Aevo founder states that he has wasted 8 years in the crypto industry, believing that crypto has degenerated into the biggest speculative system in history. Nic Carter, founder of Castle Island Ventures, proposes five main purposes of cryptocurrencies and advocates that maintaining a pragmatic optimism is the correct approach. This article is based on Carter’s written piece, compiled, translated, and authored by PANews.
(Previous summary: Deep Reflection - I Wasted 8 Years in the Cryptocurrency Industry)
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Table of Contents

• The Five Main Purposes of Cryptocurrency
  • 1. Restoring Sound Money
  • 2. Embedding Business Logic into Smart Contracts
  • 3. Making Digital Assets “Real”
  • 4. Making Capital Markets More Efficient
  • 5. Expanding Financial Accessibility Globally
• Pragmatic Optimism

No one can serve two masters: he will hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money (Note: The personification of wealth in religious legend).

Matthew

Ken Chang recently published an article titled “I Wasted 8 Years in Cryptocurrency,” lamenting that this industry seems inherently prone to capital loss and financial nihilism.

People in the crypto circle love to mock these “angry exit” articles, nostalgically recalling how figures like Mike Hearn and Jeff Garzik boldly exited years ago, then proudly pointing out how Bitcoin has multiplied in value since their departure.

But most of Ken’s points are valid. He states:

Cryptocurrency claims to decentralize the financial system. I initially believed this wholeheartedly, but the reality is it’s just a super speculative and gambling system, essentially a mirror of the current economy. The truth hit me like a damn truck: I wasn’t building a new financial system; I built a casino. A casino that refuses to admit it’s a casino, yet it’s the largest, all-day online, multiplayer gambling hall created by our generation.

Ken points out that VCs have burned billions of dollars supporting countless new L1s, though we clearly don’t need that many. This is indeed true, though he slightly distorts the incentive model (Venture capital is merely a channel for capital).

He also criticizes the proliferation of perpetual contracts, spot DEXs, prediction markets, and meme coin platforms. While you can defend these abstractly (except for meme coin platforms, which are entirely indefensible), it’s undeniable that their proliferation is driven by market incentives and VC funding.

Ken admits he entered the crypto space with idealism. Most are familiar with his libertarian tendencies. But he did not follow through on libertarian principles—instead, he built a casino. Specifically, he is best known for participating in the development of Ribbon Finance, a protocol allowing users to deposit assets into vaults and earn yields through systematic selling of options.

I don’t want to be overly harsh, but the facts speak for themselves. If it were me, I’d also undergo deep reflection. As the conflict between principles and practice became unbearable, Ken ultimately pessimistically realized: cryptocurrencies are a casino, not a revolution.

What moved me most while reading Ken’s article was that it reminded me of Mike Hearn’s famous exit declaration nearly ten years ago. Hearn wrote:

Why did Bitcoin fail? Because the community failed. It was supposed to be a new decentralized currency, without “systemically important institutions” or “too big to fail” entities, but it turned into something worse: a system controlled by a small minority.

Worse still, the network is on the brink of a technological meltdown. The mechanisms that should prevent this have failed, so there’s little reason to believe Bitcoin can be better than the existing financial system.

Details differ, but the argument is the same. Bitcoin / cryptocurrency was supposed to be something (decentralization, crypto-punk ethos) but turned into something else (a casino, centralization). Both Hearn and Chang believe: ultimately, it’s no better than current financial systems.

Their conclusion boils down to one sentence: cryptocurrencies were meaningful at first, but later turned into something else. This leads us into a debate about the “teleology” of cryptocurrencies—what is their true purpose?

The Five Main Purposes of Cryptocurrency

Personally, I see about five camps, which are not entirely mutually exclusive. For example, I personally align most with the first and fifth, but also sympathize with the others. However, I am not loyal to any one camp, not even the most hardcore Bitcoin faction.

1. Restoring Sound Money

This was the common dream of most early Bitcoin supporters, though not everyone agreed. The idea is that over time, Bitcoin will pose a competitive threat to many national currencies’ privileges, possibly replacing them and returning to a gold-standard-like system.

This group generally believes that everything else happening in crypto is a distraction or scam, borrowed to some extent from Bitcoin’s momentum. Bitcoin has made limited progress at the sovereign level, but achieving a meaningful monetary asset within just 15 years is already impressive. Supporters of this view often oscillate between disillusionment and hope, looking forward to Bitcoin’s full adoption.

2. Embedding Business Logic into Smart Contracts

This is the most advocated perspective among Vitalik Buterin and Ethereum supporters: since money can be digitized, various transactions and contracts can also be written into code, making the world more efficient and fair.

Initially, Bitcoin advocates saw this as heresy. But in narrow domains, it has indeed succeeded—especially for contracts easily expressed mathematically, such as derivatives.

3. Making Digital Assets “Real”

I believe this is the best summary of the “Web3” or “Read Write Own” philosophy: digital assets should be as real as physical assets. This idea itself is valuable, but its implementations (NFTs, Web3 social) are either misguided or too ahead of their time.

Despite billions invested, few now defend this stance. Still, I find the concept appealing. Today, most internet problems stem from not truly owning one’s online space or being able to control interactions and content visibility. I believe someday we’ll regain control over our digital assets, likely through blockchain. But the timing for this realization is not yet ripe.

4. Making Capital Markets More Efficient

This is the least ideological of the five. Few are truly interested in securities settlement, COBOL, SWIFT, or bank wire transfer windows. But these underpin a large part of crypto’s value. The core idea is that Western financial systems are built on outdated technology, and due to path dependence, these systems are very difficult to upgrade (you can’t just rebuild the core infrastructure handling trillions of dollars daily). Such upgrades must come from outside the system, adopting entirely new architectures. The value here mainly lies in efficiency gains and consumer surplus, so it’s not particularly exciting.

5. Expanding Financial Accessibility Globally

Finally, there are those with compassion who see crypto as an inclusive technology, enabling people in underdeveloped countries to access low-cost financial infrastructure: self-custody of assets or stablecoins, tokenized stocks or money market funds, crypto wallets or exchange accounts with cards—being treated as equals on the financial network. This is a very real phenomenon and provides continuing motivation for many idealists whose enthusiasm is waning.

Pragmatic Optimism

So, who is right? The idealists, the cynics, or some unknown third answer?

I could elaborate at length, explaining how bubbles are always accompanied by major technological changes, how bubbles have historically promoted useful infrastructure, and why cryptocurrencies are especially rife with speculation—because they are fundamentally a financial technology. But that’s mostly self-comforting.

The real answer is: maintaining pragmatic optimism is the correct attitude. Whenever you feel extremely pessimistic about the “crypto casino,” hold tightly to this mindset. Speculation, fanaticism, and plunder are inevitable, unpleasant externalities in building useful infrastructure.

They do bring very real negative effects, which I do not want to downplay. The normalization of meme coins, reckless gambling, and financial nihilism among young people is disheartening and harmful to society. But these are unavoidable side effects of building permissionless capital markets. Without blockchain, these wouldn’t happen. You just need to accept that these are negative consequences of how blockchain works. You don’t have to participate.

To sum up: cryptocurrencies have goals, and holding an optimistic but realistic attitude is perfectly fine. There is a force motivating thousands to dedicate their careers to this industry.

However, the purpose might not be as exciting as you imagine.

The world is unlikely to be “super-bitcoined.” NFTs have not fundamentally changed digital ownership. Capital markets are moving on-chain but slowly. Apart from the dollar, not much else has been tokenized. No authoritarian regime has been overthrown by ordinary people wielding crypto wallets. Most applications with true product-market fit are limited to Bitcoin, stablecoins, decentralized exchanges, and prediction markets. And most of the value created may be captured by big corporations or returned to consumers through efficiency gains and cost savings.

The real challenge is to maintain a down-to-earth, realistic optimism, rather than indulge in blind fantasies. If you believe in a Randian libertarian utopia, the gap between expectation and reality will eventually crush you. As for casino-style mechanisms, unlimited coin issuance, and reckless speculation, they should be seen as unpleasant flaws of the industry, difficult to eliminate. If you think the costs of bringing blockchain into the world outweigh its benefits, you have every right to be disappointed. But I believe the situation is actually better than ever before. We have more evidence than ever that we are on the right path. Just remember to stay true to your original intentions.

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