Bankless: How Crypto Protocols Affect Our Psychology

Author: David Hoffman

Compiled by: Deep Tide TechFlow

The most famous saying in cryptocurrency is "Come for the money, stay for the technology."

This means that the allure of wealth may draw you into the cryptocurrency rabbit hole, but what truly keeps you there is the depth of the technology.

Take a moment to reflect on how you have changed since you encountered cryptocurrency: Have you grown? Has your worldview changed? What do you now consider important—things you never thought about before? What is different about you now?

One of the more magical aspects of cryptocurrency is that it provides us with a new perspective on the world. Let’s delve deeper into this worldview and showcase what cryptocurrency brings to individuals and what it demands from us:

Web3 Psychology

There exists a triad between technology, society, and the individual. Society cultivates individuals, individuals create technology, technology helps individuals express their views, and views change society. This is the trajectory of history.

Now, technology has a special role in this triad. Society adapts to change, individuals may perish. But once technology is discovered, it becomes locked in. Technology is a genie that cannot be put back in the bottle, just like the foundational infrastructure of the internet cannot be undone.

Technology progresses gradually, and society will adapt to the most revolutionary edge technologies created by individuals in the current era. Perhaps this is why Twitter feels like a special place where marginal societies can become mainstream views.

Web2 represents the "current trend" of social structure. Technologies like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter define a large part of society. They are platforms for opinions and thus also mediums for the dissemination of those opinions.

Web2, along with nation-states, represents an important part of how society operates. When individuals want to do something, express a viewpoint, or effect some change in the world, they must do so through these mediums. If they want to change the rules, they must push their views through the legislative processes of nation-states. If they want help, they must share their views through Web2 platforms.

At Bankless and throughout the cryptocurrency space, we often criticize Web2 and nation-states. We focus on their flaws and oppressions. We are merely subjects of the legal and tax systems of nation-states, but… these are also the best systems we have come up with so far. Thanks to Web2, our views can be amplified, and thanks to constitutions, many freedoms are protected.

But these are just the metadata of current social technology, and metadata can change!

Technology is adopted simply because it provides better services than its predecessors. If it doesn’t, it won’t be adopted, and we wouldn’t be talking about it; it would just become an idea that never gained traction.

That said, Web3 has arrived. It is both a technology and a concept, and the Web3 genie has violently escaped the bottle. As I mentioned at the beginning, cryptocurrency is a lens through which to observe the world. It reveals the naked emperor… the people behind the scenes… the manipulators and their strings.

Web3 makes individuals better.

Web3 brings us powerful tools. New decentralized financial infrastructures. Direct ownership. The ability to be your own bank. The ability to create financial assets. All of these are revolutionary, each will have its own impact on the appearance of society.

But cryptocurrency is a deeply penetrating technology. It cuts through all other technologies and directly touches the core of human existence. We are fortunate to live in a time when such a far-reaching technology is maturing. Nation-states must contend with it. The internet will adapt to it. Web2 must respond to it.

But what about you—the individual? How will you change when the platform beneath your feet shifts? What kind of person will you become when the protocols you operate on become more powerful?

Cryptography is an asymmetric technology that transfers power to individuals.

Using cryptography is trivial, but breaking it is difficult. It empowers individuals with the same power as banks and nation-states. No tanks, planes, or steel can separate you from your assets; all secular powers must seek your permission.

Responsibilities of Web3

From the above, we can finally draw the main point of this article.

Cryptographic protocols empower us with responsibilities.

Being our own bank, holding our own assets, voting on our own protocols—these are powers that individuals did not have before. Our previous technologies did not make this possible. We only had representative democracy, where we entrusted our voices to representatives we had to trust. We had banks we trusted to hold our money, custodians we trusted to safeguard our assets, and brokers we trusted to execute our orders fairly.

While the relinquishment of individual responsibility may seem insignificant, small evasion of responsibility can coalesce and merge into a single, large-scale problem, ultimately becoming the darkest cloud over society. The choices we are forced to make become the incumbents that define the status quo.

Private keys are the vessels of responsibility.

The definition of responsibility is something I believe all Web3 practitioners would appreciate.

The phrase "the opportunity or ability to act independently and make decisions without authorization" impresses me—this is permissionless! This is what cryptocurrency can achieve! This is also what is lacking in today’s society.

Anything in our private keys becomes something we are responsible for. The "things" that can be put into a private key can be anything! This is the power of smart contracts—anything imaginable can be encoded, deployed, and transformed into assets in our wallets. If it is something of value, then it can be encoded as an asset for which we are responsible.

Through cryptographic private keys, we can directly control our lives. Not just by being our own banks and holding our own assets, but by participating in governance and deciding our protocol behaviors! In Web2, we were provided with products in which we could not participate. In Web3, our protocols respond to our choices.

For the first time, we bear direct responsibility for the protocols that determine our lives. We have never had tools that allow us to take on so much responsibility so easily. So, I ask you, dear reader, similar to our initial question, now that you have complete control… who will you become?

When your fingers touch the power of private keys, and you have an army of developers to unlock doors… which door will you choose? How will society react when the power of private keys permeates throughout? What fundamental new ideas will individuals create to change the course of humanity? What will humanity become when the pendulum of responsibility swings from the few to the many? These are profound questions that only time can answer.

We have already seen cryptocurrency give birth to a great deal of good and evil. One thing is certain: every individual possesses the power of cryptography, and while this brings much chaos to the crypto world, I choose to believe that over time, this is not the chaos of evil, but the chaos of good.