Recently there's been a lot of talk about technologies and infrastructure of The Future. While I think it's wacky and silly to prophecize these things, I've been genuinely worried about some of the things people have been branding as not just the future, but the inevitable inescapable future- namely the blockchain. Oh god, the blockchain.
For quite a few years I've been completely ignorant of the word "blockchain" and its meaning. The first time I ever heard it was when the game Cooking Mama: Cookstar was removed from Nintendo's eShop and many stories were being passed around about it. The game had apparently marketed itself to be integrated into "The Blockchain" but then I really did not give enough of a shit to look that up. I was completely ignorant to everything crypto-related. As far as I knew, Bitcoins were just a fancier version of Robux you can use online. But around 2020, talk of this type of technology surged, and I helplessly was made aware of this thing and how exactly it's stupid bullshit.
I could really go on forever about everything bad about NFTs and Cryptocurrency but I don't want this blog to be a skyscraper of text. (If you really care about the specifics of crypto's fundamental failures, a channel called Folding Ideas made a cool youtube video about it.) Briefly though, it is a technology that aims to transform things that are normally freely accessible into items of monetary value that can be bought, invested in and sold. There is no actual function beyond that. Besides the ability for the investor class to turn everything into a speculative market they can pull money out of, there are zero practical applications. NFTs are wildly unpopular, most of them are owned by a small number of people. Usually with new technologies, it's the young people who first adopt and accept it, while the old people who criticize and resent it. But in this case, it's the total reverse. Almost all the people shilling crypto and NFTs are the older people in their middle ages, and it's the young people who are strongly opposed to it now. Usually that's a sign that a new tech isn't actually innovative or useful in any way to regular people. It would seem like this is a fad that would've died in 4 months, but something really concerning has been happening.
Due to the nature of ponzi schemes like the crypto field, there needs to be a steady supply of new suckers to buy into it. The more people dump their savings into this thing, the more valuable the early investors' shit is. The problem is that it's not very largely populated. They can't milk the current enthusiasts forever, so the only move is to lure the general public into this nightmare. Every single day I've been seeing at least one crypto-praising article placed on the "For You" trending tab on Twitter, along with numerous artificially boosted hashtags. On Youtube I've been constantly bombarded with ads from crypto trading apps, crypto compatible credit cards, and crypto-integrated online games. Various companies across all industries have announced NFT releases, and promises to integrate them in their own services. Most egregiously, the president of Square Enix released a horrible disgusting disheartening letter on New Year's, promising a new "play to earn" philosophy into their games. Every day this useless unpopular technology is being savagely and desperately shilled to everyone every single day. And I fucking hate it.
The reason for this psychotic relentless pushing is to try and force people to accept this thing. Perhaps if we see a trillion news articles advertizing it as the "like-it-or-not inescapable" future then people will accept it and participate in the scheme. Perhaps if Twitter officially supports NFTs as profile pictures, then maybe it is the way to go. "I mean, all these BIG, RELIABLE corporations are embracing this tech, why not us too?" And seeing all that shit makes me feel sick. Don't even get me started on the fucking Metaverse. But maybe there is a bit of hope in this nightmare.
Thankfully, NFTs and crypto have become really really hated. Creators who announce NFT projects and platforms that announce crypto integration are all blasted and disowned by people. A couple of the many issues have been universally acknowledged, like the horrifying level of emissions and energy consumption. The general shittiness of NFTs is a meme to most people. Generation Z has been particularly good at not falling for this type of stuff and seeing past fronts/facades (sometimes to a fault). Even in the worst-case-scenario where crypto succeeds in becoming standard, there will eventually be no more new suckers to feed into the scheme, and everything will collapse. The only people who will survive are the hedgefund baby early investors who jump ship when the bubble bursts. My prediction is more optimistic. If the people continue to be unrelenting in their hatred of the crypto sphere, it'll eventually be booed out of existence, and die out- that it's so unpopular, the investment would yield losses and a PR disaster, and crypto projects never see the light of day. Of course, that's not certain. Either way, it will not last.
Cryptocurrency, NFTs, the Metaverse... They're all doomed in their nature. Even if they force everyone to participate, it'll collapse. If they don't, it'll die from unpopularity. The early investors want to dupe everyone into blowing this bubble as much as it can handle, and when it all falls apart, they'll sell it all and get away free, while everyone else loses everything. But right now, they're desperate for that. That's why it's being shilled by all these companies. That's why it's trending every day on Twitter, and why it's advertized on Youtube constantly. Don't fall for it. No matter how much they scream for your acceptance and participation, look the other way, and let them die in obscurity.
Remember when Google Glass was the future of daily life? Remember when dubstep was the future of music? Remember when Blockchain Technology was the future of the internet? I don't.