Three Types of People in the Encryption World: Developers, Believers, and Scammers

To the outside world, cryptocurrency seems like just a small corner of the internet filled with scams. However, for those who delve into it, the crypto world is a new continent full of opportunities, a digital realm built on open-source software that has the potential to break the monopoly of traditional finance and tech giants.

So, why do most people think that cryptocurrencies are full of scams? If that is the case, why are there still a constant stream of people coming to explore? What piques their curiosity? Or is it that cryptocurrencies are really just a huge scam?

This article will introduce a "Circle of Trust in the Encryption Industry" model, explaining why outsiders generally view this industry as a scam. This model can help new entrants in the encryption field better understand the industry, recognize different types of participants, and know how to identify and avoid risks.

encryption concentric circle model

This model simplifies the encryption industry into four concentric circles:

Core developers are at the center, surrounded by the general public, while in between are encryption believers and scammers.

Core Developers

Let us start with the most core circle. Core developers are the builders and thinkers of this industry, constructing it from the most fundamental encryption principles. They have a deep understanding of the current world's problems and how cryptography and blockchain technology can address these issues and fundamentally impact the future. They are aware of the philosophical, technical, and ethical benefits that this technology can bring to the world.

This is the true meaning of what we call "encryption currency value."

In this circle, you will find the anonymous founder of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto. He incubated the Bitcoin blockchain and then gradually faded away because he knew that Bitcoin would be better without a leader.

You will also see Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethereum. He is a hermit of the digital age, with profound knowledge in fields such as encryption, philosophy, mathematics, and cryptoeconomics. Vitalik is dedicated to building public goods and social systems that can promote global welfare. Despite his considerable wealth, he is known for his frugal lifestyle, often staying in hotels with just a backpack, as he does not wish to consume resources beyond what is necessary.

He is an encryption hermit of the digital age.

The work of core developers is often thankless and arduous. Building open-source software typically does not receive the attention it deserves, and the rewards are far from commensurate with the value they create for the world.

Bitcoin core developers are working diligently every day to improve Bitcoin. Ethereum core developers meet publicly every week to discuss their next steps and how to better serve societal needs with the infrastructure they are building.

The reason these people are involved is that they believe in this cause, they see a better future, and they need to participate personally to make it a reality.

Core developers are the purists at the center of the encryption world, and their leadership has created the allure of the encryption world, tirelessly working for the future of the encryption world.

We come because of them... They come for us.

Encryption Believers

The next layer is encryption believers.

These are the most loyal followers of the encryption world. They share the same vision for the future as the core developers and continue to cultivate on the foundation built by the core developers.

This circle includes not only ordinary users but also application developers, decentralized organization members (DAO), and various companies, all of whom are building interconnected products and service layers based on these new protocols.

Ethereum is a foundational protocol upon which we all develop. Some applications such as Uniswap, Aave, or Maker are built on the smart contract application layer of Ethereum. Some DAO organizations like BanklessDAO, PleasrDAO, and Constitution DAO also operate using Ethereum. There are also some companies formed around Ethereum, such as venture capital funds, news agencies, or media companies.

This circle is made up of settlers, not tourists.

They are citizens of the encryption world, building infrastructure on this new continent, testing products in the experimental phase, gradually freeing themselves from reliance on traditional banks by managing their funds and assets on the encryption track, and establishing new digital identities for themselves. These settlers live in an open and free metaverse, constructing with open-source software and the spirit of open source.

These people, like Rune Christensen, recognized the demand for a decentralized dollar and founded MakerDAO before the concept of DAO emerged. Today, billions of DAI are in circulation, helping people escape from poorly managed government currencies.

For example, Hayden Adams, after learning programming, independently developed Uniswap—a public and free asset exchange system—with a grant of $10,000 from the Ethereum Foundation.

There are people like Cami Russo, who lives in Argentina and has personally experienced how the hyperinflation of the peso has created a demand for encryption products. As a native encryption stablecoin, DAI has been widely adopted in Argentina, becoming a tool for Argentinians to combat an inflation rate of 50-100%. Cami studied journalism and founded the media publication The Defiant after becoming fascinated with cryptocurrency.

Anthony Sassano is one of my favorite encryption advocates. He creates a video every day to introduce what has happened in the Ethereum ecosystem over the past 24 hours to the world.

These individuals are responsible for communicating the industry's progress to the outside world. Core developers and application builders often struggle with self-marketing because their focus is on building the future. The encryption industry relies on the surrounding community to carry out this work.

The reason this community exists is simply that we all came here for the same reason: to believe that the existence of encryption currency is to build a better and freer world... This is a necessary step for humanity towards the future.

This encryption world is something that many in the public cannot see or understand.

The reason for this is that one important reason is that encryption scammers have built a barrier between the cryptocurrency world and the outside world.

Encryption Scammers

Between the encryption believers and the outside world, there exists an obstacle... an asteroid belt made up of encryption scammers, which makes it difficult for the outside world to hear the true voice of the pioneers in the encryption industry.

Scammers often package themselves and create a grand image. They adopt a polarization strategy and style that has proven to be very effective in the political arena. Cryptocurrency scammers are not stupid—they know that the cryptocurrency frontier holds enormous wealth, and they are here purely to extract that wealth.

Encryption scammers are the reason for the poor reputation of cryptocurrency. They are louder and more exaggerated than ordinary encryption practitioners. They promote themselves rather than the technology. They usually do not care about the technology being built, only about how much money they can make from it... regardless of how unsustainable or unethical it may be. They deliberately create malicious products with the aim of deceiving naive newcomers who have just entered the field.

They created paid Telegram channels, claiming to share "insider information", but in reality, they just want to take your money. If you fall into their trap, they will create complex DeFi projects that actually just transfer money from your pocket to theirs.

Most scammers appear during a bull market and replicate the popular things of the moment. They created fake ICO projects in 2017 or quickly outsourced NFT projects in 2021. Scammers keenly look for every profitable opportunity and then swarm in.

They have some common characteristics:

• Arrogant personality, boastful, sometimes aggressive.
• A small but highly active and fervent community has formed around it, exhibiting characteristics of personality cults. They constantly repeat meaningless slogans, reciting carefully prepared lines, and then promoting their tokens to people. They suppress dissent, representing a typical combination of real people and bots that we often encounter in the modern world of social media.
• A product or system that is fundamentally unsustainable...... even if it looks good at the moment. A superficially shiny new encryption product is actually meaningless...... and will inevitably collapse in the end.

Although we cannot directly stop scammers, we do not have to coexist with them.

We fight them with education. As an industry, we really need to engage the public better before the scammers do. This is undoubtedly more challenging compared to large-scale marketing that employs exaggerated strategies. Encryption is complex, and understanding how this industry operates is much more difficult than simply trusting some charismatic individuals pitching their tokens.

The good news is that most people now have a basic intuition to stay away from junk information and viruses on the internet. Ultimately, the field of encryption currency will be no exception.