Author: Ignas Translation: Shan Oppa, Golden Finance

The impact of cryptocurrencies on the world outside the crypto circle is surprising. If you do not actively contact cryptocurrencies, you can hardly intersect with them in your daily life.

The problem is that those "minimum contact" with cryptocurrencies are often negative. You watch "Squid Game" on Netflix, and a cryptocurrency celebrity who cheats fans makes a debut. He couldn't do without checking the cryptocurrency price for a minute, and kept asking for his phone back. Honestly, I can understand this.

Look at the news again, you will often see such (almost always negative) titles:

•North Korea steals $1.5 billion to commit the world's largest hacker robbery

•"Extremely ridiculous": Trump's Meme coin triggers anger in the crypto circle

•Man is accused of scam, and woman loses £154,000 due to a Bitcoin scam

•Crypto trader commits suicide on live broadcast

Scam, fraud, pulling and smashing the market... You can think of it, the reputation of cryptocurrencies is all affected. To be fair, even those of us who are deeply involved in the crypto circle know that this industry is full of chaos.

But we also know why we are here: subverting the outdated financial system while getting rich. Yes, getting rich quickly makes us often unpopular, but it is an undeniable fact. After all, anyone who invests wants to make money.

However, cryptocurrencies are one of the few industries that still make people gain wealth from scratch. In today's economic environment, it is almost impossible to slowly accumulate wealth by relying on ordinary wages. Generation Z knew this well, so he quietly withdrew from the traditional employment market.

It's a pity that they don't understand how cryptocurrencies can change their lives...

I think the crypto industry is promoting its mission, the necessity of cryptocurrencies, and "relying on top of the list"Making money secretly is not evil. Here is a highly praised comment from the Financial Times that accurately summarizes the views of crypto skeptics:

When Bitcoin crashes, protests break out on the streets because of the lack of regulation. "Investors" ask for money backs, and their lawyers quote lies spread by entities that profit from their participation. This is a pyramid pyramid scheme where participants can only be paid in fiat currency when others invest.

Bitcoin has no intrinsic value, and the computing power of checking the ledger is increasing the burden of world electricity production and carbon emissions. Bitcoin is used to launder the crime of crime.

Bitcoin has nothing to be desired.

If you swipe Reddit, you will know how dislike cryptocurrencies. But I really hope that mainstream media can create more positive images of cryptocurrencies.

To be fair, the Financial Times have always been skeptical about cryptocurrencies, but Bloomberg's coverage in recent years has improved and provided a lot of in-depth insights.

Interestingly, Bloomberg recently released a seemingly harmless article - "Meeting Seven Top Personal Financial Influencers in the United States", one of which is a cryptocurrency internet celebrity.

However, his main content is to hype Meme coins and promote his own Meme coins Telegram group in the article. Although I am glad that Bloomberg is willing to include cryptocurrency in the discussion, they didn't expect that they actually chose this person to represent the crypto industry!

Yes, everyone really hates cryptocurrencies

Yes, everyone really hates cryptocurrencies

Since this article is still a "research" blog, let's look at some research data on public sentiment in cryptocurrencies. Several surveys show that non-investors prefer to view cryptocurrencies as high-risk speculation rather than real financial instruments. In the UK, 64% of consumers who know cryptocurrencies believe that "investment in cryptocurrencies is basically gambling."

A survey by Pew in 2024 showed that 75% of Americans do not trust the reliability and security of cryptocurrencies due to scams and market volatility.

A global survey by Edelman in 2023 found that cryptocurrencies are at low trust among all respondents, even less trusted than banks it should have subverted.

Of course, the FTX crash is in 2023 The 2024 Meme currency craze has obviously not helped us.

Consensys releases high-quality industry research reports every year, and the 2024 report shows that the narrative of "cryptocurrency = future currency" is declining. At the same time, the popularity of negative labels such as "speculation, fraud and phishing, crime and money laundering" is already on par with "cryptocurrency is a substitute for traditional finance."

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The conclusion is clear: outside the crypto community, most people still do not believe that digital assets can become a safe financial tool.

While writing this article, I saw a tweet that accurately outlines the public's attitude toward cryptocurrency:

Why cryptocurrency culture is crucial

We may feel that public image is not important because ordinary people "do not understand it at all." They are afraid of being rescued from the workplace cage from 9 to 5 and being influenced by the negative publicity of cryptocurrencies by mainstream media.

But the truth is that public perception is indeed changing—now, more people are willing to buy cryptocurrencies than ever before. If this trend continues, it can bring millions of new members to the crypto community.

I believe that we can and should do better. We needLet people believe in the vision and mission of cryptocurrencies.

The vision of cryptocurrencies is to establish a decentralized financial system that allows individuals to fully control their assets without relying on banks or intermediaries. Its goal is to create a borderless, non-censored, low-trust dependency ecosystem that allows anyone to freely trade, store value, and build an economic system without relying on centralized power.

However, our vision is being overshadowed by the noise of Meme coins and speculative craze.

What's worse is that the public no longer regards cryptocurrencies as a revolutionary tool to improve the financial system. As a post pointed out:

"The Bitcoin ecosystem has become what you once hated." Wealth and power are concentrated in the hands of a few who use cryptocurrencies to squeeze wealth from economically desperate people.

In addition, thanks to Trump's public support, many people have now linked cryptocurrencies to the MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement, and this group is not popular outside the circle. No wonder the EU sees Trump’s support for cryptocurrencies as a threat to European currencies.

Don't get me wrong, the last time the United States slowed down its regulation was good news for cryptocurrencies. However, the entire industry is now walking a delicate tightrope under Trump’s leadership.

How to change the perception of cryptocurrencies so that they are more open and fair

The reputation of cryptocurrencies will not be repaired on their own. If we want mainstream adoption, we need to reshape the narrative. It’s easier said than done, but it has to start from the inside: Even the Aboriginal people of cryptocurrencies have lost hope in cryptocurrencies.

I think we need to focus on three key points first:

1. Make cryptocurrency great again

In previous cycles, cryptocurrency newcomers can make money. However, the vicious exploitation of meme coins by small groups, as well as the issuance of venture-backed low circulation, high full dilution valuation (FDV), has left new entrants with no room for growth.

We managed to resist the low circulation, high FDV this cycle, but ended up falling into the trap of small meme coins groups.

Legion and Echo are making progress by adopting a more equitable financing model, but they are still too xenophobic. We need to create and promote games that create value rather than destroy value, so that early entrants can benefit together.

Kyle, after the First Principles, proposes a more detailed plan on how to become stronger from this market chaos.

Kyle, after the First Principles, proposes a more detailed plan on how to become stronger from this market chaos.

But due to extreme short-termism, maximum cultural exploitation and low integrity, we have fallen into this eternal financial nihilistic state of the weebosnake, which is almost collectively self-invested when everyone thinks it is a good idea to continue to invest in random fraud coins, because “I will exit before he cheats.”

We need to self-regulate bad actors. The industry must do more to expose fraud and hold influencers accountable for misleading propaganda. ZachXBT once did this, but the level of crime became very out of control, and even he ended up selling a meme coin sent to him.

Cryptocurrencies are not just gambling—it offers real-world benefits.

We need to focus on use cases such as remittances, financial inclusion, and transparent governance, not meme currency culture.

DeFi is expanding, and new social networks are emerging, with innovative monetization models such as Lens, Abstract and Farcaster. In addition, stablecoins and The increasing popularity of RWA (real world assets) helps to preserve and increase value rather than destroy value.

KOLs on X may not care, but addCryptocurrency X represents only a small part of the broader cryptocurrency culture.

I am glad Bitcoin is doing well as “digital gold”, but Ethereum and Solana are seen as speculative chains, rather than the underlying platform for the open digital economy.

If we promote meme coins as cryptocurrency culture, I bet that Pudgy Penguins will be the most powerful Web3 output to Web2, rather than Web2 input to Web3's meme coins (Doge, Pepe, etc.).

3. Reshaping the narrative of Bitcoin and Ethereum

Cryptocurrency is not a single unified culture; rather, it contains multiple subcultures. The most famous of these are Bitcoin and Ethereum.

I'm very annoyed by the idea that Bitcoin has become everything it's destined to destroy. Only those who store BTC in a cold wallet can truly understand the peace of mind that comes from self-hosting and being outside the system.

ETFs are good for our wallets, but they are a double-edged sword because ETF buyers don’t experience the same sense of freedom that comes with self-hosting.

I also hope that Bitcoin can keep a distance from MAGA movement. Bitcoin is global and should be neutral.

This is why I like Ethereum. Many criticized the Ethereum Foundation for failing to get close to the Trump team, but in the long run, it will prove to be a successful strategy.

In a world where privacy and democracy are eroding, artificial intelligence blurs the boundaries between reality and illusion, digital ownership is not guaranteed, and Ethereum provides a safe haven.

Ethereum is unabashedly: trustworthy and neutral

Decentralization

Globalization

">People outside of cryptocurrencies know nothing about this, so our job is to spread information and build products that can truly demonstrate Ethereum values.

An optimistic future

Today, the total market value of cryptocurrencies has just exceeded $2.7 trillion. But the question is, are we really worthy of this valuation?

The cryptocurrency industry has changed dramatically since Vitalik published that post in 2017, and not everything is just speculation and negative games.

As I mentioned in my previous post, there are 1.4 billion worldwide People are unable to access banking services. Even in the United States, this proportion is as high as 4.5%. A Fed study found that high-income people mainly regard cryptocurrencies as investment vehicles, while low-income people tend to use them for payment transactions. 60% of cryptocurrency users earn less than $50,000 per year, of which 13% have no bank accounts.

Venezuela ranked 40th in the Chainalysis cryptocurrency adoption index in 2023. Stablecoins become the lifeline in a hyperinflation environment. Similarly, in Argentina, when the domestic currency plummeted, stablecoins purchases surged, which is also a signal that cryptocurrencies are widely adopted.

The value of cryptocurrencies is not only in fighting inflation, it has also become a tool to resist oppressive regimes. During the pandemic, cryptocurrencies were used to provide assistance to doctors and nurses in Venezuela, avoiding corruption interference. After the outbreak of the Russian-Ukraine war, Ukraine raised $225 million through crypto donations.

At the same time, the total lock-in value of DeFi (decentralized finance) has reached $88 billion! Decentralized exchanges (DEX) are gradually challenging centralized exchanges (CEX); MakerDAO and other protocols are introducing real-world assets (RWA) to the chain.

去中心化社交应用 也在增长，Farcaster 和 Polymarket 拥有数千日活用户，且数字仍在上升。如今，我们终于拥有了一批真正可用的 dApps。

However, these actual progress has been completely overwhelmed by the discussion on X (Twitter), and we have done a very bad job of promoting cryptocurrencies.

Nevertheless, I still believe that even if the market is falling at this moment, this market adjustment will help the crypto industry repair itself and continue to move forward. We must first clear the chaos and then focus on showing the positive value of cryptocurrencies to the world.