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Crypto’s Biggest Use Case? It’s Culture

Global travel, remote jobs, a vibrant conference circuit, after parties with house DJs, flexibility, possibility, and camaraderie. It’s got all the features of the dream job, if such a thing even exists. 

But crypto is the last place people look, and unless you’re in the industry and immersed in the scene, you don’t know how special it is. It’s what keeps it feeling like a subculture, a microcosm of the world we want to build for the future. 

Crypto gets a bad rap, when catastrophes like FTX are forever etched in the public’s association with digital assets. Bad actors go to jail, as did FTX’s fraudster-founder, Sam Bankman-Fried. But not one single banker went to prison after the 2008 financial crisis. They continued to make hundreds of billions on predatory practices, and for the most part, continued as “business as usual.” 

To most people, crypto is, at best, funny money and, at worst, extremely dangerous. The institutions – whether the central banks, the alphabet soup government agencies or mainstream media – have a loud and powerful voice in shaping the public narrative about crypto. Confirmation bias (and the algorithm) kicks in and crypto quickly becomes something that’s easier to push aside. 

They don’t know what they don’t know. I wanted to capture the crypto sentiment with everyday people, especially women, who usually have a lower tolerance to risk. 

I asked a few friends and family members – all of whom are smart, educated worldly women. I wanted to know what they think of crypto, how they’d describe it, if they like it or dismiss it, and why. 

Carianne Hixson: Carianne got into crypto three years ago and became interested in different coins with lower market caps after watching Shiba Inu skyrocket. “I find crypto to be more interesting and modern, compared to stocks, and I see it as the future.” Carianne said she can’t justify keeping money in the bank as fiat is degrading, so she uses crypto as an alternative way to save. “We’re moving to a digital world. Why wouldn’t money be doing the same?” 

Carrie Dennis: “My perspective on crypto will make me seem like a dunce,” said Dennis, a freelance writer and editor who previously worked at Thrillist. “I basically don't think about crypto. I have about $500 split between Ethereum and Bitcoin in Coinbase that I look at once a year and shrug at.” 

Nina Pilsbury: Nina spent her career in the financial sector and worked at the Bank of New York Mellon before she retired. “We were experimenting with Bitcoin and blockchain at the bank before I left. I personally like the concept – to use the Internet to exchange assets. It’s an agreement between two parties to trade. The concern has always been security. I see practical uses, but I’m not 100 percent sure it can totally eliminate federal clearinghouses and banks.”

Cassandra Furfari: Cassandra is more old-fashioned and doesn’t like to spend a lot of time online. She’s a hairdresser and is more tangibly inclined. It’s hard for her to understand what crypto is or see herself investing in it. “I just don’t get it. It’s just not me. I’ve never even had a credit card before.”

Focus on the fun, more than finance 

The common thread between all the responses was that they think about crypto only through a financial lens. Beyond the memes, verbiage, bro culture and hype, there’s a unique underlying culture and community that doesn’t exist in TradFi. Showcasing the culture and the caliber of people in crypto is the missing piece and what’s needed to appeal to the masses.  

We’ve seen hints of it, with events like FWBFest. We need more thoughtfully curated spaces for people to come together with forays into crypto that are fun and non-threatening. As women, we tend to self-select ourselves out of crypto, thinking these are places we don’t belong. 

We need to tell more stories of lives changed because of crypto, like Aslan Ruby, a traditional artist who moved to a remote region of the Northern Territory outback and lost access to her art supplies, so pivoted to NFT art to make a living which snowballed her career. 

We need to be able to see ourselves in crypto communities, at events, in job roles and as investors. Crypto is like nothing that’s come before, and the opportunity of a lifetime, beyond its financial potential. — Amanda Smith, Decential Media

Quote of the week from Decential Media

“Worldcoin is focused on financial use cases whereas RariMe is about social use cases. Part of the reason they are financial and we are social is because when you scan your iris, the only thing it allows you to prove about yourself is your humanity. With a passport, you can prove your humanity, citizenship, age and gender, without revealing your identity.”

— Kitty Horlick, from RariMe, the Worldcoin Alternative Where You Scan Your Passport, Not Eyeballs

Have you read the definitive history of Ethereum? No? Well then get your copy of Out of the Ether while you can.