It’s different this time, really! Really?
A lot has been discussed about the disruptive potential of blockchain technologies and cryptocurrencies. ICOs are hailed as the liberation of startups from the stranglehold of the venture capital scene. If you compare the current crypto-scene with the astonishingly similar sentiment of the New Economy 20 years ago, you are portrayed as a doomsayer. This time, everything is different, very different, so they say. And because it’s different this time we don’t need regulation or regulatory guidance. Self-Regulation will do.
Actually, it’s challenging these days to critizise anything around the blockchain without being mobbed.
During the NYC blockchain week, however, nothing was different or disrupting. The protagonists of the Blockchain scene proved that nothing changed but names and technologies. Unheard, they flaunted their new wealth and staged a casserole of the rich and famous that would have served Hollywood as an honor. In my opinion, this is precisely the attitude of the old financial establishment that we wanted to fight at the beginning of the blockchain movement. It was more a sort of anarchism then the next “new financial establishment”. It’s exactly as it was 20 years ago in the New Economy and the dot-com bubble. Od wine in new bottles, right?
The Canadian Crypto-Blowout
One of the highlights of the New York Consenys week was the Decentral party, a US$3 million crypto-blowout. Decentral, a crypto-venture by Ethereum co-founder Anthony DI IORIO rented out the 210-foot party yacht Cornucopia Majesty. The event was a coming-out party for a new, and suddenly wealthy industry that “has few regulations and isn’t chastened by scandals that have held back Wall Street and now Silicon Valley” said the New York Post.
Highlight of the Decentral party was a raffle where the two Aston Martins above were the prizes. This obviously is, where investors’ money goes, right?
NYC blockchain week was the most egregious and depressing display of bullshit and charlatanry I’ve ever seen. The worst of Wall Street + tech socialites wanting to gain relevance and power in a space designed to fundamentally dismantle the power dynamics they create(d). https://t.co/QybH6iVA5I
— ashley tyson (@AsherT) May 19, 2018
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And this is meant to be the new and different world, my friends? Where are the anarchists? Where is the disruptive spirit? Ahh, well, I see. It has been replaced by expensive cars.
Da Capo Dot-Com.
