🪻 Industry barriers are lowered, a large influx of newcomers dilutes cognitive concentration.
Early crypto world (before 2017): Participants were mostly tech geeks, cryptography enthusiasts, or financial rebels, discussing 'decentralization,' 'anti-censorship,' and 'currency revolution,' with a high cognitive threshold. Current situation: Exchanges simplify operations (one-click to buy coins for 20 bucks, contract leverage easily operated by novices), attracting a large number of newbies.
Platforms like Douyin and Twitter spread fragmented information, with many only focusing on 'get-rich stories' rather than underlying logic.
Result: The market is dominated by short-term speculators, and people stop thinking.
🪻 Wealth effect distorts cognition, and anti-intellectualism prevails.
Survivorship bias: A few people become wealthy by luck (on meme coins, all-in), packaged as 'success cases,' misleading the public into thinking 'cognition is useless, gambling is the way.'
'Studying technology is less effective than following tips' becomes mainstream, project teams use 'Musk's tips' and 'community consensus' instead of whitepapers and technological progress.
🪻 Information overload and noise pollution.
Early days: Limited information sources (Bitcoin whitepaper, Bitcointalk forum), high quality of information.
Now: Hundreds of new projects, KOL opinions, and exchange announcements emerge daily, making it hard for ordinary newcomers to discern truth from falsehood.
Algorithmic recommendations create information echo chambers (like Douyin only promoting 'get-rich' content), deepening cognitive biases. As a result, truly valuable information gets drowned out, and everyone falls into a 'learning illusion' (seemingly learning, but actually ineffective).
🪻 The industry is dominated by capital and institutions, marginalizing retail investors.
Early days: Bitcoin was a 'commoner's asset,' with retail investors competing alongside whales.
Now: Institutions (BlackRock, Grayscale) enter through ETFs and compliant channels, controlling pricing power.
Project financing becomes VC-driven, retail investors can only take late-stage high-priced chips.
Ordinary people have no influence in the industry, no sense of participation, and prefer to gamble.
🪻 Bear markets eliminate deep thinkers, while bull markets attract speculators.
In the bear market (like 2022-2023), those who truly study technology and economic models persist, but their numbers sharply decline.
When the bull market (like 2024-2025) arrives, newcomers only care about 'which coin rises fast,' diluting their cognitive level.
🪻 Difficulty in monetizing cognition leads to talent loss.
In-depth researchers may not be able to outrun 'mindless rushing meme' speculators.
Institutional positions are quantitative, with high and scarce research requirements, making most people unable to meet them.
Result: Some high-cognition individuals leave the industry or turn to 'cutting leeks' for survival (like starting paid communities or tips), and thus they get cut.