Lore (legend) is a community's shared story, symbolism and collective memory that binds its members together. It cannot be bought, and for Lore to survive for a long time, the community must be deeply involved and drive its evolution.
The most influential Lores are an open invitation to the community to participate in shaping its mission and destiny. Those who silently cultivate these Lores behind the scenes are the Lore builders.
Their motivations vary: some do it “just for fun,” while others are driven by a strong inner mission. Regardless of the reason, all Lore builders have one thing in common - what they build is not just for themselves, but for something bigger than themselves.
At the same time, there are those who are the exact opposite of Lore Builders: Lorebreakers, who are driven by ego and see Lore as a resource to drain energy from rather than a cause worth contributing to. On the surface, they may look similar to Lore Builders and even behave in similar ways, but over time their true motivations will become apparent. Lore destroyers do not see themselves as part of the story, but as the center of the entire story - once personal interests require it, they will betray the Lore without hesitation.
Since the concept of "lore construction" is still new, we must remain vigilant and clearly draw the line between lore builders and lore destroyers. It is to establish this boundary of distinction that this article was written. When this line is crossed, it becomes easier to identify who is constructing and who is consuming.
Of all the characteristics of these two opposing forces, the most important thing to remember is that successful lore builders are the guardians of cultural memory, shaping a lasting common identity; while lore destroyers are like parasites attached to it, seeing only the desires in front of them, constantly draining the vitality of the lore until it is exhausted.
What is Lore Builder
Lore builders are people who listen to, practice, and extend mythological narratives with their communities. As I mentioned in my last post, lore builders are “able to identify emerging ideas, understand their historical context, tap into collective sentiment, and weave it all into a coherent and engaging narrative.” They are the seers of Lore. Good lore builders don't impose direction; they listen, guard, and remain sensitive and responsive to the natural evolution of the lore.
It’s worth emphasizing that Lore Builders are often not the loudest or most visible person in the room. They speak and act with clear intentions, and many times they are the ones working quietly behind the scenes - when no one else is paying attention, they are the ones keeping the fire burning. Although their specific words and actions are different, they all have one common core characteristic: they are rooted in the values they believe in and uphold.
Lore Builders are naturally highly perceptive and intuitive. They understand the historical context of the Lore they construct and know what kind of past forces give it real meaning and power. They are able to sense the emotions and atmosphere of the people around them, determine the next direction, and understand what actions can truly resonate with the community.
Lore builders have an instinctive sense of myth, able to identify profound moments and actions - whether macro or micro - and amplify and disseminate them in a timely manner. Ultimately, the perception of Lore builders comes from a vision of the future. They see Lore as a living story that continues to evolve and slowly unfolds over time.
Lore Builders are essentially selfless and have a very high sense of integrity. They put aside their egos and serve the community and Lore itself as humble guardians, rather than allowing Lore to become a tool for self-service. They understand that Lore is a collective creation, shaped by many people, and always evolving within a larger narrative and mood. They understand that actions speak louder than words; it doesn’t matter if they are well-known or not, they let their contributions speak for themselves.
Lore builders take the initiative. They take action without being told by others and feel a sense of responsibility for moving the Lore forward. This “initiative” can take various forms: symbolic (such as creating memes, shaping iconic symbols), narrative (writing content, “canonizing” specific events, creating characters), ideological (publicly taking a stand, establishing values), or ritualistic (holding events, forming habits, repeating certain actions).
Good lore builders know exactly when to step up and when to wait. Being proactive does not mean forcing the development of Lore, but standing up at the right time. Every proactive attack will increase the "density" of Lore and expand the kit.
Lore builders also have patience and tenacity. They understand that it takes time for Lore to form and take root. It must be deeply rooted in people's hearts and settle in collective memory. All truly powerful lores are formed over time through shared experiences - laughter, struggle, and victory. There is no quick fix to building a Lore, and it is not an overnight process. It must be built brick by brick, bit by bit, and accumulated through concrete actions.
As long as time is long enough, a spiritual fortress capable of withstanding all kinds of external shocks will eventually take shape.
Ultimately, no matter what they do or how they act, Lore Builders always see themselves as part of the Lore - like a note in a symphony or a stitch in a mythological tapestry, insignificant in isolation but essential to the overall shape.
Satoshi Nakamoto: A model of Lore builder
Satoshi Nakamoto is not only the founder of Bitcoin, he also set a standard for all subsequent Lore builders. No matter how amazing Bitcoin is technically, it would not have survived to this day without a lore that attracted strong believers.
Satoshi Nakamoto was well aware of the historical background that gave birth to Bitcoin. He understands the significance of the 90s “cypherpunk movement” — the ideological basis of Bitcoin. The movement sowed the seeds of "freedom through code," emphasizing encryption technology as a tool for achieving individual and collective sovereignty. In that era, projects such as b-money and Bit Gold laid the theoretical foundation for the concept of digital currency, but it was not until the "double spend problem" was solved that digital currency became truly feasible at the computational and economic levels.
Satoshi Nakamoto combined these advances in cryptography and distributed systems while staying true to the spirit of cypherpunk, ultimately creating a trustless, self-operating digital value transfer protocol. The final link he needed was a suitable catalyst.
Then, the 2008 financial crisis hit. Governments chose to rescue financial giants, but abandoned ordinary people and printed money through quantitative easing policies. These moves have led to widespread disillusionment and a distortion of incentives – with profits privatized and losses borne by society as a whole. The systemic failure of the financial system and the collapse of public trust in mainstream institutions created an ideal historical window for Satoshi Nakamoto to release the Bitcoin white paper on Halloween 2008.
Satoshi Nakamoto’s vision was clear: to create a peer-to-peer, decentralized alternative to state-controlled currencies. No longer relying on banks, governments or intermediaries, it relies solely on transactions between people, with cryptographic trust mechanisms to protect everything. There is no central server and no individual who can be held accountable. There is only an open source network that transcends national boundaries and anyone can participate.
This participation is not limited to the technical work of running a full node or contributing code, but also includes active participation in the community and social aspects of Bitcoin. For example, the Bitcoin forum "Bitcoin Talk" is Satoshi Nakamoto's base - he not only shares his thoughts and logic on it, but also guides and cultivates a community that will jointly establish cultural norms and improve the core concepts of Bitcoin.
In this forum, the philosophical ideas advocated by Satoshi Nakamoto and the community's response to these ideas are as important as the code he wrote.
For example, the total amount of Bitcoin is hard-limited to 21 million. This mechanism is deeply embedded in the cultural awareness of "scarcity", fundamentally protecting the community from the inflationary tyranny brought about by the excessive issuance of fiat currency - this excessive printing behavior has never gained the public's real consent. In addition, principles such as "decentralization", "sovereignty awareness", "permissionless", "neutrality", "anti-fragility" and "pragmatism" were also established in the early culture of Bitcoin and laid the foundation for its future development.
Satoshi Nakamoto held himself to the highest standards and became a role model for others to emulate. He remained anonymous and never sought personal attention. The oft-quoted slogan “We are all Bitcoin” is no accident — it’s exactly what Satoshi Nakamoto intended: to allow everyone to participate in the development of Bitcoin, because Bitcoin was destined from the beginning to transcend any one individual. The moment he handed Bitcoin over to the community, a new generation of Lore builders was born, who will continue to drive Bitcoin into the future.
The one million unspent bitcoins in Satoshi Nakamoto's wallet are his most powerful declaration. Although those bitcoins are now worth billions of dollars, to him their value is irrelevant — they are subverted when measured in a fiat currency system for which he is trying to create an “escape hatch.” If these bitcoins were ever sold off, it would be a complete departure from everything Satoshi Nakamoto stood for, and would destroy the spiritual foundation of Bitcoin — and turn him from a Lore builder into a Lore destroyer.
Since Satoshi Nakamoto disappeared into the history of Bitcoin and society, he has become a mythical figure to millions around the world, who look to his actions for guidance, and ultimately, a role model for all subsequent Lore builders.
Lore spoilers and their consequences
Lore Saboteurs are those who extract and distort the Lore for their own personal gain, manipulating the communities they are a part of to achieve this goal.
They are false prophets who cast themselves as saviors, presenting themselves in an almost mythical way, only to fall from glory in a biblical fall. Time and again, those in the digital currency space have demonstrated that they are susceptible to the temptations of Lore spoilers.
Humans have a natural tendency to look for a savior; everyone is looking for someone worth following, and this tendency is often exploited. If we are to continue to grow and evolve as an industry, we must be vigilant in identifying lore saboteurs and courageously exposing them.
Lore breakers are often ego-driven and put themselves first. They are motivated by personal glory and care most about how others perceive them. Their way of thinking is "mine" rather than "ours", and their language is often self-referential. For example, they say, “Look at me, I’m a visionary,” rather than “Look at what we are building together.”
Lore saboteurs are short-term opportunists and toxic mercenaries by nature. They only participate in the story when it works in their favor, and are quick to betray it as soon as a better opportunity presents itself. Lore destroyers have no strong beliefs or positions and will say anything to please the crowd. Rather than building a mythology, they are exploiting it, tampering with the lore and ultimately serving their own personal interests.
Lore destroyers seem sanitized and unreal. Their language is robotic, coming off as empty and superficial rather than offering anything of substance. They over-optimize for metrics and drama, and lose sight of substance and listening naturally to where the lore is going.
Ultimately, lore destroyers seek to extract profit from the myth as quickly as possible, ultimately bringing the community into ruin and chaos. The Lore Builders continue to promote the evolution of myths over a long period of time, allowing those patient community members to rise together and move forward hand in hand.
SBF: Ultimate Lore Destroyer
One of the most notorious lore vandals in recent memory is none other than Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF for short). From a lore building perspective, he did a lot of things right in building the lore for himself and FTX/Alameda.
He comes from a distinguished background, MIT and Jane Street, and initially got into crypto by doing Bitcoin arbitrage in Asia. He portrays himself as a slovenly genius founder who sleeps on bean bags and lives a simple life, but it's all a carefully designed performance.
SBF’s philosophical framework of “effective altruism,” which emphasizes doing the most good by any means, puts him and his actions on the moral high ground. Those who follow him and the lore he built tend to see a lot of copy-pasted content and iconic events he was involved in, whether it was him "saving" Sushiswap from the control of Chef Nomi or him declaring that "he was willing to buy all SOL at $3", these are just a few examples.
SBF solidified that recognition, raising hundreds of millions for FTX from venture capital firms like SoftBank, Sequoia Capital, Paradigm, Temasek, Blackstone, and others, and establishing itself as a legitimate voice in the power structure. He met with regulators, testified before Congress, and positioned himself as the “acceptable face” of cryptocurrency. Crypto Twitter was obsessed with the myth, with accounts like Autism Capital embellishing his image and efforts for years.
However, the signs of Lore's destruction were already evident. First, between his business and political endeavors, SBF has rebuilt the system that Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies were supposed to disrupt and replaced it with a cult of personality centered around him. Ironically, he developed close ties with the very institutions Satoshi was trying to break away from, but many chose to ignore this, either because they were attracted to him or because it was in their interest to do so. SBF has been highly opaque in its dealings and structure with Alameda and FTX, which are essentially the same entity.
From arenas in Miami to plastering their faces on billboards in San Francisco, claiming they are “in crypto to do global good,” SBF emulates legitimacy while undermining the mythical foundations of cryptocurrency. He cloaks himself in the language of altruism, decentralization, and ethics as a cover to further his personal and political goals.
As a Lore disruptor, SBF sees cryptocurrency as an industry to profit from rather than a space worth building. He used this myth to enhance the power of himself and his cronies, and when his empire collapsed in November 2022 and FTX filed for bankruptcy, many were left abandoned and devastated.
SBF has been convicted of multiple crimes and is currently serving a 25-year federal prison sentence and has been ordered to forfeit over $11 billion in assets for misappropriating FTX customers’ deposits to support Alameda, purchase real estate, make political donations, and more. We're lucky he got caught; if SBF had gone further, he could have been a Trojan Horse that completely dismantled everything this industry was built on.
in conclusion
A community lives or dies by its cultural heritage, and the fate of that heritage lies in the hands of the “culture builders” who take responsibility for its development. Culture building has always existed, it’s just that we are only now beginning to define it and differentiate between culture builders and culture destroyers. Culture is the lifeline of a community. While culture builders are the wise men who give it vitality, culture destroyers are vampires who suck its essence.
Culture is never neutral and is always being shaped and changed by the community. Without excellent cultural builders to defend this culture, it is easy to be exploited. The future of any project is driven not by code or funding, but by the people who give it its mythology and shape its culture.
Today, founders are romanticized, just like athletes. But we no longer need more founders raising huge sums of money, nor do we need more venture capital to fund them. What we need are more guardians, weavers, keepers of myths, and humble shepherds who play a role in keeping the cultural heritage alive and defending it from outside forces. You don’t need to appear in the most dazzling way to do this, and I don’t recommend that.
To be a culture builder, you just have to care and step into your role at the right time.
