Crypto has had a terrible streak of luck. As people lost unbelievable amounts of money during what may be considered peak economic uncertainty, looking forward to a better future is a must.
It goes without saying that crypto news can’t get any worse.
2022 continues to set the record for being the worst year yet for crypto – with crypto winter after winter, a bunch of insolvencies of exchanges, a whole ecosystem collapse, regulatory enforcement – and the unveiling of a giant scam.
While many outsiders are quick to say “told you so!”, or that investing in crypto isn’t just worth it due to how uncertain it is, it’s easy to become sceptical about the entire industry, after all that has happened.
Although it may be difficult to think about moving on, it’s a necessary measure. However, what really matters is who is coming up with a solution – and whether it’s up to a community or not to do so.
As a matter of fact, it’s better to think about what “you” can do for yourself in particular, rather than waiting for someone to decide for everyone else that their way to recovery is the only way worth doing.
To decentralise or not decentralise?
The foundations of crypto are built on the idea of community governance. To reach a consensus, a community is to democratically vote on whether a proposal, a prompt, or a decision should come to fruition (or not).
As crypto is home to many diverse ecosystems, it’s an oversight that nobody would get special treatment. With some governance proposals, some are bound to disagree, leading to bitter feelings. Sometimes, some governance-decided answers to any problem wouldn’t work for everyone.
But beyond the dark side of governance, crypto is built upon a principal called the free-market ideology: where everyone should be able to freely choose how they make transactional purchases, decide on what currencies they use, and that continued practice of these behaviors can directly impact the industry for the better, with experiments of new innovations being shipped out for use in a real market.
With this freedom that crypto can still offer us in these troubling times, it’s worth looking into what can be risky for the industry’s future, and how anyone can be smarter in building Web3 for a better, reliable, and secure financial future.
And it all starts with you.
Don’t attempt to control the uncontrollable – but learn how to manag
If you’ve spent some time in the industry, you’ll come to realise that it’s no use thinking about controlling the market, and that there’s a lot of efforts being made that push towards “making sure that this doesn’t happen again.”
The so-called ‘invisible hand’ of the market can cause very unpredictable things to happen, leading many investors to favor convenience and safety, rather than future-proofing.
But on the bright side, we’ve learnt a few lessons from the past few months. Instead of controlling such situations from happening again, we now know how to manage and minimise such risks that can endanger crypto.
As crypto becomes more mainstream, it’s natural for people to take things at face value, give into hype, and opt to hop on to the latest thing to not experience FOMO.
But as the industry continues to mature, it’s worth making notes to consciously make better decisions in not only investing, but also how Web3 is being developed.
While it’s worth being up to date with news, getting swept away in tabloid-material crypto news can mostly result in fear and uncertainty. Staying informed is one thing, but keeping a level head while doing so is also important.
In any case, make a list of what you think you can do for yourself to better equip yourself in times of crisis. What are your priorities and goals in crypto? What can you use what you got, and what you know to help others for a better ecosystem.
Instead of relying on a ‘we”, we should think about how “we” should protect each other as individuals taking part in this exciting, new economy, and how “we” can each offer our parts in this space to build towards making it better together for the future.
