# Make Crypto Punk Again

###### tags: `daocember`

gm

I have been baited...hope you have my bail fund in a multisig

"He's more punk than me." [Punk Guy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZPrFVPrbO4)

He'll puke on you
He'll fuck your mom
He'll smoke while huffing gas

Is it okay for me to be drinking whiskey in the morning?

The economic and sociopolitical climate is fucked. Crypto has been a disaster in 2022. SBF can no longer dump on our bags. But now we gotta watch the media blow smoke up his ass.

Whatever. I ain't got no job, and I ain't got shit to do...

### So...WTF is Punk?

According to Wikipedia

> [Punk ideologies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punk_ideologies) are a group of varied social and political beliefs associated with the punk subculture and punk rock. It is primarily concerned with concepts such as mutual aid, against selling out, egalitarianism, humanitarianism, anti-authoritarianism, anti-consumerism, anti-corporatism, anti-war, decolonization, anti-conservatism, anti-globalization, anti-gentrification, anti-racism, anti-sexism, gender equality, racial equality, health rights, civil rights, animal rights, disability rights, free-thought and non-conformity. One of its main tenets is a rejection of mainstream, corporate mass culture and its values. It continues to evolve its ideology as the movement spreads throughout North America from its origins in England and New York and embraces a range of anti-racist and anti-sexist belief systems. Punk does not necessarily lend itself to any particular political ideology as it is primarily anti-establishment and though leftist punk is more common due to the prevalence of liberal and conservative ideologies in the status-quo.

That is a lot of fucking antis, isms and ideas but the point is that it is idealogicial.

Vitalik's thoughts around

- building an agnostic shared world computer
- [Credible Neutrality As A Guiding Principle](https://nakamoto.com/credible-neutrality/)
- and experiments with [Retroactive Public Goods Funding](https://medium.com/ethereum-optimism/retroactive-public-goods-funding-33c9b7d00f0c)

are beautiful and sound really good in theory.

We do need armchair anarchists but these ideas are a blessing and a curse. They do not plant a flag. They are not a call to arms.

I probably should not quote the Secretary of the Treasury who proposed the whiskey tax, but Alexander Hamilton said,

> "If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything."

I hate to burst everyone's happy solar bubbles but we are going to war.

Disrupting the status quo to promote equality and financial freedom is not easy. Entrenched authorities and governments will not relinquish power over monetary systems without casualities. Plutocrats will rage against the dying of the light. Social change requires direct action.

The cypherpunks understood this. They knew technology could be used against us in central planning and surveillance. But they also figurured out that math could be a weapon against tyranny with decentralization and privacy.

[The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto](https://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/classes/6.805/articles/crypto/cypherpunks/may-crypto-manifesto.html) ends with,

> "Arise, you have nothing to lose but your barbed wire fences!"

It spoke of a social and economic revolution that alters the nature of government regulation.

Cypherpunks talked about shattering legal and social norms. They believed only innovation could save us from the The Ministry of Truth. They published code on printed paper and told their friends,

> "If I disappear, make sure this gets out."

Cypherpunks faced the same complaints that cyptography is only good for child pornographers, terrorists and money launderers. But they tattooed the code on their bodies and proved that encryption is protected by the first amendment.

Privacy was one of the most important themes of the cypherpunk movement. Cypherpunk forsaw the collapse of sociatal institutions. They envisioned the spread of democracy, fiancial freedom and shared resources.

Cypherpunks right code. We are technology activists. We do not complain, argue and lobby. We take action. We build the technology to change the world through actions not words.

Lowering transaction costs evens the playing field. Technology is a tool for new economic concepts and legal structures and we can use these systems to transform society from within.

That is punk as fuck.

I am an old fuck. I read Gibson and Stephenson as a teenager. I used to lurk on The Well and hacked our high school network. I listened to Public Enemy and rocked Africa medallions at a time and place when that was not socially acceptable. I remember the feeling of a Radio Shack tone dialer saving me 25 cents at a pay phone. I remember the feeling of anticipation while hearing a 2400 baud modem connecting to the local libary network. I remember disabling images on the web so the pages did not take hours to load. I remember the visions of the future these technologies would enable.

And I know the dispair I feel whilst watching humans stare and their phones while techno pimps stack billions. I know they pain I feel struggling to pay bills while scam artists live lives of luxury.

> "Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology."

We can build a better World. We can iterate the Internet.

We have the capabilities for coordination to undermine monopolies and erode the governments ability to impinge on our freedoms.

Let's be less corrupt. Let's be better than our predecessors. Let's be resistant to capture and coersion.

Web3 provided a new hope. It felt like the early days of the world wide web. But dreams turn to disillusionment. Now I kinda feel like Raphie when he finally received his Orphan Annie Secret Society decoder pin, “[Be Sure To Drink Your Ovaltine](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdA__2tKoIU).”

Crypto is turning into a crummy commercial.

How might we reamain pure and resist the urge to sell out?

How might we build communities coming together to do cool shit and support each other?

Let's stop trying to emulate traditional corporations with decentralized power strutures. That shit ain't gonna work. Hell most fucking hippies can't even run a god damn vegetable market that way.

There are reasons hierarchies are in place. They are battle tested in both war and in business.

But I am not saying that is the way. Bureaucracies must die. Intermediaries must be made obsolete.

From Vietnam to Cuba guerillas have proven that by organizing in small units and taking advantage of terrain irregulars can defeat standing armies.

The Zapatistas in Chiapas have proven with bottom up participatory politics that communities can oppose economic globalization and succeed in spite of the state.

These are the cultures we need to model. Not Fortune 500 companies or Silicon Valley startups. Token voting and Discord servers on slow mode are not the success we should aspire to.

Small units of highly aligned individuals can accomplish great things and can support each other. We should trust in code and in each other. Seal teams succeed because of training and trust. They go into difficult situations knowing they can count on each other.

Things are pretty when number go up but ugly whilst wrestling with bears. Too many people are going for self at the expense of others.

Solidarity is missing from Web3.

How might we express a feeling of unity and support among individuals or groups who have a common interest or goal?

How might we work together to support one another and to fight for justice and equality and make a positive change in society?

This is my hot take but fuck scale. Scale is an idea from manufacturing and vc funding to maximize profit. So far in crypto scale has enabled OGs to pump their bags and expand the ponzi.

- Don't optimize for scalability
- Solve problems for the community
- This is not for the mainstream
- They will find us when ready
- And they will exploit us so we have to be prepared
- It happened with Punk Rock
- And we see it now with Hip Hop

Scale dilutes the essense and it pollutes the culture. It minimizes the struggle required to make art.

Society will eventually shift their viewpoints. They will look to us for help once we figure out a better way. But let's be honest I would not wish this tech on my enemies right now.

We do not have to pander to the mainstream. Do we need to improve our user experiences? Please fucking God. But let's do it for the right reasons.

We are DAOing it wrong. Let's figure out decentralized autonomous teams before forming organizations. Let's form bands before orchestras.

Let's disseminate our ideas with zines. Let's go on tour and play small shows that nobody gives a fuck about. Let's build stong communities that support those who are putting in the work.

This is counter-culture.

Promise and peril lay ahead. The vibes must be radicalized. This is a Renaissance. Let's Make Crypto Punk Again

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