When things are good in crypto, when stuff is being built, we’re making bets, investing in different areas and talking up different teams -- ETH, BTC, Solana, this startup and DAO or that one. We’re a part of the believers of the web3 team -- it’s fun to debate it with others. We feel like we’re a part of something special, and we are. We’re in optimistic mode, and compete with each other on our respective teams.

People naturally are inclined to push limits, that’s a human temptation, good or bad. And limits eventually break. They don’t just go on forever.

That’s when we get the 3AC, Luna, Celsius, and now FTX.

This stuff is going to happen. It’s the wild west out here, and people are going for it. It’s hard to know what’s going to work and what won’t, and people are going to push this limit. AND these are going to have bit repercussions too.

When FTX breaks, the scales fall from our eyes. There’s the rush of drama -- who did it, what happened.

When this happens, that “web3 believer identity” expresses itself in a different way. We feel personally a part of this thing that happens. We believe in the vision. We’ve contributed to the vision. We’ve shared our beliefs and fought for the idea of web3 with friends, putting ourselves out there in the little way that we can, and we do so because of our belief, our conviction. And here we feel the weight of the fall.

We are also frustrated from the fall because we see the real world implications of it growing, giving regulators kindling to shut us down, and getting our family friends to write the whole crypto thing off even though we see and believe there is something so good that is there.

This fall brings us out of the siloed, tunnel vision tendencies we develop in the bull runs where we’re competing for fun with one another, speculating on the future in investment, conversation and sport. This fall forces us to see beyond ourselves and what we conjure to be in our future. It helps us see ourselves in relation to everything else, as it is, right now. It turns our gaze back at the fundamental questions, sometimes in big ways, at other times in small ways. We are pushed back to our roots.

Do I really believe in this stuff? Why?

This fall wakes us up, and gets us back in touch with what actually matters. It helps us grow up.

The crypto space acts like this because it’s not completely trusted. There are still things being run by humans who are governed by the laws of nature and push their boundaries. It’s a crazy, wild west. And we push too far, things break. This causes suffering — something that will always be there — but something that is especially present in this wild of a west and this strong of a human body united under a banner.

This “suffering” is akin to Dostoevsky’s conception of suffering, the role of suffering, the good in suffering. Suffering wakes us up. It helps us see clearly. It puts us in touch with what’s actually important, and does so naturally. It can’t help but teach us a lesson, a lesson that goes beyond the rational.

I believe in subsidiarity, and in increasing human responsibility through personal ownership, and in giving humans the landscape and opportunity to build great things. I believe in decentralized systems and networks, and see the possibilities that lie within them.

These fundamentals are concrete and real. This suffering is a necessary step — just like in life — and it will help teach us what it is to be human, and how this human thing — this organism that is the people into web3 — can find its way forward.

Thank God for suffering. Thank God for the lessons it teaches us deep down. Let us not forget the fundamental principles. Let us not forget the lesson of FTX.