculation and hype, which has led many to question its future direction. The current frenzy of Crypto Assets speculation is actually just a self-perpetuating process. Just as the Gold Rush of 1849 transformed San Francisco from a quiet village into a major port ( that eventually became a center for technological innovation ), the current crypto boom is also attracting settlers and driving infrastructure development, gradually turning this barren Odaily into a prosperous crypto civilization.

A new Odaily has been born. Bitcoin is one of the first settlers, while some trading platforms allow people to easily travel back and forth to this planet. Ethereum has become the largest city, and some decentralized exchanges are the best means of transportation...

Why should we choose encryption?

Settling on a brand new Odaily undoubtedly requires tremendous effort. But is it really worth it?

Where the existing system fails, we need a new property rights system the most. Bitcoin, Ethereum, and stablecoins have been applied globally, especially in countries like Argentina, Turkey, and Ukraine, where they are more widely accepted by the general public.

Although many people are still looking forward to the "killer application" in the encryption field, it has actually already appeared. However, for those living in developed countries, this transformation may be less noticeable. If you ask an Argentinian about the uses of encryption, they will tell you without hesitation. Nowadays, Crypto Assets are not only a practical tool but have also become a speculative high-end market. It is rapidly evolving and is becoming a typical Christensen-style disruptive innovation case, becoming increasingly useful for more and more people.

Currency is just the first "killer application"; it will not be the last one. Crypto Assets will give rise to a set of more transparent, programmable, and open encryption financial services. It provides a cheaper, more convenient, and more inclusive solution for those who cannot access banking services due to high costs or who distrust the increasingly centralized banking system. We see stablecoin payments rapidly rising, and loans can also be obtained through simple coding rather than complex banking or brokerage procedures. Systemic risks can even be mitigated by globally tracking collateral.

Looking to the future, with the expansion of encryption infrastructure, we can foresee new consumer applications becoming possible. Creators will have more rights in their creations, and users will also have better control over their identities.

From a more macro perspective, this new Odaily provides us with an opportunity to reshape the existing system and upgrade it to a more advanced and flexible system. Encryption can not only achieve this for currency, finance, and digital assets but also do everything that the internet has done for information and media.

More importantly, encryption provides a means to guard against an increasingly centralized world. In a world where the "big" is becoming mainstream, we are slowly losing our focus on individuality and diverse power. By promoting small and diverse forces to work together, encryption has become an important force against centralized power, a driving force for freedom, protecting us from the control of large companies and large governments.

Speculation and Crypto Assets

Although Crypto Assets have their advantages, is their speculative nature really necessary? In fact, speculation is not only necessary but can also generate significant value.

Speculative investment is the cornerstone of technological revolution. From the rise of telecommunications and the internet to the undeniable prominence of railways, electricity, and automobiles, breakthroughs in new technologies are often intertwined with speculation and asset bubbles. As detailed by Carlota Perez, they become an inseparable entity in the process of moving towards mainstream acceptance. In the field of Crypto Assets, speculation has propelled people's attention and awareness, investment flows, talent aggregation, infrastructure development, academic research, and the acceptance of existing companies.

Furthermore, there is a deeper connection between speculation and Crypto Assets: it is the "Hello World" of digital asset rights. When people have the opportunity to create rare assets, they tend to trade. Give a group of kids some Pokémon cards and then observe what happens. The true value of a new property rights system lies in its ability to reliably record the transfer of property, which is also why people will naturally begin to try and test it. If this new system has not yet gained widespread recognition, it may lead to a pluralistic future where price volatility and trading activity appear more speculative in nature.

In the early days of Bitcoin, people thought it was sheer fantasy to believe that it could one day reach the legitimate status and value it has today. I witnessed early participants ecstatically mining, contributing, and experimenting, even buying pizzas. Now, more than a decade later, Bitcoin and other Crypto Assets like Ethereum are steadily transforming from speculative toys into global commodities.

Speculation has also played a core role in the process of Crypto Assets becoming a decentralized financial system. Many financial products have obvious "utility value" on one side of the transaction, but require speculation to meet the demands of the other side. For example, someone may need a 30-year mortgage to buy a house, but there is no inherent demand to provide that 30-year loan. Our modern financial system mediates between such practical needs and more abstract financial return demands. In the realm of Crypto Assets, a similar system is being established that includes participants such as speculative traders, infrastructure providers, market makers, MEV searchers, blockchain builders, DeFi protocols, stablecoin issuers, and decentralized exchange arbitrageurs. Building such an N-sided market is no easy task; it takes time to develop. However, as time goes on, participants become more mature, liquidity is enhanced, and on-chain financial markets will also become more robust.

The "casino" aspect of speculation has its dark side.

While some criticisms of Crypto Assets may lack creativity, some of them are valid. Casinos can serve as a useful launch tool, but they can also lead to unwelcome consequences and backlash.

Innovation relies on capital and labor being used for valuable experiments. Excessive speculation, airdrop farming, and other pranking behaviors can create noise, disrupting price signals that could otherwise guide beneficial innovation. Even the most well-meaning entrepreneurs can be misled by incorrect price information or distracted by short-term profits, thereby slowing the actual construction process needed for Crypto Assets.

Short-term speculation is essentially a zero-sum game, where seasoned traders extract value from novices, which can cause them lasting harm. A free market should embrace various participants as long as their actions are legal and ethical. However, if we view the acceptance of Crypto Assets as part of a social coordination game, then choosing the optimal time frame may become a prisoner's dilemma. Through long-term cooperation, we can achieve a more satisfactory outcome.

Ultimately, malicious behavior is all too common: scammers, fraudsters, and hackers continue to pose a threat. Imagine a world filled with rogues who "welcome" newcomers through violence and robbery------this is the landscape of Crypto Assets in San Francisco. Just like the early internet or the gold rush era, this frontier open field not only fosters innovation but also breeds illicit activities. Although good participants still hold the upper hand------for instance, we have the privilege of witnessing the rise of a group of the world's top white hat security experts------this field still requires more self-regulation and standardization.

Why is the progress so slow?

Crypto Assets have been around for almost 15 years. Shouldn't they be popular and mainstream by now?

In fact, venturing into a new field takes time. Most people are only willing to migrate to a new domain when the infrastructure is complete and they are no longer socially excluded. The advancement of technology also has its limits; it can only progress to a certain extent. The social propagation of new ideas is often filled with setbacks, rather than being smooth sailing. Due to the speculative nature of assets, they experience periodic and severe fluctuations; at one moment, people are highly optimistic about the prospects of Crypto Assets, believing it to be everything in the future, while the next moment they claim it has already lost its vitality.

Establishing a social consensus around Crypto Assets is even more challenging than creating network effects around communication protocols or social networks. People can quickly recognize the practical value of instant messaging software or social media platforms because they can communicate with a small group of familiar friends through these platforms. However, for a new property system, it is about how to securely transact with those you are less familiar with or do not completely trust, which requires broader recognition and legitimacy. We still have a long way to go, but it is encouraging that today you can already transact with over a hundred million people using Bitcoin, Ethereum, or stablecoins.

Outlook Beyond the Casino

Many technologies that we take for granted today were once seen as impossible, useless, dangerous, or fraudulent. Today, Apple has become the most valuable company in the world, but when it went public in 1980, Massachusetts banned the sale of its stock, citing the risk as too great. The same goes for Crypto Assets; since 2010, there have been voices each year claiming that Bitcoin is dead.

However, human history has repeatedly proven that we often oppose reform due to adherence to the status quo, especially when these reforms are disruptive. Crypto Assets are touching upon profound ideas of currency, value, governance, and human collaboration. We need to maintain an open mind to explore the possibilities of building better things, rather than simply rejecting Crypto Assets out of skepticism.

We must go beyond the speculative nature of Crypto Assets and recognize it as a guiding mechanism of one of the most important technologies of our time. We need to delve into the new Odaily ------ world of encryption technology, considering its substantive construction and real uses, rather than merely chasing speculative hotspots.

Appendix

If we compare encryption technology to a new Odaily, what would that mean?

Crypto Assets Community

The encryption field represents a comprehensive ecosystem that we all should work together to build. Between the different cities of this new Odaily, there exist more common ideas than differences. Compared to the extreme internal conflicts, it is more important to persuade the residents on Earth to settle on the new Odaily or to protect this planet from the adverse effects of inappropriate Earth regulations.

As the founder of Ethereum said, it is very important to think about how to build a perfect system for Crypto Assets. The new Odaily cannot always rely on the infrastructure of Earth. The network system we currently rely on includes some mainstream search engines, social media platforms, code hosting websites, and payment systems, as well as an independent Chinese network system that includes some mainstream instant messaging, payment, social media, and digital currency platforms. What we need is to build an independent encryption system that should operate like the Chinese system but be more open and ensure autonomy.