The commercialization of cryptocurrency may mean that the real opportunities are just beginning.

Author: Jesse Walden

Translation: Deep Tide TechFlow

The first decade of smart contract blockchains originated from the original cypherpunk values of Bitcoin: anti-censorship, open-source, and permissionless, along with a new vision of building a democratic/fair internet on a shared world computer. Today, these ideological values face market pressures as mainstream markets focus on different factors: performance, cost, profitability, and compliance.

Powerful technologies are often not used by their creators or early users as originally intended. Look at Bitcoin, as a "peer-to-peer electronic cash system," compared to Bitcoin ETFs or USDC.

As the original values of smart contract blockchains merge with mainstream market values, the next decade may head in different directions.

The growing application scenarios on smart contract platforms—fiat stablecoins and real-world assets (RWAs), open finance, and many decentralized networks—are neither decentralized, nor permissionless, nor anti-censorship; they simply leverage the underlying blockchain's decentralized characteristics to achieve openness, interoperability, and settlement.

Applications are increasingly abstracting L1 cryptocurrencies, which have historically been viewed as anti-censorship "internet money," prompting many to rethink the value proposition of the largest coins, including next-generation chain-based assets.

This may be hard for early adopters to accept. This was not the purpose for which many initially entered the field. Does this mean everything is over?

I don't think so. But it may mark the beginning of a new phase.

In catering to market values, cryptocurrency is moving towards commercialization. Commercialization, especially of open/permissionless software, is a way to bring great ideas to as large an audience as possible, thereby having a greater impact on the world.

Commercialization often comes with compromises. The key is to shape the nature of these compromises to influence the outcomes. To do this, you must abandon ideological dogma, adapt to the rules of the field, compete, and strive to steer things in the direction you want.

For example, compromising on decentralization for the sake of scale (whether through Rollups or integrated architectures) can better meet today's application scenarios that bring wallets to people. If this works, the next opportunity is to enhance decentralization—then, teach more people to learn new things to align with the original ideology.

This is very personal to me. I care deeply about the original ideology; it is the reason that attracted me here. That said, I care more about impact. I learned this lesson in another creative circle. I went to university in Montreal, where the cultural atmosphere was very vibrant (Arcade Fire, Tiga, A-Trak, Chromeo, Grimes, Vice, American Apparel, etc.). Things emerging from this place quickly went global, spreading rapidly through the internet and merging with other trend culture scenes, especially the music blogs from 2004 to 2012 (Hype Machine, has anyone heard of it?).

Soon, this cultural atmosphere was integrated into the mainstream market. Its development was primarily driven by some vulgar artists and brands distilling the essence of sound and culture, ignoring nuances, and retailing in a popular but superficial way. Meanwhile, a small number of artists and creatives who pioneered this original cultural scene remained steadfast, becoming symbols of pop culture. To achieve this, they often had to make moderate compromises between the original movement and what the masses could accept. This combination of determination and pragmatism is admirable, as it can generate the broadest impact, thereby driving cultural progress on the largest scale.

So, if you feel that the values that prompted you to enter cryptocurrency are being diluted by the mainstream market—I understand your feelings, but try to look at it from a different perspective—because from the perspective of impact, the commercialization of cryptocurrency may mean that the real opportunities are just beginning.

I will try to illustrate what this opportunity might look like with more specific examples. I mentioned "only with cryptocurrency"/"better with cryptocurrency" in yesterday's post, but there is more to add.

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