What Most of Crypto Believes: The Dominant Narrative
Let me expand on the ideological foundation and cultural assumptions that dominate cryptocurrency—the worldview Dusk is betting against.
The Cypherpunk Origins
Foundational Beliefs:
Crypto emerged from cypherpunk philosophy in the 1990s-2000s:
Cryptography as liberation: Math can protect individual freedom from state power
Code is law: Rules enforced by algorithms, not governments or corporations
Don't trust, verify: Transparency over opacity, proof over promises
Censorship resistance: No one should control who can transact
Bitcoin's genesis block referenced bank bailouts—this wasn't accidental. Crypto was born as a reaction against traditional finance and government monetary control.
Core Tenets of the Dominant Narrative
1. "Decentralization Über Alles"
The belief: Centralized control is the root problem.
Banks control your money and can freeze accounts
Governments debase currency through inflation
Intermediaries extract rents and create fragility
Centralized systems inevitably become corrupt
Solution: Eliminate intermediaries. Peer-to-peer everything. No trusted third parties.
2. "Regulation is Capture"
The belief: Regulators serve incumbent interests, not the public.
Financial regulation protects big banks from competition
Compliance costs create barriers that favor established players
Regulatory approval means compromising core principles
"Innovation happens at the edges, not with permission"
Ethos: Move fast, build in grey areas, ask forgiveness not permission. Regulators will eventually have to adapt to what's already built.
3. "Privacy Means Anonymity"
The belief: Financial surveillance is tyranny.
Governments track and control through monetary systems
Financial privacy is a fundamental human right
"If you have nothing to hide" is authoritarian logic
Transparent money enables oppression
Ideal: Transactions should be as private as cash, pseudonymous or anonymous by default. Think Monero, Zcash, or Bitcoin mixing services.
4. "Retail/Consumer Adoption is the Path"
The belief: Power to the people, not institutions.
Crypto democratizes finance—anyone with internet can participate
"Banking the unbanked" in developing countries
Remittances without Western Union's fees
Micro-investing, micro-loans, DeFi yields for regular people
Heroes: The Venezuelan using Bitcoin during hyperinflation, the Filipino worker sending remittances home, the Gen-Z investor earning yield in DeFi.
5. "Institutions are the Enemy/Dinosaurs"
The belief: Traditional finance is the problem, not the customer.
Banks are parasitic middlemen extracting fees
Wall Street is corrupt and rigged against retail
Institutions are slow, bureaucratic, and will be disrupted
"We don't need Goldman Sachs on blockchain; we need to make Goldman Sachs obsolete"
Vision: Disintermediation. Replace JPMorgan Chase with smart contracts. Replace the New York Stock Exchange with Uniswap.
6. "DeFi is the Future"
The belief: Programmable, permissionless finance is revolutionary.
Automated market makers replace brokers
Lending protocols replace banks
Decentralized exchanges replace NASDAQ
Anyone can create financial products without licenses
Promise: Financial services become global, 24/7, accessible to anyone with a wallet. No KYC, no geographic restrictions, no gatekeepers.
7. "Trustlessness is the Innovation"
The belief: The breakthrough is not needing to trust.
Traditional finance requires trusting banks, governments, intermediaries
Crypto replaces trust with cryptographic verification
"Don't trust, verify" applies to everything
Transparency (public ledgers) enables accountability
Ideal: A system where you don't need to trust anyone—not developers, not miners, not exchanges—you can verify everything yourself.
The Cultural Manifestation
What this looks like in practice:
Language and Values:
"WAGMI" (We're All Gonna Make It) - collective retail empowerment
"Not your keys, not your coins" - self-custody over institutions
"Few understand" - dismissal of skeptics as outdated
"Have fun staying poor" - mockery of those who don't adopt crypto
"HODL" - individual investor conviction over institutional trading
Heroes:
Satoshi Nakamoto (pseudonymous founder who disappeared)
Vitalik Buterin (teenage genius disrupting finance)
Retail traders who got rich early
"Diamond hands" who held through crashes
Villains:
Central banks and "money printers"
Jamie Dimon and bank CEOs
SEC and regulatory agencies
"No-coiners" and crypto skeptics
Anyone who "sells out" to institutions
Ideal Projects:
Launched fairly (no VC pre-sales, no institutional allocation)
Truly decentralized (no company controls it)
Permissionless (anyone can participate)
Censorship-resistant (can't be shut down)
Community-governed (not corporate-controlled)
The Political Spectrum
This narrative attracts strange bedfellows:
Libertarian Right:
Austrian economics, gold bugs
Anti-government, anti-central banking
Free markets, minimal regulation
Individual sovereignty over collective governance
Crypto Left:
Anti-corporate, anti-Wall Street
Financial inclusion and equity
Cooperative/commons-based finance
Resistance to surveillance capitalism
Tech Utopians:
Code can solve social problems
Technological progress is inevitable and good
Disruption of legacy institutions
Borderless, internet-native future
Why This Dominates Crypto Culture
Historical Success:
Bitcoin did work without government approval
DeFi did create novel financial primitives
Crypto has provided alternatives during currency crises
Some retail investors did make life-changing returns
Self-Selection:
People attracted to crypto often share anti-establishment views
Early adopters were ideologically motivated, not profit-seeking
Culture reinforces itself through social media and conferences
Network Effects:
Projects that embrace this narrative get community support
Going against it feels like "selling out"
Funding (from crypto VCs) often aligns with this worldview
The Fundamental Tension
The narrative assumes:
Institutions are the problem
Regulation protects incumbents
Privacy means anonymity
Decentralization is always better
Retail users should have institutional-grade tools
Dusk's position assumes:
Institutions are the customers
Regulation enables legitimacy
Privacy can coexist with compliance
Some centralization/permission is practical
Institutional tools need institutional features
The Core Disagreement:
Most crypto: "We're building a parallel financial system that makes the old one obsolete."
Dusk: "We're building the infrastructure that makes the old system more efficient and transparent."
