Sup! 👋
Today's article will be very short. I’ve been super busy at work, and we have an adventurous past 3 weeks behind us.
People were laid off, half of my team is gone, and the overall mood is at an all-time low.
Not only within the company, but also in the market. In case you didn’t know, I work for a fintech company, and it’s not pretty out there.
So I thought the best thing to do, because I need to process it somewhat, is to write about it.
PS: If you enjoy this newsletter and believe your friends or family would too, a recommendation would be greatly appreciated!
I can still remember the first time I used Bitcoin.
It was to pay for a flight to London. Actually, I paid a friend of a friend, but still got a ticket.
There was nothing magical about it. I turned Swiss Francs into Bitcoin and sent them to my travel buddy.
Fast forward a couple of years, and I did another transaction. This time, to help a friend out in South Africa.
This was the “magic moment” where I realized what Bitcoin could be.
Ever since, I have been in and out, and about 9 years ago, I went down the rabbit hole of disinflationary money, hard caps, countless debates on X, and eventually into my current role at the fintech.
In the past, the crypto market, and Bitcoin in particular, used to be a hype-and-bust cycle.
2017 was the ICO bubble, 2021 was the NFT madness, and 2024 was the moment Bitcoin landed on Wall Street with the spot Bitcoin ETFs.
Every hype phase had its own story, and when things turned nasty, the fundamentals of having decentralized assets remained.
There was always a backup for the entire ecosystem, with a sizable retail group that would consistently buy. No matter what.
However, this time around, things are different!
Back in 20222, if you were part of the community, we would discuss topics like human rights, how to support local communities in rural Africa, and why Bitcoin, in particular, is so much more than a speculative asset.
But since Wall Street has gotten on board, these discussions have vanished, and we only talk about which company has engineered another derivative to issue shares for Bitcoin.
The soul and vision of the entire ecosystem are completely gone.
And it’s something we’re noticing at work, too! Our user base has shifted from a retail-first focus to a mix of business and HNWI (High Net Worth Individuals).
Don’t get me wrong. Educating them about crypto and how to hold it in a portfolio is fun, but it feels like you’re almost becoming part of the “establishment” that used to be a giant critic of how crypto works.
Many in the community are arguing that this is part of an ecosystem growing up.
Crypto is also money for enemies. This is a quote you often read in the community, and of course, they are right.
One of the reasons why the monetary system is so fucked is because of elitary pricks (pardon my French) who control the way business gets done.
But to me, it feels more like the industry has lost its identity and is trying to fit into the Wall Street way of life.
Which is not something I thought I would be part of back in the days, but here we are.
I guess it’s one of these “is anyone still here?” moments and the new normal we have to deal with.
Not really something I enjoy, but then, that’s part of work or your hobbies you care about. It can’t always be sunshine and rainbows.
If anyone out there is still interested in the human interest side of Bitcoin and the industry as a whole, let me know!
I want to connect with you and rediscover the part of the community that actually doesn't care about the BTC price, but about the number of lives it helps.
Besides the crypto midlife crisis, a lot was happening in the tech world in general.
Here are the Tabs Worth Opening:
The “Project Hail Mary” Book: I know, you may have seen the movie with Ryan Gosling. If not, I recommend it. It’s funny, and you will end up rooting for a rock. Not gonna spoil more. But the book is amazing as well. I recently picked it up and read it in a day.
Anthropic extends Fable 5’s lifetime: The Fable saga continues. This time around, Anthropic released it again after the dispute with the U.S. Government earlier in June. Now they extended the time you can use the token-burning monster.
XAI launches Grok 4.5, but do people even care?: I never got the hype surrounding Grok. It’s there on X, has fewer filters than other models, but when I tried it in day-to-day situations, I wasn’t amazed. Now, after SpaceX’s IPO, the company behind it has announced a new model. It seems people don’t care.
A Siri AI vs. ChatGPT vs. Claude review: Nikias did a great job in reviewing all the mainstream AI chatbots. I don’t know about you, but to me it seems like Siri AI could finally be somewhat useful! Have a watch, it’s a great review with some funny tests.
OpenAI and ChatGPT are going after businesses: OpenAI has some catching up to do. Anthropic is beating them at the “who releases more stuff faster” game. This week, they announced a dedicated business suite. Sweet, even more AI slop emails or LinkedIn requests...
And that’s a wrap for issue number fifteen of Internet Native Capital.
It was definitely more of a “getting stuff off my chest” issue. I hope you didn’t mind.
For anyone out there who wants to talk about the human interest side of Bitcoin or crypto, hit me up!
Until next time.
See ya!
Joël, count me in, the human interest side is exactly why any of this mattered before the ETFs turned up! What’s the first sign that would tell you the community’s finding its way back?