[Lyric] Layer Zero - The People (Mason Marcobello)

In his 1999 satirical novel Survivor, Chuck Palahniuk wrote, “There are only patterns, patterns on top of patterns, patterns that affect other patterns. Patterns hidden by patterns. Patterns within patterns. If you watch close, history does nothing but repeat itself. What we call chaos is just patterns we haven’t recognized. What we call random is just patterns we can’t decipher. What we can’t understand we call nonsense. What we can’t read, we call gibberish. Thеre is no free will. There arе no variables.”

While these words may not be as prolific or abundantly referenced as his “Eight Rules of Fight Club”, a similar train of thought when analyzing our evolutionary and social discourse as human beings, leads one to realize that alongside Palahnuik’s awareness of patterns, there are also layers upon layers of protocols. Or, in simpler terms, layers and layers of beliefs, concepts, and agreed on paradigms that have found tangible form in the way of laws, companies, institutions, and more importantly, the ever-emerging technologies like NFTs, DeFi, etc.

But what’s often undervalued when analyzing the patterns of markets and associated protocols that coalesce to make our patchwork of global societies into what they are today — is the base layer of people. From a first-principles standpoint, this realization may not be surprising. Because when we deconstruct what gives life or purpose to Bitcoin or Ethereum — ultimately, it always and invariably returns to the people and their ensuing relationships.

Anthony Pompliano exampled this notion in a recent podcast with Zuby. During the interview, he stated that a critical factor to his initial success as an investor was his understanding that a company’s tech and plans will, more often than not, change or evolve according to market sentiments. And having this recognition, Pomp’s strategy was to pick the best founders and predicate the strength of his investments in the people themselves.

While various strategies and tools, like on-chain analytics or studying micro/macroeconomics, will always be relevant — if the recent popularization of digital rocks selling for millions of dollars has revealed anything, it’s that some things, no matter how experienced the analyst or researcher, cannot be predicted. And with this in mind, perhaps there’s no better time to learn from Pomp and pay attention to the people’s personalities, stories, and beliefs in this industry instead.

Similar to how we deconstruct tokens/projects into their fundamental components, like technical architecture, history, value accrual etc., we can also factor in some comparable/contrasting traits between people that better reflect the ethos of decentralization and what it means to be a proponent of crypto.

While this thought piece will not go deep into behavioral economics or provide any type of psychoanalysis, I have highlighted what I believe to be important facets and questions that may also help you understand the nature your fellow ape, gutter cat, pudgy penguin, or anything and anyone else in the zoo.

Heart, humility, and intention:

Despite constant narratives around price and “hodling”, the reasons and motivations behind what you’re building and why you’re in this space matter. It matters because in the landscape of tech built to support transparency, the essence of your online presence will be reflected and evidenced at some point or another.

We have witnessed a myriad of disparate examples of intent (and heart) in this industry. More prevalent of which would be the pompous self-aggrandizing and indulgent PR strategies of inherently wealthy entrepreneurs (that shall remain nameless) vs the selfless multi-billion dollar SHIB donation of Vitalik. And I reference this because despite the two demographics of accomplished/successful figures — when analyzing their underlying actions and behaviours, we can view from the receptivity of the global community that one type of character (Vitalik) is more truly reflective of the culture than the other.

Examples of differences in intent have also been examined through the communities surrounding centralized vs decentralized exchanges. In retrospect, you could almost argue that one was created to profit, capitalize, and leverage various tokens’ emerging trends or popularity. While the other has functioned to simply provide an impartial and equal service for traders and investors — bringing more sovereignty to the individual and allowing people to remain custodians of their assets.
Although there is no shortage of pseudo-anonymous actors in crypto, similar to how one can get a feel for an artist’s personality in their paintings, or a writer through their words and stories, the intent of the programmers and developers will ultimately and always be reflected in the systems and code they create. In essence, while it may seem to be filled with rug pulls and nefarious players, there are no shortcuts for true wealth accrual in crypto. And although there are no palantirs to help us understand people’s intent or inner character, one method would be to audit their circle and observe the dynamic of communities they’re in, who they engage with, and their actions. Time is the ultimate tester and threshold to which people in this space will inevitably rise or fade away with the snows of yesteryear.

Perspective and mental models:

Auditing one’s thinking and perspectives, and more importantly, understanding how people think about problems, could reveal more about their future and associated projects. There’s nothing more demoralizing or heartbreaking than seeing compelling tech destroyed or ruined by bad management and poor, limited mentalities.

As much of a blessing as it is a curse, this industry filled with intelligent people, and more often than not, intelligent people who consider themselves intelligent but don’t like to be proven otherwise. Similarly, there are a myriad of entrepreneurs or founders who have achieved a certain amount of success or notoriety and ultimately become worshipped or adored by their followers without much questioning against the fact that their actions or decisions could be moving in the wrong direction.

Investors also fall victim to confirmation bias and emotional volatility, and end up unwilling to explore alternative arguments, or why certain protocols may not be the ultimate perfect models for the next iteration of money.

With all this in mind, ultimately, what’s important to uphold and cultivate in crypto is a willingness to openly admit that you don’t know everything, don’t have all the answers, and nobody can truly predict where things will go. Cultivating the Zen mindset of “Shoshin”, a beginners mind — might ultimately prove more valuable than predicting price movements on Twitter. It refers to having an attitude of openness, eagerness, and lack of preconceptions when studying a subject, even when learning at an advanced level, just as a beginner would. The phrase is also discussed in the book Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind by Shunryu Suzuki, a Zen teacher. Suzuki outlines the framework behind shoshin, noting “in the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, there are few in the expert’s mind.”

In his book, Super Thinking, the founder of DuckDuckGo, Gabriel Weinberg, outlines many mental models that could provide valuable references where observing yourself and others. Examples he includes are;

• Eisenhower Decision Matrix to help you prioritize if a to-do list ever overwhelmed you that’s grown too long.

• The 5 Why’s model for understanding people’s motivations better or getting to the root cause of a problem.

Hanlon’s Razor allows people to seek an alternative explanation before concluding that your colleague who messes up your projects is out to sabotage you.

Other models include Sunk Cost Fallacy or setting up Forcing Functions, like standing meetings or deadlines, to help grease the wheels for changes you want to occur.

Action accounts for more than tweets or words:

Despite the considerable gap in education surrounding the value of cryptocurrencies and decentralization, Elon’s tweets, or the media propagating volatility or other negative connotations, what always resonates and stays with people are direct, experiential efforts and actions that have benefited their lives. When a person, project, or community can achieve this, one could argue it doesn’t matter how the technology works; the gesture and example of it used for social benefit are evidence enough. We recognize this example through the actions of founders like Sandeep Nailwal, setting up the Crypto COVID Relief Fund, and Ray Youssef through his Built with Bitcoin initiative and schools in Africa.
Specific to the CRF, considering the cryptocurrency community donated over $2.2 million to help India battle a resurgence in COVID-19 cases that gripped the South Asian country over the past month, it could be argued that whatever the Indian government does it terms of regulation, the campaign is a wholesome and opportune reminder to the world pointing out the significance of cryptocurrencies for the very reasons they were created. And Polygon has demonstrated, through the actions of its executives, the inherent understanding of those reasons. Layers of reciprocity will undoubtedly develop through media exposure, adoption, and, greatest of all, gratitude in the hearts and minds of people across India.

In closing, what’s analogous and perhaps cannot be more appropriate to reference when it comes to crypto’s decentralized obfuscated rabbit holes is an understanding that we as people are what shapes the grand narrative and structure. Evidenced by people like Dmitry Buterin during the recent interview with Bankless, the individual (you) can also define the narrative or story of how crypto is formed and continues to grow. It is you that can create moments that shine with indelible grace. You can decide to compose your syntax with the heart, find value in what’s often overlooked, and give selflessly to the world. You can show what we as humans are endlessly capable of, and leverage the power of these new tools to be an everlasting example of what crypto can inspire and do.