In the current industry where "questioning Ponzi" is regarded as naive and "understanding Ponzi and becoming Ponzi" has become the mainstream idea, this new work by Teacher Loki is like a beam of light shining into "Plato's Cave", reminding us that we are in the cave. The crypto industry in the depths needs to collectively turn around and face the real world to solve real problems.
The relationship between entropy and Ponzi disk
No matter how prosperous Ponzi is, I don't believe Ponzi will be the crypto Endgame. No matter how exquisitely designed the Ponzi disk is, it is essentially a physical dissipation system that requires constant input of energy or matter from the outside to maintain its structure and function.
Looking at the Ponzi disk from the perspective of a physical dissipative system:
- “Low entropy” energy = money from new investors
- The “ordered structure” of the system = the pyramid layering of investors
- “High entropy” waste = loss of money and loss of trust
- Reduced energy quality = more and more new capital is required to maintain the same rate of return
- Limited external resources = pool of potential investors is limited
- Entropy accumulation = overall decline in trust in the market
- Rising structural maintenance costs = increasingly expensive to attract new investors
Just like any dissipative system will eventually collapse because it cannot obtain enough "low-entropy" energy, the Ponzi scam will inevitably collapse when the new funds dry up. This is not an accident, but an inevitable result of the law of entropy increase.
Dynamic zone supplement: The Second Law of Thermodynamics is one of the basic laws of thermodynamics, which describes the increasing trend of the entropy (i.e., the degree of disorder or the degree of chaos of the system) of a closed system over time. Specifically, this law states:
- Natural tendency of entropy : In an isolated system, entropy always tends to increase. That is, the degree of disorder in a system increases over time. This phenomenon shows that natural processes tend to cause systems to become more chaotic.
- Irreversibility : The law of entropy increase also reflects the irreversibility of natural processes. For example, heat always transfers from a hot object to a cold object, not the other way around. This process is irreversible and cannot return to its original state on its own.
- Thermodynamic equilibrium : When a closed system reaches thermodynamic equilibrium, entropy reaches its maximum value. At this point, the state of the system no longer changes, and all possible energy conversions and material changes have been completed.
In short, the law of entropy increase illustrates the directionality of irreversible processes in nature and the gradual increase of system entropy, emphasizing the irreversibility of natural processes and the gradual chaos of the system.
Thoughts on the Crypto Industry
The encryption industry has reached today's level, which is inseparable from the early Bitcoin OG sermons and the subsequent efforts of top VCs such as A16Z and Pentera to continuously create new narratives and construct new primitives. From the perspective of market theory, they are building a market on the one hand, attracting new investor funds on the other, and then exiting during the bull market cycle. However, this "business model" has been involved to this day and may have reached the upper limit of this dissipative system.
As an example, the penetration rate of cryptocurrency in the US market has exceeded 20%.
The way to break the situation lies in the clichéd construction of projects that continuously innovate, improve efficiency, and create actual value. This is because continuous innovation, efficiency improvement and value creation can keep the system in a state "far from equilibrium". In this state, the system may produce new and unexpected structures and functions, further enhancing its sustainability.
Therefore, the encryption industry urgently needs its own "ChatGPT" to appear at any time. The recently popular PayFi, Consumer Chain, AI Agent with Crypto Wallet, Chain Abstraction and other new tracks are all new solutions born under such environmental pressure.
Of course, when evaluating the value of these projects, we need to reflect on the popular inherent thinking of technological determinism, background determinism, Infra worship, etc., and return to products and growth.
