The Sunday Shill Vol. 5
Shiller’s gonna shill
This week is not a shill so much, more a quick check of the shill you are shilling when you are shilling to normies.
Firstly, it is not your job to educate your friends and family when it comes to crypto. But when you are passionate about something it is hard not to. Whether it be the latest show you are binging or your drug dealer with the best gear in town. It is human nature to want to share good things (crypto and mad gains) with the people you care about. Because at the end of the day experiences are all we have and it is a lot better to experience them with your homies.
Anyways, something interesting occurred to me the other day when a normie mate was going on about my previous Sunday Shills. Surprisingly, the majority of normies and no-coiners out there still think that cryptocurrencies are only aiming to be a new form of money.
Assume everyone knows nothing
Knowing about Bitcoin and the Blockchain is one thing. But can you imagine knowing that there are a couple thousand other coins and tokens out there and thinking they are all fighting to be a currency?
This might sound crazy to you, but most normies think that and from that point of view, I can see how someone would be pretty skeptical of the space.
I remember when my mate who got me into Bitcoin back in 2014 told me that he had just invested in the Ethereum ICO. I took no notice of it. At the time I was under the impression that every coin around then was a shitcoin trying to be another Bitcoin. Therefore, It was safe to assume Ethereum was just another shitcoin trying to knock the big dog off his throne.
Once I learned about Smart Contracts and bought some Ethereum, I told a mate about this token I had just bought and he scoffed at me. His exact words were.
“That sounds pretty fuckin dumb, haha. What a stupid name. You already have Bitcoin why would there be another?” — My mate, 2016
Educate your mates
Once I wrapped my head around the concept of a smart contract that was the day it all changed. I started to forget the “overthrow the government, power to the people” narrative of Bitcoin and started thinking about the Ethereum narrative of changing the world through technology and making the lives of everyone better.
The narrative of a decentralised ecosystem independent of any government control that got me around Bitcoin, because I read some Timothy C. May, and the Bitcoin Whitepaper is the narrative that has turned away so many other people.
You have to be a specific person to see this vision and believe it can come to fruition. This is why so many boomers and your more conservative friends struggle to see the big picture. Completely fair and I think most of us have stopped trying to open their eyes and change their minds a long time ago.
But we all should be getting around the idea that Blockchain tech and Smart Contracts can change the world for the better, on many levels. Whether it be humanitarian or institutional, saving capital or saving lives. That is something that we can all agree is for the better.
What can it be if not money?
Heading back to the main topic, Ethereum was designed to create value for network functions (smart contracts) that are not designed to be transactional currencies. Ethereum never intended to be money.
Other examples of this would be Ripple, Ripple while a monetary instrument in itself does not aim to be money rather act as a bridge to allow money to move quickly. The reality is most coins do not aim to be money, my favorite example would be Chainlink, focused on oracles, again does not aim to be money, even though the nodes are paid in the LINK token.
It’s quite a simplistic approach to mark everything as money and can be naive to do so. Education is key, understanding what each crypto aims to accomplish is important, sure focusing on the number and the trade is exciting, but understanding it will make things clearer.
So next time you are shilling your mates your favorite project that is not aiming to be a currency. Make sure they understand the concept of a smart contract, that the technology has come along way and at some point, in some way, it will change the world for the better.
