People who were once Bitcoin maxis have been gradually converting themselves into the shitcoiners they claim to hate. What's the psychology behind this phenomenon, and what can you do personally to remain open-minded to other decentralized blockchains?
Fred Krueger, a Bitcoin advocate and prior maximalist, has recently opened himself up to a crypto project Thorchain, a cross-chain decentralized exchange that allows its users to permissionlessly trade one crypto asset for another over completely separate blockchains. He's particularly interested in how the protocol allows its users to borrow and lend Bitcoin.
This is a common theme among people who once considered themselves Bitcoin only, but eventually open their minds up to the other possibilities of decentralized blockchains.
For example, one of the best use cases for Ethereum have been stablecoins, tokens that represent US dollars on a blockchain. Even some of the most toxic Bitcoin maxis have opened up to things like Tether, an ERC20 token stablecoin that wouldn't have been possible without the invention of Ethereum.
The problem is human nature and our tendency to generalize, instead of considering all of the nuances. Yes, there are a tonne of scams and failed projects when it comes to "altcoins". FTX and Terra/Luna come to mind.
When people hear about these catastrophic crypto failures and they tend to lump all altcoins into the "scam" category, when the reality of the situation is that it takes a lot of time, effort, and an open mind to separate the solid projects from the scams.
Consider too, how the meteoric rise of Bitcon's price has emotionally impacted those who got in early on Bitcoin. They are now fabulously rich, at least in fiat terms, and this is likely clouding their judgement. We still don't know which cryptocurrencies will be the most valuable five, ten, or twenty years from now.
If you want to learn more about the psychology behind No-coiners, Bitcoin Maxis and Shitcoiners, you can check out this article about the subject.
The trend is your friend here, and you can benefit from stubborn maximalist behavior by purchasing good projects (like Thorchain) early, before the maximalists finally open up and diversify into them. Also, you can essentially front-run the institutions, before their capital floods into these alternative projects.
Staying Open-Minded
Erik Voorhees was interviewed many years ago and presented his argument for avoiding maximalism. His advice was to just purchase a small amount of a token, and watch how your attitude changes towards it. I couldn't agree with him more on this.
Considering the tribal nature of each project, cryptocurrecies end up being like religions. Ask yourself, what would be the probability of converting all 8 billion people on the planet to a single creed? Minuscule.
Expecting everyone in the world to use only Bitcoin is unrealistic. More likely, a number of religions will form around a diverse range of cryptocurrencies, and gain different levels of adoption in different parts of the world.
If you learned something from this article, be sure to check out my other posts about crypto and finance here on the HIVE blockchain. You can also follow me on InLeo for more frequent updates.
I'm one of those people who was around in the early days of Bitcoin, and got my first tokens from the free faucet where they gave away 5 BTC for the asking. I "got" crypto as soon as I heard about it, and tried to tell everybody in my local area to get into crypto as I felt this was the start of something big.
Not long after, an elderly relative threw away my old computer (when my new one was delivered), containing 25 Bitcoin (along with my seedphrase which was on an index card taped to the bottom of my moniter).
But that was back when BTC was worth around a dollar, but today that would be worth over 1.5 million dollars. My problem back then was that while I had the vision to recognize the utility of the blockchain and the future of crypto, I simply had no money with wich to invest.
I also got into Steemit early, lurking for a year from spring/early summer 2016, before joining in July 2017. But again, with very little money with which to buy in, or I'd be a Hive whale right now.
But today, I still tell people to get into crypto, but this area is full of Luddites who like everything just the way it is.