If you've been in the encryption industry for years, you'll feel the growing "weakness."。

Last weekend, the long article by Aevo co-founder Ken Chan undoubtedly pierced many hearts. He's using an extreme title --I wasted eight years in encryptionI don't know。

This is not a state of one's own, but a collective fatigue of industry. Ken wrote the truth that many people are afraid to admit: in the encryption industry, it's really easy to lose the sense of time。

Everything's not empty

you may stay up all night for airdrops, for online stakeouts, for narratives, for a new deal, for countless unpaid work. from romantic liberalism to experiments of self-government in the chain, and to today's rush to meme, perpetuity, gambling lanes, is it really enough to question whether we're really participating in a technological revolution or working for an infinity casino

The skepticism of practitioners is not due to their lack of firmness, but to the brutal structure of the encryption industry itself: narrative life is shorter than product life; heat is greater than basic; speculation is faster than construction; heroism coexists with collective suspicion; and the end of many projects is not failure, but disappearance。

Must be honest, Ken's feelings have gone through a lot. And none of these suspicions are empty。

"What are we holding on to? The problem may be much heavier than "will the price of the currency increase?"。

SO WHAT DO WE BELIEVE WHEN WE SAY, "WE BELIEVE IN ENCRYPTION"? ARE WE TRUSTING THE PROJECT? NO. ARE WE TRUSTING SOME STAR KOL? OF COURSE NOT. ARE WE BELIEVING IN A NARRATIVE? THAT'S EVEN LESS POSSIBLE。

Many will suddenly realize that there is probably only one thing that they truly believe in: what we still insist on and believe is what encryption means to the world。

So, just after Ken's article was painted, the co-founder of Castle Island Ventures, Nic Carter, soon wrote another article in response:I don't regret spending eight years in encryptionI don't know。

What does encryption mean to the world? Nic Carter gives him five ideas: making the monetary system more robust, coding business logic with smart contracts, making digital property real, making capital markets more efficient, and expanding global financial inclusion。

Don't forget why we left

Whenever the industry is in chaos, we might read the Bitcoin White Paper again。

An electronic, point-to-point cash system is the first sentence of the White Paper。

In 2008, the financial crisis resulted in the collapse of banks and the collapse of Lehman. Financialists and politicians, let the world pay for their risks and wrongs。

Bitcoin was not born to make wealth, but to answer the question: "Can we create a monetary system that does not depend on any centralist institution? I don't know

For the first time in history, humanity has a currency that does not need to trust anyone. It is the only financial system in the world that truly does not belong to any country, company or individual. You can criticize ETH, criticize Solana, criticize all L2 and criticize all DEX, but very few will criticize bitcoin because the beginning has never changed。

Any Web2 company can close your account tomorrow; but no one can stop you from sending a bitcoin tomorrow. There will always be people who don't like it, who don't believe it or even attack it, but no one can change it。

Water does not dispute, but it profiteth everything。

Global inflation normalization, high sovereign debt, long-term downfall of risk-free interest rates, financial oppression, lack of privacy... The existence of these problems makes the vision of the encryption industry more urgent than obsolete. As Nic Carter says, "I've never seen a technology that is better at upgrading capital market infrastructure than encryption." I don't know

Why isn't this a failed industry

Ken said he wasted eight years. But are we really wasting our youth

IN SUPER-INFLATIONARY COUNTRIES SUCH AS ARGENTINA, TURKEY, VENEZUELA, THE BTC AND THE STABLE CURRENCY HAVE BECOME A VIRTUAL "SHADOW FINANCIAL SYSTEM"; HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF PEOPLE WITHOUT ACCESS TO THE BANKING SYSTEM HAVE GLOBAL DIGITAL ASSETS FOR THE FIRST TIME; HUMAN BEINGS HAVE GLOBAL ASSETS IN THEIR OWN HANDS FOR THE FIRST TIME; INTERNATIONAL PAYMENTS ARE NO LONGER NEEDED FOR THE FIRST TIME; BILLIONS OF PEOPLE HAVE ACCESS TO THE SAME FINANCIAL SYSTEM FOR THE FIRST TIME; FINANCIAL INFRASTRUCTURE IS BEGINNING TO MOVE AWAY FROM NATIONAL BORDERS; AN ASSET THAT IS NOT DEPENDENT ON VIOLENCE AND POWER IS BEGINNING TO BE RECOGNIZED GLOBALLY..

FOR A HIGH-INFLATION COUNTRY, A STABLE AND UNDIMINISHED CURRENCY IS LIKE A NOAH'S ARK, SO THE STABLE CURRENCY ACCOUNTS FOR 61.8 PER CENT OF ARGENTINA'S ENCRYPTED TRANSACTIONS. FOR THOSE WITH FREELANCE JOBS ABROAD, DIGITAL TRAVELLERS AND THE WEALTHY, USDT IS THEIR DIGITAL DOLLAR。

IT'S MORE ELEGANT AND SAFER THAN HIDING THE DOLLAR UNDER A MATTRESS OR RISKING A BLACK MARKET EXCHANGE, REPLACING THE PESO WITH USDT BY CLICKING ON THE MOUSE。

CASH TRANSACTIONS, WHETHER BY STREET VENDORS OR USDT TRANSFERS BY ELITES, ARE ESSENTIALLY MISTRUST OF STATE CREDIT AND PROTECTION OF PRIVATE PROPERTY. IN A COUNTRY WITH HIGH TAXES, LOW WELFARE AND DECLINING CURRENCIES, EVERY "GREY DEAL" IS A RESISTANCE TO SYSTEMIC LOOTING。

For a hundred years, the rose palace in Buenos Aires has changed its owners and the peso has been scrapped. But people walk out of a dead end by trading underground, by grey wisdom. Read about:Underground Argentina: Jewish Money Bank, Chinese Supermarket, spoiled young people and returning to povertyIt's not like that

The top 20 global funds have almost all established Web3 sectors; the continuous influx of TradFi institutions (Beled, Fuda, CME); the country's digital monetary system is modelled on bitcoin; the U.S. digital asset ETF is updating the record of new inflows; and in just 15 years, Bitcoin has been among the top 10 financial assets of the world

Even with bubbles, speculation, chaos and deception, there are facts that have occurred. These changes have changed the world slightly. And we are in an industry that will continue to change the global financial architecture。

Are we really leaving nothing

“If 15 years later, these chains are gone, the projects are gone, the agreements are replaced by more advanced infrastructure.” What we're doing now, isn't it a waste of youth? I don't know

In another sector: the Internet bubble broke in 2000 and the NASDAQ collapsed by 78 per cent; the Amazon was also called a "book-seller's website" in 1995; Google in 1998 was considered "not as useful as Yahoo"; and social networking in 2006 was considered "the rebellion of youth"。

The early days of the Internet were filled with thousands of dead start-ups, completely lost innovations, massive investments, and tens of thousands of people who thought they had wasted their youth。

EARLY BBS, PORTALS, DIAL-UP ACCESS, BILLBOXES ARE ALMOST NON-EXISTENT TODAY, AND 90 PERCENT OF THE FIRST GENERATION OF MOBILE INTERNET PRODUCTS HAVE NOT SURVIVED. BUT THEY ARE NO WASTE, THEY CONSTITUTE THE SOIL OF THE MOVING AGE。

They create infrastructure: browsers, TCP/IP, early servers, compilers, and they achieve all the foundations of Facebook, Google, Apple, mobile Internet, cloud computing, AI. The history of social networking is a cycle that continues to break, just as TikTok today is made up of countless dead social networks。

Every generation replaces the previous generation, but no generation is in vain。

No industry has come along in clean, linear, clear, right and clear answers. All basic technology industries experience chaos, bubbles, miscalculation and misunderstanding until they change the world。

And so is the encryption industry。

THE TECHNOLOGY REVOLUTION IN THE ENCRYPTION INDUSTRY WAS NEVER DONE BY A SINGLE GENERATION. WHAT WE'VE DONE, EVEN IF THE FUTURE ETH IS REPLACED BY OTHER CHAINS, THE L2 IS REWRITTEN BY A NEW ARCHITECTURE, THE DEX WE'RE USING TODAY IS ALL GONE, AND IT'S NEVER IN VAIN。

Because we provide the base soil, the test, the parameter, the social experiment, the path-dependent, the experience and the sample that will be absorbed in the future. And not the end itself。

Besides, you're not alone。

There are still millions of developers, researchers, fund managers, nodal operators, builders and traders around the world, driving this era slowly forward. We're with you。

—To those who remain on this road。