Eight years or a lifetime — the crisis of faith in the crypto industry

Since entering the crypto industry, have you also felt that accumulating fatigue? A long article over the weekend flooded the entire community—Aevo co-founder Ken Chan’s headline “I Wasted Eight Years of My Youth in the Crypto Industry” struck a chord with many. But this is not a story of one person, rather a collective dilemma that industry practitioners have come to realize.

What Are We Really Doing?

Imagine your daily life: staying up late for airdrops, watching trading pairs for new tokens, chasing trends, telling stories and trading, researching new protocols late into the night, volunteering for community governance… From the initial romantic idealism about decentralization, to on-chain governance experiments, to now the rapid circulation of meme coins, contracts, and gambling-style topics—you can’t help but ask yourself: are we participating in a technological revolution, or just working for a never-satisfied casino?

This doubt does not stem from a loss of faith, but from the harsh reality of the industry itself: the narrative lifecycle is often shorter than the product itself; hype always outweighs fundamentals; speculation outpaces innovation; hero worship and collective skepticism coexist; and many projects’ endgame is not failure but disappearance.

Ken Chan’s confusion has been validated by many. These doubts are not baseless—they are well-founded. When we say “believe in cryptocurrency,” what exactly are we believing in?

Believing in project teams? No. Believing in KOLs? Of course not. Believing in every new narrative? Even less likely. Until one day, many suddenly realize—the only thing they truly believe in might be: the significance of cryptocurrency to the world.

Echoes of Reflection

After Ken Chan’s article was published, Nic Carter, co-founder of Castle Island Ventures, quickly responded with an article—“I Don’t Regret Spending Eight Years in the Crypto Industry.” He presented five key perspectives: building a more robust monetary system, encoding business logic with smart contracts, realizing digital property rights, improving capital market efficiency, and expanding global financial inclusion.

The collision of these two voices fundamentally asks the same question: What is the true meaning of the crypto revolution?

Returning to the Starting Point

Whenever the industry falls into chaos, we should return to the beginning of the Bitcoin white paper: “A peer-to-peer electronic cash system.”

In 2008, the global financial crisis erupted. Banks closed, Lehman Brothers collapsed. Financiers and politicians shifted all risks onto ordinary people. Bitcoin was not created to get rich but to answer a fundamental question: “Can we build a monetary system that does not rely on any central authority?”

For the first time in human history, people had money that did not require trust in anyone. This is the only financial system in the world that is truly not owned by any country, company, or individual.

You can criticize ETH, criticize Solana, criticize all Layer 2s and DEXs, but few criticize Bitcoin—because its goal has never changed. Any Web2 company can shut down your account tomorrow, but no one can stop you from transferring Bitcoin tomorrow. No matter how many oppose, doubt, or attack it, no one can change it.

As the ancients said: water does not compete with objects, yet benefits all things. And this is the reason for Bitcoin’s existence—with global inflation becoming the norm, sovereign debt soaring, a long-term low-risk interest rate environment leading to asset shortages, financial repression, and lack of privacy… these issues make the crypto industry’s vision not outdated, but increasingly necessary.

Nic Carter put it well: “I haven’t seen a technology that can upgrade the infrastructure of capital markets more than crypto.”

This Is Not an Illusory Industry

Ken says he wasted eight years. But did we really waste our youth?

In countries with hyperinflation like Argentina, Turkey, Venezuela, Bitcoin and stablecoins have become the practical “shadow financial system”; hundreds of millions without bank accounts have gained access to global digital assets; for the first time in human history, individuals can directly control assets without relying on any authority structure; international payments no longer need bank intermediaries; billions of people are accessing the same financial system for the first time; financial infrastructure is beginning to break down borders; a form of asset that is not based on violence or power has gained global recognition…

In high-inflation countries, a stable, non-depreciating currency is like Noah’s Ark. In Argentina, stablecoins account for 61.8% of crypto trading volume. For freelancers, digital nomads, and high-net-worth individuals abroad, USDT is their digital dollar. Instead of hiding cash under the mattress or risking black market dealings, it’s easier to click a mouse and convert pesos into USDT—elegant and safe. Whether it’s street vendors’ cash transactions or elite USDT transfers, at its core it’s about distrust in national credit and self-defense of private property.

In countries with high taxes, low welfare, and ongoing devaluation, every “gray market” transaction is a form of resistance against systemic exploitation. Over the past century, Buenos Aires has changed governments multiple times, the peso has been replaced countless times, but people have found ways through underground trading and gray wisdom.

Look at the broader phenomena: the top 20 global funds all have Web3 divisions; traditional financial institutions continue to enter (BlackRock, Fidelity, CME); national digital currency systems all reference Bitcoin; US spot digital asset ETFs keep hitting new highs; in just 15 years, Bitcoin has ranked among the top ten global financial assets…

Despite bubbles, speculation, chaos, and scams, some things have indeed happened. These changes have partly transformed the world, and we are in an industry that is continuously reshaping the global financial structure.

Do We Really Have Nothing?

Some still question: “If in 15 years all chains disappear, all projects die, and all protocols are replaced by more advanced infrastructure, did we just waste our youth?”

Looking at the history of other industries makes it clear: In 2000, the internet bubble burst, and NASDAQ fell 78%; in 1995, Amazon was just a “book-selling website”; in 1998, people preferred Yahoo over Google; in 2006, social networks were mocked as “rebellion among teenagers.”

The first phase of the internet was full of: thousands of startups dying, innovations disappearing, countless investments going nowhere, millions feeling they wasted their youth. Early BBS, portals, dial-up internet, paid email—all but vanished; 90% of first-generation mobile internet products are gone.

But they were not “wasted”—they became the soil for the mobile era. The infrastructure they created—browsers, TCP/IP, early servers, compilers—became the foundation for Facebook, Google, Apple, mobile internet, cloud computing, and AI. The history of social networks is a cycle of continuous destruction; today’s TikTok is born from the ashes of hundreds of dead social networks.

Each generation is replaced by the next, but no generation is meaningless. No industry can be perfectly linear, clear, correct, and with certain answers. All foundational tech industries have gone through chaos, bubbles, trial and error, and misunderstandings—until they changed the world. The crypto industry is no exception.

Technological revolutions are never completed in a single generation. Everything we do—whether Ethereum is replaced by other chains, L2 is rewritten with new architectures, or all current DEXs disappear—is not wasted. What we contribute is the foundational soil, trial-and-error parameters, social experiments, path dependence, and the experiences and samples that future generations will absorb—not the final endpoint itself.

Most importantly, you are not alone. Millions of developers, researchers, fund managers, node operators, builders, and traders worldwide are pushing this era forward. We walk with you.

— A message to those who still stand firm on this path.