A while ago, an article went viral in the industry called "I Wasted 8 Years in Crypto". The author, the founder of Aevo, said he initially entered the crypto with idealism, wanting to build a new financial system, only to find himself building a casino. He felt empty and that he had wasted his entire twenties. After reading this article, I had mixed feelings. Because I myself have been with Crypto for exactly 8 years. But my feelings are completely the opposite. Let me start with something I find a bit subtle: the author himself admits in the article that he's made a lot of money from this industry. Is that a waste? I don't know. But if it is a waste, I think many people would be willing to "waste" like that. I think his problem is that he equates "whether one contributes to society" with "whether one wastes time". This is a very philosophical question, and I can't answer it for him. But I can share my own feelings. Crypto has taught me so much over the past 8 years. Do you remember when we had to explain what POW and POS were? Back then, we could talk for an hour just about the word "mining." Now? These things have become basic common sense, and nobody feels the need to learn them. Do you remember having to explain to people what ERC-20 is back in the day? Why are there so many chains, so many standards, and so many wallets? Now everyone just opens Phantom and starts using it; nobody asks these questions anymore. Do you remember how complicated it was to "switch to the mainnet" back then? Nowadays, people probably don't even need to do that themselves. This is what I find most interesting about Crypto. Every cycle in this industry brings forth a plethora of new approaches. Things like funding rates, grid trading, and perpetual contracts—each concept has an incredibly steep learning curve when it first emerges. But because people in this industry are desperate to understand these things in order to solve their own pain points, they persevere. Then something amazing happened: the "knowledge" of this cycle became "common sense" in the next cycle. I think this industry is like an accelerator. It forces you to keep learning and adapting. What you learn today may be outdated tomorrow. But the process itself makes you a more capable learner. Some say Crypto is a casino. Okay, let's say it is a casino. But how many people has this casino taught about smart contracts? How many people has it taught about decentralization? How many people has it taught about managing their private keys and taking responsibility for their assets? How many years will it take for the average person in traditional finance to understand the concept of "self-custody"? In Crypto, you have to learn it on day one, because if you don't, your money will be gone. This is a harsh but effective form of education. I won't say that Crypto changed the world, because that's too lofty a statement for me to make. But I can say that Crypto changed me. It transformed me from a liberal arts student majoring in economics into someone who can write programs using AI. It taught me about risk management and staying calm in extreme market conditions. It showed me how exchanges collapse, how assets go to zero, and how I can still get back up and keep going. These are things that would take a lifetime to learn in a traditional industry. In Crypto, you might experience them all in three years. So when someone says he wasted 8 years at Crypto, I can only say that maybe his expectations were different from mine. He expected to build a new financial system, but instead found himself building a casino, so he was disappointed. I don't have such grand expectations. I'm just an ordinary person who wants to survive in this industry, learn something, and make some money. From that perspective, Crypto has given me far more than I've given in return. The me of 8 years ago is a completely different person from the me of now. I don't feel like I wasted these 8 years. I feel like I got a great deal.

Yesterday I met up with a friend offline, and he drove me home. On the way back, we talked, and I said that I feel a little hopeless about the crypto now. The industry has become a big casino. Back in the DeFi summer, everyone thought they were going to change the world, but now that idea is gone. However, it must be acknowledged that the crypto has given too many ordinary people a chance to change their fate; no other industry has given ordinary people so many opportunities. We talked about ICOs, which ordinary people can participate in; we talked about public chain market trends; we talked about forked coins; we talked about BRC20; we talked about memes; and then we didn't talk much anymore. Why.

Check out the price of aevo 🤣

It's truly heartbreaking.

LFG