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The guy wearing a suit would then tell me his boring ideas of mainstream mass-adoption and getting big banks onboard. This happened all the time, and the business guys even attempted a hostile takeover of Bitcoin.
Mass adoption is a meme that means "build a bad product to pump my bags". It's the same mindset of trashy US startups where the aim is to grab money, stuff your org with HR and marketing and "fake it till you make it" mindset.
Now today we see people calling for a return to the core principles at the heart of cryptocurrency's journey in 2010.
What can we learn from the history of Linux?
The movement started in the early 90s, but had its roots much earlier. Richard Stallman saw the influx of VCs into the PC industry in the 80s, and the culture completely changed.
People stopped caring about computer freedom. So he proposed a big mission: lets create a new operating system. People called him crazy and a crank, but he didn't listen to them. Stallman invented the Linux operating system.
As the movement start gaining traction, soon the money people came back again. We need mass adoption they said.
They also said this: "talking about freedom is scary for big business. We need to tone that down and focus just on the benefits for business."
This was the origin of opensource. It was created to push Stallman out of the movement he created, and attract big business.
We saw the same thing happen in crypto. Corrupt people who benefit from money printing said "if only we can wrestle this Bitcoin thing out of the hands of the anarchists, then we can get mainstream adoption by big banks".
Opensource pumped big time on the stock market during the 90s, but then cooled off and eventually the markets got bored and moved on.
The Linux movement stalled, and the big meme in the Linux community became mass adoption. Notice the similarity here with crypto? Big money coming in but nothing new happening. Then people get bored and the movement dies, failing to achieve its objective.
Linux became a poor man's alternative to Windows and Mac. It tried to play catch up always copying its competitor, and being one step behind.
Worst yet, we missed the rise of mobile and Linux was left behind scrambling.
But that's changing in the Linux community. And I'm sensing crypto is also about to undergo this character arc.
The Linux renaissance was first sparked by outrage over systemd, but now people are getting back to the heart of Linux.
Linux is not Windows or Mac. Linux is Linux.
With Linux you can make infrastructure. Linux runs communities and gives you economic and social power. You are in charge. Everyone is a main character- you are developer and user.
By contrast, Windows and Mac are for cucks. You are enslaved. If you are locked out or experience injustice, you can only send the big tech corporation an angry email. You have no power. They make the decisions, and you live with them.
Worst yet, they don't care about people rallying to fix their situation. They spy on you and sell your data to corporations and governments. You are the product.
Linux is power. Cypherpunks use Linux.
Imagine an authoritarian regime comes to power and puts your friends in jail. They are oppressing you.
Are you going to use Google Docs and your Mac to overthrow the regime? Nope!
You will want anonymous freedom tech but it will be too late since you did not develop your skills. Think of it like prepping for the apocalypse, but rather than stockpiling tins of food, you're acquiring hard skills which your community will need when SHTF.
Understand anon, this is the true purpose and power of cryptocurrency too. Anonymous, uncensored and sovereign economic networks.
Cryptocurrency is power. You can send money from anywhere in the world to anywhere else fully anonymously using Monero and nobody can stop you. We can even form anonymous on-chain DAOs with DarkFi, mobilize to gather funds and act together as one powerful voice in the market. Nobody can stop this.
They might put any one of us in jail, or suicide us like what happened with Ross Ulbricht and John McAfee, but the ball is rolling and crypto is primed for a renaissance.
I remember telling everyone in 2000 the governments were spying on everyone. I downloaded OpenCV library and made an app in 10 mins to track my face on a webcam. Then I read how London has the highest number of CCTV cameras in the world. I put two and two together, and it made sense, right?
WRONG. People all called me a conspiracy theorist and gave me strange looks. I tried telling everybody, but nobody believed me.
Then the @Snowden
disclosures happened, and suddenly everybody was saying "the government's spying on you!"... well duh! Hackers had been saying this for years!
But now the Overton window has shifted. People have woken up to the elites in power and their lies. The politicians used black magic and manipulated people. But black magic has a cost that must be repaid in the future and now their lies are catching up with them. People no longer believe anything the media says. It's all lies.
We are searching for the path forwards together. Crypto is meant to be a boat carrying us through the storm.
Things are about to change. There is a deep desire burning beneath the surface.
> How can we bring back the cypherpunk spirit?
We need to research, educate, spread the message, run nodes and write code. Learn philosophy/history and hard skills. Make video, movies and write. Actually run nodes, use Linux and write code. Even if you won't be a coder, still learn to write code and participate actively as a user. We need to rally and organize as a community around agorist cypherpunk values.
We need to create orgs dedicated to change and train the next gen of leaders. We need to create strategy and take action. We need to write code and ship products. We need to fight everyday with all our energy for freedom.
Our aim: end the FED
Crypto is power. Cypherpunks use crypto.
