What the collapse of crypto can teach us about BEE

I know what it’s like to be riding that wave of euphoria and believing that nothing can go wrong, just before being smacked by the hands of the hindsight gods.

I’m a Liverpool supporter after all. The difference between walking around in my 2005 Champions League Steven Gerrard shirt and telling people about how great crypto is that the latter has, what you might call, financial implications. Either way, both Liverpool fans and crypto enthusiasts have become remarkably quiet of late.

But it was never the idea of crypto that offended me. The concept is lovely, intelligent, and can be put to groundbreaking good use.

Unfortunately, perhaps, as humanity, we never really deserved it. I mean, how many projects can you name that alleviated poverty using crypto? Right?

Now compare that number with the number of emails in your spam threatening to leak naughty photos of you unless you send some bitcoin to the “hacker”.

Also Read: Letoya Makhene-Pulumo denies running bitcoin investment scam

There was hardly ever a drive to do good with the blockchain.

Despite this, I would still be okay with it being out there. The more tools to do things, the better.

Where I did get peeved was with all the crypto bros in their tank tops on the beach, pretending how the rest of the world consists of idiots who don’t appreciate how awesome their speculative wealth generating wallet is.

You know the type; they usually start a podcast that employs the term “umm” at the beginning of every sentence, because who has time to prepare when you’re working so hard making money?

Just imagine the wrath if you asked them to write a 600-word blog. Now, not even listening to the podcasts will recover the near 70% drop in bitcoin over the last year.

Take it from me, a guy who bought Steinhoff shares on 1 December 2017. We all make mistakes.

It’s just that my mistake was due to a shady business dude who happened to be CEO of a listed company.

Your mistake was always clear and backed by history. Remember things like the housing bubble or the tech crash? And those were things with assets to back them up.

Yet, every time dad asked you what backs up crypto, instead of engaging, you got dismissive. Criticism of blockchain was met with “you don’t get it”, “you’re old”, “fiat currency is a thing of the past”, “this is the future” and non-engaging rhetoric.

It’s the same rhetoric your crowd1 friend employs often too, by the way.

While those responses did work to stop the inquiring, they did not invalidate the criticism. Moreover, they certainly didn’t do anything to answer the criticism.

Yeah, I’m old, I don’t get it and I know fiat currency is a dated concept (though for the most part it works) and I like futuristic ground breaking things.

Also Read: You can now pay with cryptocurrency at Pick n Pay

Like with most innovative buildings, when breaking ground there’s a principle that has never changed; you have to ensure that the foundations are strong enough.

Give enough egotistical rich people a functioning way that grows their money and a bunch of put downs they can use over Sunday lunch, and nobody is going to ask about the foundations.

I mean, if the building is standing, it’s standing. Who cares if it’s propped up by a sandstone that’s going to dissipate in ten years? Until then, we’re sipping cocktails in the penthouse.

This could have been avoided if we actually took the time to look at the criticism and determine its merits rather than dismissing it because the system appears to be working.

The same could, and should, be said of any system.

Calling me a racist for being critical of BEE does not make BEE any more effective.

Telling me I only care about electricity issues now that I’m affected, when townships never had electricity to begin with, does not generate more electricity, nor fix distribution.

South Africa has a habit of being easily dismissive of criticism.

I mean, six national elections and only one of them had a presidential debate.

Bitcoin dropped nearly 70%, sure. That’s the least of your worries when it comes to the results of arbitrarily dismissing criticism.

Remember in 2012, when the Rand was 7,60 to the US Dollar? It may not be as bad as a 70% drop in value, and may have taken ten times as long, but if crypto isn’t going to save us, something else should.

Perhaps that something else is some honest introspection.