Why crypto is so annoying

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.

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 lik... 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.

Matt Huang, a prominent investor, spoke for many crypto fans when he said on Twitter: “Crypto may look like a speculative casino from the outside. But that distracts many from the deeper truth: the casino is a trojan horse with a new financial system hidden inside.”

There's no doubt that this situation has been influenced by our recent past, with the seemingly endless stream of calamity and political strife. It's also influenced by how we see the future - and many people think the future is generally bad. I guess the crypto enthusiasts are just trying to maximize their bottom line or take refuge in ideologies ... See more

Crypto is a subculture. A self-contained universe, and a relatively small one.

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.