The blind men of crypto: Why are people so dogmatic about crypto?
Powered by blockchain technology, crypto has the potential to bring about a global revolution. However, our human instincts for personal gain tend to override its social benefit. My aim with Wholesome Crypto is to educate investors on the bigger picture. When we look at crypto this way, fears dissolve, and we become inspired to invest not from greed, but from the vision for a better future.
A blockchain, is only as powerful as people are willing to collaborate on it. However, there are people that marry themselves to one particular currency (or project) then trash-talking all others without even understanding the scope or details of what they speak about. It seems that these individuals think their portfolio will increase based on how much they disparage everything outside of their personal holdings. Their efforts are misdirected. This kind of attitude, where a persons self-preservation overrides their willingness to cooperate, is actually what limits their portfolio and crypto as a whole.
Don’t be dogmatic
The problem here is the same as with every practice or standardized school of thought: people become so stuck on being right that they miss out on true value and understanding.
It's important to fully understand a project before criticizing it, even then it should be constructive. Some examples are Dogecoin taking over Bitcoin. Or Cardano being an Ethereum killer. My question is - would anyone care about these projects if there wasn't money involved? Of course money is a great motivator. It just seems like it's the only motivation now. This is a common problem with any industry or practice that falls into a dogmatic following.
Last summer, my girlfriend and I traveled to Tucson to receive mentorship for her business, YogaHub.life. We met with Culadasa, a mediation master and the author of The Mind Illuminated. During our conversation, Culadasa explained how meditation schools and teachers limit students’ advancement because they teach techniques within a proprietary format, and neglect to cite the complete context as a whole.
He explained meditators’ shortcomings through a Buddhist parable, which speaks to our problems in the crypto community. This parable has many variations; it broadly goes as follows:[7][2]
A group of blind men heard that a strange animal, called an elephant, had been brought to the town, but none of them were aware of its shape and form. Out of curiosity, they said: "We must inspect and know it by touch, of which we are capable". So, they sought it out, and when they found it they groped about it. The first person, whose hand landed on the trunk, said, "This being is like a thick snake". For another one whose hand reached its ear, it seemed like a kind of fan. As for another person, whose hand was upon its leg, said, the elephant is a pillar like a tree-trunk. The blind man who placed his hand upon its side said the elephant, "is a wall". Another who felt its tail, described it as a rope. The last felt its tusk, stating the elephant is that which is hard, smooth and like a spear.
If the elephant is the blockchain industry and each appendage is a different crypto project, then currencies’ dogmatic fan bases are the blind men.
Each coin-centered-community blindly boasts their cryptos fiat value without citing their projects’ contributions or shortcomings for the blockchain industry as a whole. Without acknowledging how their preferred coin fits into the whole, their perspective has limited substance and value.
Consider other tech companies that work in the same space, trying to accomplish similar goals. Apple, Google, and Microsoft are all competitors and each have their own die hard fan bases. As consumers, we may argue which company is the best, but the companies themselves are working together to dominate the internet. Google paid Apple $12 Billion to be listed as the default search engine on iPhone's. Microsoft's new Edge web browser is based off of Googles chromium browser technology. The new Windows 11 is going to provide the capability of running android apps. We need them all, and one doesn’t need to fail for the other to succeed.
If people try to understand other projects or the industry as a whole, they’d see that Bitcoin isn't the only coin that matters. Ethereum will not be the one to rule them all.
The Bitcoin and Ethereum behemoths along with Cardano, Solana, Monero, Litecoin, Stellar, Algorand, and all other individual projects, are working to create a better entity than their competitors. The market will tell us who is the best.
Don’t let the maximalists get you caught up in thinking that one coin is the “best.” That’s the byproduct of short-sighted thinking that forgets crypto's immense value as a whole. Critics must articulate the whole picture, both pros and cons, rather than just deeming a project a "scam coin".
With so much going on between different projects, it's important to remember what we, the people, are trying to accomplish with blockchain as a whole. It's to collectively own our finances, assets, health records, voting, etc. There isn't a single blockchain to rule them all and we shouldn't expect that. That's not how innovation works. We should learn and collaborate with each other to progress on interoperable and layering blockchains. Some chains will be better than others for their niches and that's fine. It’s time to open our minds, focus on serious projects and work together.
