🚀 Variant Fund's Jesse Walden predicts that the "cypherpunk" value of blockchain will be replaced by speed and compliance in the next 10 years. 📈
🔗 Initially, blockchain was built on values like censorship resistance, open source, and permissionless. Now, smart contract platforms focus on performance, cost, and profitability.
💡 Popular applications like stablecoins and tokenizing real-world assets don't need complete decentralization, just leveraging blockchain for openness and interoperability.
🔍 Cypherpunks began in the 1980s to counter government surveillance and censorship. Satoshi Nakamoto is also considered a cypherpunk because of Bitcoin's uncensorable design.
📉 Walden argues that this is not the end of cypherpunk, but "the end of the beginning." Crypto is becoming more commercial, which leads to inevitable compromises.
🎶 Like mainstream music, crypto needs a balance between discipline and mass market to have the greatest impact.
💬 What do you think about the commercialization of crypto? Share your thoughts below! 👇