Cryptocurrency / Blockchain
Why Most Cryptocurrency Communities Feel Like Cults to Me
And why this might harm the whole crypto space
Reddit is a surprisingly good place to learn more about a crypto coin.
On the platform for small forums, I am active in some so-called subreddits. Everything revolves around a certain coin — there are subreddits for Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethereum, etc.
But a few days ago, I noticed something: Many of the communities are a bit like digital cults.
Although it’s not about religion or spirituality, real cults and crypto fans' hangouts have some things in common. Here’s what and why that needs to stop.
The Savior of the Cult
Most communities support a particular coin — only a few are against a blockchain project.
There are almost no skeptics in the subreddits. People only post the good news.
The fact that there are almost no skeptics has a reason: censorship.
In most subreddits, moderators remove posts. In many ones, it is forbidden to post negative news. Yeah, that’s scary.
But even if there were no censorship, no one likes to post bad news. Most members of the communities are invested — bad news could lead to loss of value. Nobody wants that.
But it is not only about the missing criticism; even the perception of positive news is absolutely distorted.
Often news is posted that is hardly relevant. Every tiny step is treated as a breakthrough. Even fake news or absurd rumors are celebrated.
The fact that many blockchain projects are on the rise right now, and are getting good news, is wholly neglected.
It’s like a filter bubble. No, it’s a filter bubble.
Sometimes I get lost in the subreddits of tiny little crypto projects. If you get deep enough, you’ll find claims in every community that the project will be the absolute gamechanger, even though there are thousands of other projects.
The Rituals of the Cult
You can visit a crypto community for two good reasons:
- To find out about new developments, exchange information with others, or ask and answer questions.
- To strengthen your own confidence in the coin by extreme euphoria of other users.
I am mostly the second type. When I get doubts about my investment, I go to the corresponding community — the euphoria is contagious.
Users condemn those who have sold their coins or want to sell.
Some very optimistic price analyses regularly drop, assuming massive value gains. It is good manners to comment things like “to the moon” regularly.
But it can be even more blatant: I saw communities calling for friends and relatives to get on board. It seems a bit like multi-level marketing.
I saw posts about users planning a presentation for their friends and family.
Other users have called to give away coins to acquaintances, so they have to deal with the project.
Some crypto communities seem to be doing flash mobs on Twitter. They don’t even seem to be afraid to manipulate the trends.
Twitter trends should reflect important events in the real world — organized, simultaneous tweeting, and making it into the trends is not the idea behind it.
The Twitter trend of the cryptocurrency SafeMoon looked very artificial — there were over 300k tweets, reaching rank 1 in the trends. However, the project is somewhat irrelevant, and despite significant gains, somewhere on the 2400th place in the CoinMarketCap ranking.
The Mutual Enemy
Ethereum is currently the second most relevant blockchain. The Ether coin has over $200 billion in market capitalization¹.
This is a huge number, and yet the blockchain seems to have some weaknesses.
Meanwhile, there are heaps of other blockchain projects that claim to be a better alternative. Ethereum-killers is the label given to projects like Cardano, Polkadot, Algorand, and EOS.
Within the individual communities, one thing stands out: Some of the supporters of the individual alternatives detest each other. Of course, they compete with each other — but that doesn’t necessarily mean that only one alternative will prevail in the long run.
The individual projects have different strengths. Therefore, a the-winner-takes-it-all end is rather unlikely. Nevertheless, fans of the projects often loathe each other.
Why This Might Harm the Whole Crypto Space
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not an opponent of cryptocurrencies, and I’m not an opponent of the communities. On Reddit, I am active in many subreddits about cryptos that I have invested in myself.
I love cryptocurrencies, and that’s why I find our cult-like behavior in the crypto-space so problematic.
I think it’s a shame when some communities seem so unserious that it could hurt everyone invested in blockchain projects in the long run.
The hostility and filter bubble in the communities keeps us from seriously advancing blockchain technology. A good market consists of participants who are well informed about the alternatives and act rationally. A good market is not made up of little kids who don’t want to experience anything outside their bubble.
The excessive euphoria and questionable the-winner-takes-it-all can be very dangerous for individual investors. We need to be responsible with our attention and euphoria; otherwise, it will promote Shitcoins.
