Dear Bankless Nation,
Millennials and Gen Z are more pessimistic about the future than ever. They’re burdened with student debt, soaring housing prices, and stagnating wages.
And more recently…crippling inflation.
People are dying for a reason to be optimistic. We want to be hopeful about the future.
But we’re not finding it in our establishment institutions.
Last week, Elizabeth Warren called DeFi “one of the shadiest parts of the crypto world”.
“It’s where the scammers, and the cheats, and the swindlers mix among first-time investors and crypto traders…in DeFi someone can’t even tell if they’re dealing with a terrorist”
Watch the video clip here.
Not banks. Not Wall Street. Not our 7% inflation.
It’s DeFi that’s the problem.
Rather than seeing DeFi as an open financial system that can democratize economic opportunity and property rights for the world, Elizabeth is choosing to see it as a shady den of scammers and swindlers—maybe worse…a place for terrorists.
Pessimism.
Pessimism is why she’s wrong. Pessimism is why she defaults to incumbents. Pessimism is why she calls DeFi users shady without even talking to us. (We’d love to have you on the show Senator!)
Pessimism has infested our politics and our psyche.
But pessimism is a loser’s game.
In the long arc of history, pessimism always loses to optimism.
Optimists take the risks. Optimists are the innovators, the dreamers, the builders, the settlers. Pessimists burn down the institutions, optimists build new ones.
Optimists create the future.
Optimism is crypto’s greatest export.
I believe crypto is a vast frontier of open possibility.
I believe Web3 is the best shot we have to scale human coordination and fix our broken institutions. I believe it can use it to usher humanity into a second renaissance of innovation, culture, and potential.
Sure…the incumbents are pessimistic.
But everyone I know in crypto is optimistic.
And we’re going to export that optimism to the masses.
We’re bullish.
And that’s why we’ll win.
Here’s what’s lined up for next week:
- Podcast on the Bull Case for Ethereum III w/ Anthony, DC Investor & Cyrus
- Lucas is going to teach you how to launch a DAO
- We’re making our 2022 predictions (review last year’s!)
Have a great weekend.
- RSA