Crypto is yet another polarizing topic these days. Some people are trying to figure out what the hell is going on with it, while most everyone else seems to have already made up their mind, and they usually don’t like to have their decisions questioned.

Early adopters face foreign terminology, complex UIs, unexpected and exorbitant fees, security issues, slow transactions, confusing errors, scams and more. That makes for one hell of an onboarding, even if you're lucky enough to have a friend showing you the way.

As a consumer technology, cryptocurrencies are a hot mess. They’re extremely difficult to purchase, the networks are slow, the transaction fees are high, the community is full of trolls, hackers, and scammers, it’s far too easy to lose your funds or have them stolen, and even if you win the battle to secure your funds or use a custodial service... See more

But as much as crypto fans want to believe they’ve created something startling and revolutionary, in reality, the experience feels: unfamiliar (payments happen off-platform), overwhelming (you end up in a confusing maze of wallets - jumping from Coinbase to Metamask to Uniswap, often unclear what you own), and pyramid scheme-y.

the same properties of anonymity and censorship-resistance that make crypto useful to white supremacists might also make it attractive to, say, Afghan citizens fleeing the Taliban. So labeling the entire crypto movement an extremist group would be overkill. Regardless, it’s safe to say that crypto has become attractive to all kinds of people who... See more