Listen to the Google NotebookML Deep Dive podcast of this piece. Or create your own.

Polynya was right; there is a lot of good in crypto. However, it appears crypto’s moral compass may be beyond repair, yet even bigger macro problems remain.

Since being back from Devcon, I've had time to think again about the role I can play as social structures and narratives continue to shift toward destruction through chaos. I've also become hyper-aware of the reality that is working in the crypto industry. Even when things are going well, there's this feeling lingering in the back of your head that a lot of this is simply unacceptable on many levels.

When good people and real businesses not meant to dump liquidity on friends go unfunded or underfunded while the casino spits another flame from hell, you know we’ve gone too far.

As the title suggests, the chaos has consumed far too many. Moving forward, my skills and perspectives will be better utilized in spaces and with founders or communities that do not consider themselves crypto-native or operate under the assumption that rampant speculation is a net positive for humanity.

This isn’t much different from where my exploration has naturally been for quite a while. Here, we’re just simply affirming focus. First, I want you to know that I don't judge you for doing what's right for you if that means working on crypto products; we all have choices to make, and some of them are genuinely good to have around. What I do judge, and you can see for yourself below, is the abysmal state of things.

From my perspective, I can choose to continue muddling through the crypto industry’s meat grinder, beating my head against a brick wall, or focus where all of me can be better used. Today, I choose happiness. I choose to build a more sane internet and be of meaningful service.

My message to those building for chaos, unnecessary destruction, and dark patterns in crypto is this: Grow up. Build better positive-sum apps. Quit the grifting and scamming. We all know that there are only a limited number of people who genuinely care about the next vaporware L2 launch. We all know shitcoins and memecoins are only to benefit the few. Meanwhile, it’s near impossible for cypher/solar/lunarpunks and the like to get any mindshare for their impact.

tl;dr

• I’m no longer able to stay on as editor-in-chief at EIC (explained further below)

• If you want media (and creators) to exist, you have to fund it, but leadership matters more (reason for above)

• I’m also no longer working with any team or product described as crypto-native or that adds zero-sum speculative elements

• The -punks shall inherit the internet

• A lot more good people have checked out of crypto than you might first realize

Let me reiterate as clearly as possible before we get into the meat of things:

Crypto, as it has operated for the past 4+ years, has become a complete joke. Why? Because there aren’t enough of the good projects and good people powerful enough to push out all the bad actors. But that’s only part of the truth:

Almost a year after their final post under the Polynya pseudonym, crypto has gotten to the point of love-bombing oligarchs and Presidents who create and then dump memecoins and scam DeFi projects onto American citizens’ heads. Of course, crypto graciously and blindly celebrated this returning President due to ultimately false promises, all because they care about nothing more than trading against each other into a black hole. The worst part of all is that none of the spiritual leaders of protocols and chains will speak up to deter this bad behavior because they’ll be crucified by the mob. Excuses of permissionless are not the answer here. People are entirely exhausted by the endless criminal (or otherwise immoral) activity, often former supporters.

This entire industry was built on the foundational belief that finance can and should be dictated by free and open code and smart contracts that make money accessible to all. This is all well and good unless you’re prepared to also combat the toxicity of an increasingly right-leaning user base. Yes, Ethereum has accomplished its protocol-level goals, but it has not properly protected the social layer. Solana and the other major chains are no better. This, in turn, has influenced an entire generation into deranged financial lunacy.

I don’t think Solana has actually won this cycle, either, pumpfun is the most egregious consequence of it all. In fact, it appears as if there are no clear winners among the speculative types besides maybe Polymarket.

I’m not at all saying it won’t get better. Maybe some miracle happens and Farcaster and Lens do actually pop off this year. Maybe people will start implementing interop in apps now that it’s supposedly “solved.” Maybe teams will start to build with more wholesome capital allocation mechanisms.

The more frustrating part is that well-meaning builders are often eventually pushed out or pressured to add speculative elements and gamification riddled with dark patterns to their projects due to coercion from peers or other temptations.

💡 For EIC04, I commissioned polar (pg. 10) to write an introductory piece to his recent research on the Ethereum social layer. I knew his research was coming to a conclusion, and this was the time to bring even a sliver of hope to the Ethereum community by putting names and definitions to what we do. I believe that no matter your opinion on the state of things, you should absolutely read his piece. I still believe the -punks will win in time.

The real winners are, ironically, the friends we made along the way since the only teams I’ve seen who aren’t making exit liquidity out of one another are still having a great time. Looking at Boys Club, SheFi, Chipped, Greenpill, and Kiwi News, just to name a few that I’ve enjoyed engaging with.

Some of you reading this aren’t building solely for crypto-natives, virality, or volume at all costs or to spread toxic hate. You’re building storage products or governance protocols. You’re exploring coordination mechanisms. I notice the ones battling Moloch. I see you. You’re creating content, making art, and writing essays. These are the people I love celebrating and will continue to do so as long as they continue to align with my values and boundaries.

The truth is, due to massively overinflated egos and various dog whistles inside the crypto industry, such as “meritocracy,” “milady,” and other gatekeeping measures that happen behind the scenes, the space will likely not truly live up to its stated goals. If you didn’t figure it out for yourself, meritocracy here, for a certain subset of loud people in crypto anyway, is based on skin color or wealth or, for some reason, a strange fascination with autism.

Ethereum leadership has refused to acknowledge problems in the part of the social layer that reveres the Milady cult and has instead leaned into them by signing off tweets with the callsign. Considering the truth about Elon becoming so glaringly obvious (Nazi) and the connection between his popularization of the milady meme, one only needs so many dots to connect.

Anti-intellectualism is the core of any fascist government, and it’s tearing crypto apart at the seams. Crypto has a unique opportunity to fight against this type of centralization of power if we put our minds to it.

To that point, where have all the hackers gone? Why are developers busy fighting on Twitter (we know this answer from above) instead of banding together? Your individualism is quite literally killing you.

Privacy, DAOs, public goods, and blockchain-based solutions ARE important for the future. But I cannot spend my energy supporting a part of an industry that is so broken and I refuse to fight alone. Join a resistance or roll over for the next Billionaire.

What have I done to contribute to Ethereum? What have I done, you ask? I've contributed to multiple communities, physical books, zines, magazines, and podcasts that provide accessible entry points into what it means to be an Etherean. So yes, I have taken action in the way I know how.

Crypto encourages bold builders—people who think big, who are new to building something on their own, and even those who have prior experience as founders, inside prior startups, or web2 giants—but who remain mostly unprepared for the realities of building in crypto.

Some of this industry's founders knew when to quit. Some of them were entirely delusional. Others were confused as to why their idea wasn’t working, unable to pivot in time. All or most of those challenges could have been avoided. So, while this is not meant to call anyone out individually for any true wrongdoing (obviously, since no major infractions occurred under my watch. I made the choice to engage with certain people, and these are simply observations from my perspective and mine alone), it is important to give you a little context on how this recent adventure with EIC broke the camel’s back so to speak.

By now, the latest issue of EIC Quarterly magazine is out and available to read, mint, or buy in printed form. EIC04 features many crypto figures, including Polar, MP, Owocki, Naomi, and others I call friends. In the five months I spent working on this magazine as editor-in-chief, I fulfilled a life goal by getting another stab at print media production.

Unfortunately, several challenges have led to EIC’s inability to continue paying an editor-in-chief, primarily due to a lack of ongoing funding. Personally, I’m not happy about the conclusion since I poured a ton of effort and love into the last two editions of the magazine. Even without new funding, there were issues leading to my needing to step away regardless. But I’m not without the ability to provide some form of reflection and feedback so we can all improve going forward.

It is incredibly important that we continue to give feedback to teams and communities when things don’t work out so everyone can learn together, not keep the truth behind closed conversations. The more we are willing to be intellectually and morally honest, not just shitposting and arguing all day long, the faster we can all grow as builders.

I’ll start by acknowledging that starting any kind of crypto media company is an uphill battle without some kind of injection of millions, as often occurs via VC funding or extractive token launch, or a team willing to grind it out unpaid for a while. Not in every instance, but in this case, “team” implies more than two people. AI is getting really good, and while you can replace some functions now, it is still best to have human collaborators. I would know; I learned the hard way with the first thing I tried doing and failed miserably.

I began working with EIC in September of last year with the third issue, a month into Q3 planning. It took a couple of weeks to devise an action plan for how to turn the magazine around with a relatively large number of necessary design and organizational changes to be made. Not only did EIC02 have several blank filler pages, but the page designs in both published issues were often AI-generated using Dall-e. This is very normal for a team with little experience in media publication, and I don’t fault the EIC founders for needing this kind of help. It’s why I was brought on.

I saw a tweet recently that reminded me of what builders can face in crypto, explained further below.

keshav

@keshavchan

the worst position to be in is lacking both the agency to be a founder and the tolerance to be an employee. unable to build your own vision yet unwilling to execute someone else’s. kind of like a self-imposed exile from both ambition and stability

9,738

3:41 PM • Feb 3, 2025

Other lessons learned from working with EIC:

• Personalize your outreach and don’t ever send blast scripted requests. This will kill your credibility as a curator or editor or builder. Blasting off to a list of 100+ begging them to take time out of their day to do something for you is hardly ever the answer.

  • Most contributors who wrote for EIC03 and EIC04 are writers or researchers I’ve had a direct, often ongoing relationship with. I reached out to them with a clear ask and prompt for a topic they would excel at providing for the community after doing my own research on prevailing narratives that quarter.

• A network of established designers on your side is worth its weight in gold (or ETH)

  • Friends can help you get to where you need to go a lot faster if you’re a genuinely good person. They’ll stop you from embarrassing yourself more than you’d like to people seeking credibility.

• Communication isn't a one-time event.

  • Building a media company demands consistent interaction through regular meetings and async communication - multiple times per week if not short times daily - to maintain alignment on vision, strengthen team bonds, and ensure operational excellence. These are problems I’ve seen in many crypto teams, but on the other hand, things can go too extreme and become distracting, so of course, a balancing act is in order.

  • Further nuance: Its not even that more meetings are necessary, there is a massive problem with communication standards across this industry in general. This has a lot to do with the maturity and general experience level on a foundational level. If you’re on a very small team it is your duty to communicate as often as possible, as clearly as possible, and keep communicating what’s going on about most aspects of the business.

• Budgeting is a major aspect of building a product and should always be given priority.

  • If you don’t have a transparent budget internally at all, well I don’t think I’m the first to see how destructive this can be. This need may change soon, we have maybe a year or so I’d say, but the revealing of irresponsibility here is clear.

• Incentives should be for those who actually read and engage with content.

As I alluded to earlier, I hadn’t exactly been creating content centering crypto for quite some time anyway. Joining EIC got me back into creating and curating for the Ethereum ecosystem and kept me there.

I had stopped writing my previous newsletter last summer and essays on topics I was exploring previously didn’t feel necessary any longer. Now it’s time to get back to being a full-time content creator with fresh ideas, communing with friends, and likely building something creators like me can be proud to use. I’ve thought a lot about what that should look like.

More than anything though, I’m interested in chatting with people in various cultures to explore how they are overcoming challenges caused by increasingly intelligent technology to better preserve their storytelling. If all goes well that looks like more print media, more novel, collaborative writing, and a fight for a more magical internet. It’s time to give more energy to soft power.

While I will no longer work for a crypto-native startup, I will, however, continue to build within tech and write about culture, meaning, coordination, connection, and media.

As we move toward artificially intelligent futures, times are getting more serious by the minute. There is no more time to waste. Shed the things that no longer serve you. Get your head on right. Seek peace and love before you destroy Ethereum from within.

Listen to the Google NotebookML Deep Dive podcast of this piece. Or create your own.

Polynya was right; there is a lot of good in crypto. However, it appears crypto’s moral compass may be beyond repair, yet even bigger macro problems remain.

Since being back from Devcon, I've had time to think again about the role I can play as social structures and narratives continue to shift toward destruction through chaos. I've also become hyper-aware of the reality that is working in the crypto industry. Even when things are going well, there's this feeling lingering in the back of your head that a lot of this is simply unacceptable on many levels.

When good people and real businesses not meant to dump liquidity on friends go unfunded or underfunded while the casino spits another flame from hell, you know we’ve gone too far.

As the title suggests, the chaos has consumed far too many. Moving forward, my skills and perspectives will be better utilized in spaces and with founders or communities that do not consider themselves crypto-native or operate under the assumption that rampant speculation is a net positive for humanity.

This isn’t much different from where my exploration has naturally been for quite a while. Here, we’re just simply affirming focus. First, I want you to know that I don't judge you for doing what's right for you if that means working on crypto products; we all have choices to make, and some of them are genuinely good to have around. What I do judge, and you can see for yourself below, is the abysmal state of things.

From my perspective, I can choose to continue muddling through the crypto industry’s meat grinder, beating my head against a brick wall, or focus where all of me can be better used. Today, I choose happiness. I choose to build a more sane internet and be of meaningful service.

My message to those building for chaos, unnecessary destruction, and dark patterns in crypto is this: Grow up. Build better positive-sum apps. Quit the grifting and scamming. We all know that there are only a limited number of people who genuinely care about the next vaporware L2 launch. We all know shitcoins and memecoins are only to benefit the few. Meanwhile, it’s near impossible for cypher/solar/lunarpunks and the like to get any mindshare for their impact.

tl;dr

• I’m no longer able to stay on as editor-in-chief at EIC (explained further below)

• If you want media (and creators) to exist, you have to fund it, but leadership matters more (reason for above)

• I’m also no longer working with any team or product described as crypto-native or that adds zero-sum speculative elements

• The -punks shall inherit the internet

• A lot more good people have checked out of crypto than you might first realize

Let me reiterate as clearly as possible before we get into the meat of things:

Crypto, as it has operated for the past 4+ years, has become a complete joke. Why? Because there aren’t enough of the good projects and good people powerful enough to push out all the bad actors. But that’s only part of the truth:

Almost a year after their final post under the Polynya pseudonym, crypto has gotten to the point of love-bombing oligarchs and Presidents who create and then dump memecoins and scam DeFi projects onto American citizens’ heads. Of course, crypto graciously and blindly celebrated this returning President due to ultimately false promises, all because they care about nothing more than trading against each other into a black hole. The worst part of all is that none of the spiritual leaders of protocols and chains will speak up to deter this bad behavior because they’ll be crucified by the mob. Excuses of permissionless are not the answer here. People are entirely exhausted by the endless criminal (or otherwise immoral) activity, often former supporters.

This entire industry was built on the foundational belief that finance can and should be dictated by free and open code and smart contracts that make money accessible to all. This is all well and good unless you’re prepared to also combat the toxicity of an increasingly right-leaning user base. Yes, Ethereum has accomplished its protocol-level goals, but it has not properly protected the social layer. Solana and the other major chains are no better. This, in turn, has influenced an entire generation into deranged financial lunacy.

I don’t think Solana has actually won this cycle, either, pumpfun is the most egregious consequence of it all. In fact, it appears as if there are no clear winners among the speculative types besides maybe Polymarket.

I’m not at all saying it won’t get better. Maybe some miracle happens and Farcaster and Lens do actually pop off this year. Maybe people will start implementing interop in apps now that it’s supposedly “solved.” Maybe teams will start to build with more wholesome capital allocation mechanisms.

The more frustrating part is that well-meaning builders are often eventually pushed out or pressured to add speculative elements and gamification riddled with dark patterns to their projects due to coercion from peers or other temptations.

💡 For EIC04, I commissioned polar (pg. 10) to write an introductory piece to his recent research on the Ethereum social layer. I knew his research was coming to a conclusion, and this was the time to bring even a sliver of hope to the Ethereum community by putting names and definitions to what we do. I believe that no matter your opinion on the state of things, you should absolutely read his piece. I still believe the -punks will win in time.

The real winners are, ironically, the friends we made along the way since the only teams I’ve seen who aren’t making exit liquidity out of one another are still having a great time. Looking at Boys Club, SheFi, Chipped, Greenpill, and Kiwi News, just to name a few that I’ve enjoyed engaging with.

Some of you reading this aren’t building solely for crypto-natives, virality, or volume at all costs or to spread toxic hate. You’re building storage products or governance protocols. You’re exploring coordination mechanisms. I notice the ones battling Moloch. I see you. You’re creating content, making art, and writing essays. These are the people I love celebrating and will continue to do so as long as they continue to align with my values and boundaries.

The truth is, due to massively overinflated egos and various dog whistles inside the crypto industry, such as “meritocracy,” “milady,” and other gatekeeping measures that happen behind the scenes, the space will likely not truly live up to its stated goals. If you didn’t figure it out for yourself, meritocracy here, for a certain subset of loud people in crypto anyway, is based on skin color or wealth or, for some reason, a strange fascination with autism.

Ethereum leadership has refused to acknowledge problems in the part of the social layer that reveres the Milady cult and has instead leaned into them by signing off tweets with the callsign. Considering the truth about Elon becoming so glaringly obvious (Nazi) and the connection between his popularization of the milady meme, one only needs so many dots to connect.

Anti-intellectualism is the core of any fascist government, and it’s tearing crypto apart at the seams. Crypto has a unique opportunity to fight against this type of centralization of power if we put our minds to it.

To that point, where have all the hackers gone? Why are developers busy fighting on Twitter (we know this answer from above) instead of banding together? Your individualism is quite literally killing you.

Privacy, DAOs, public goods, and blockchain-based solutions ARE important for the future. But I cannot spend my energy supporting a part of an industry that is so broken and I refuse to fight alone. Join a resistance or roll over for the next Billionaire.

What have I done to contribute to Ethereum? What have I done, you ask? I've contributed to multiple communities, physical books, zines, magazines, and podcasts that provide accessible entry points into what it means to be an Etherean. So yes, I have taken action in the way I know how.

Crypto encourages bold builders—people who think big, who are new to building something on their own, and even those who have prior experience as founders, inside prior startups, or web2 giants—but who remain mostly unprepared for the realities of building in crypto.

Some of this industry's founders knew when to quit. Some of them were entirely delusional. Others were confused as to why their idea wasn’t working, unable to pivot in time. All or most of those challenges could have been avoided. So, while this is not meant to call anyone out individually for any true wrongdoing (obviously, since no major infractions occurred under my watch. I made the choice to engage with certain people, and these are simply observations from my perspective and mine alone), it is important to give you a little context on how this recent adventure with EIC broke the camel’s back so to speak.

By now, the latest issue of EIC Quarterly magazine is out and available to read, mint, or buy in printed form. EIC04 features many crypto figures, including Polar, MP, Owocki, Naomi, and others I call friends. In the five months I spent working on this magazine as editor-in-chief, I fulfilled a life goal by getting another stab at print media production.

Unfortunately, several challenges have led to EIC’s inability to continue paying an editor-in-chief, primarily due to a lack of ongoing funding. Personally, I’m not happy about the conclusion since I poured a ton of effort and love into the last two editions of the magazine. Even without new funding, there were issues leading to my needing to step away regardless. But I’m not without the ability to provide some form of reflection and feedback so we can all improve going forward.

It is incredibly important that we continue to give feedback to teams and communities when things don’t work out so everyone can learn together, not keep the truth behind closed conversations. The more we are willing to be intellectually and morally honest, not just shitposting and arguing all day long, the faster we can all grow as builders.

I’ll start by acknowledging that starting any kind of crypto media company is an uphill battle without some kind of injection of millions, as often occurs via VC funding or extractive token launch, or a team willing to grind it out unpaid for a while. Not in every instance, but in this case, “team” implies more than two people. AI is getting really good, and while you can replace some functions now, it is still best to have human collaborators. I would know; I learned the hard way with the first thing I tried doing and failed miserably.

I began working with EIC in September of last year with the third issue, a month into Q3 planning. It took a couple of weeks to devise an action plan for how to turn the magazine around with a relatively large number of necessary design and organizational changes to be made. Not only did EIC02 have several blank filler pages, but the page designs in both published issues were often AI-generated using Dall-e. This is very normal for a team with little experience in media publication, and I don’t fault the EIC founders for needing this kind of help. It’s why I was brought on.

I saw a tweet recently that reminded me of what builders can face in crypto, explained further below.

keshav

@keshavchan

the worst position to be in is lacking both the agency to be a founder and the tolerance to be an employee. unable to build your own vision yet unwilling to execute someone else’s. kind of like a self-imposed exile from both ambition and stability

9,738

3:41 PM • Feb 3, 2025

Other lessons learned from working with EIC:

• Personalize your outreach and don’t ever send blast scripted requests. This will kill your credibility as a curator or editor or builder. Blasting off to a list of 100+ begging them to take time out of their day to do something for you is hardly ever the answer.

  • Most contributors who wrote for EIC03 and EIC04 are writers or researchers I’ve had a direct, often ongoing relationship with. I reached out to them with a clear ask and prompt for a topic they would excel at providing for the community after doing my own research on prevailing narratives that quarter.

• A network of established designers on your side is worth its weight in gold (or ETH)

  • Friends can help you get to where you need to go a lot faster if you’re a genuinely good person. They’ll stop you from embarrassing yourself more than you’d like to people seeking credibility.

• Communication isn't a one-time event.

  • Building a media company demands consistent interaction through regular meetings and async communication - multiple times per week if not short times daily - to maintain alignment on vision, strengthen team bonds, and ensure operational excellence. These are problems I’ve seen in many crypto teams, but on the other hand, things can go too extreme and become distracting, so of course, a balancing act is in order.

  • Further nuance: Its not even that more meetings are necessary, there is a massive problem with communication standards across this industry in general. This has a lot to do with the maturity and general experience level on a foundational level. If you’re on a very small team it is your duty to communicate as often as possible, as clearly as possible, and keep communicating what’s going on about most aspects of the business.

• Budgeting is a major aspect of building a product and should always be given priority.

  • If you don’t have a transparent budget internally at all, well I don’t think I’m the first to see how destructive this can be. This need may change soon, we have maybe a year or so I’d say, but the revealing of irresponsibility here is clear.

• Incentives should be for those who actually read and engage with content.

As I alluded to earlier, I hadn’t exactly been creating content centering crypto for quite some time anyway. Joining EIC got me back into creating and curating for the Ethereum ecosystem and kept me there.

I had stopped writing my previous newsletter last summer and essays on topics I was exploring previously didn’t feel necessary any longer. Now it’s time to get back to being a full-time content creator with fresh ideas, communing with friends, and likely building something creators like me can be proud to use. I’ve thought a lot about what that should look like.

More than anything though, I’m interested in chatting with people in various cultures to explore how they are overcoming challenges caused by increasingly intelligent technology to better preserve their storytelling. If all goes well that looks like more print media, more novel, collaborative writing, and a fight for a more magical internet. It’s time to give more energy to soft power.

While I will no longer work for a crypto-native startup, I will, however, continue to build within tech and write about culture, meaning, coordination, connection, and media.

As we move toward artificially intelligent futures, times are getting more serious by the minute. There is no more time to waste. Shed the things that no longer serve you. Get your head on right. Seek peace and love before you destroy Ethereum from within.