Author: Aranna

Preface

The "largest liquidation day in crypto history" on October 11th shook the entire financial circle like a tsunami. Fear and greed intertwined in the evaporated $19.2 billion, leaving a bloody mark that reflects illusions and reality. After the disaster, chaos ensued—Zerebro co-founder Jeffy Yu publicly revealed his entanglements with exchanges and market makers, OKX CEO Xu Mingxing's remarks pointed to the lack of long-term value construction, sparking heated discussions, and the crypto community once again ignited debates on the spirit of cypherpunk and "puritanism"… All of this relates to the issues exposed in this cycle: the lack of technological innovation and the loss of long-term value.

However, when we question "why is technological development undervalued," we should think about a deeper issue: what is truly missing may not be technology or a rational market mechanism, but rather an innovation in paradigms of thought.

1. Technology and Thought

To this day, humanity loves to take pride in its technological miracles, calling them symbols of "civilization." Of course, technology has made tremendous contributions—the Industrial Revolution ignited the flames of productivity, breaking through the barren curtain and leading to the material wealth of modern humans. But if we claim that humanity has "achieved true civilization" based solely on this, it may be a bit self-important. After all, if we had truly achieved civilization, how could we allow people to be structurally alienated, losing their souls and authenticity, and abandoning the original "cypherpunk"?

Cypherpunk—just as researcher Haotian (X: @tmel0211) said, the current crypto industry, consumed by the frenzy of gambling, actually originated from a very simple dream about freedom, trust, and order. When Timothy wrote the "Cypherpunk Manifesto," when Eric Hughes penned the "Cypherpunk Manifesto," and when Satoshi Nakamoto wrote the Bitcoin white paper, a path toward building this dream was opened. Along this journey, countless developers, carrying the spirit of cypherpunk, used code to carve out new governance orders for humanity.

In addition, there is another extremely important concept—the "Sovereign Individual." The book "The Sovereign Individual" presents a prophecy: in the information age, technology will weaken the monopolistic power of nation-states, and individuals, through cryptographic technology and network collaboration, will gradually free themselves from the control of centralized systems, regaining economic and spiritual autonomy. This idea profoundly inspired Satoshi Nakamoto, and the birth of Bitcoin is a practice of the "Sovereign Individual" concept.

Since Satoshi Nakamoto, Web3 should have been a disruptive "sovereignty revolution." It is not only the emergence of decentralized ledger technology but also a restructuring experiment regarding power, trust, and value order. The decentralization of blockchain does not merely refer to the distribution of nodes but to the decentralization of value sovereignty. It allows each individual to no longer depend on the monopolies of states, institutions, or platforms, but to autonomously define, create, and circulate value based on algorithmic consensus as the foundation of trust within a global network.

The essence of the cypherpunk spirit is precisely the precursor to this ideological revolution. It is not limited to innovations in cryptographic algorithms or the protection of digital privacy but represents a paradigm shift: replacing centralized thought with decentralized thought, substituting authority with code, and replacing obedience with consensus.

In this paradigm, technology is not an extension of power but a tool for individual freedom. The mission of technology is not to allow humanity to continue being alienated and in conflict but to enable humanity to regain sovereignty over its destiny.

2. The Forgotten Fault

However, as blockchain gradually becomes a battleground for capital arbitrage, the soul of technology has been hollowed out by market-oriented thinking. Some projects, under the banner of "technological idealism," package capital operations with narratives of "reshaping order" and "building the future," quickly cashing out after the coin prices peak, leaving retail investors in a sea of blood. This has also provided a fertile ground for the wild growth of this round of Memecoins.

Yet, whether criticizing the "idealists" shackled in the capital game or calling for the resurgence of the "cypherpunk spirit," we rarely ask: why do technological ideals always get devoured by capital structures? Why do we ultimately slide down the same path, from revolutionary narratives to arbitrage scripts?

This is precisely where the forgotten fault lies. When our focus is overly concentrated on the growth of material, capital, and technology, while neglecting the growth of thought, spirit, and value systems, civilization falls into a state of imbalance.

The foundation of civilization becomes unstable in the interplay of "efficiency" and "interests," while the enlightenment that should awaken freedom and sovereignty has already been forgotten. If we cannot let thought keep pace with technology, civilization will be trapped in this fault that urgently needs repair.

3. The Enlightenment of History

Fortunately, our predecessors have left us valuable references for the development of civilization. Traveling back several centuries to Europe, we would see—

During the Renaissance, humanity awakened from the "world of God." Copernicus refuted the geocentric theory, Galileo questioned the scientific validity of the Bible, and Newton explained celestial laws through mathematics, gradually bringing the scientific revolution to the forefront.

During the Enlightenment, the scientific revolution initially broke the church-centered natural philosophy system of the Middle Ages, establishing a methodology based on experimentation, mathematics, and observation. The successful experiences of engineering led people to believe that "rational order" could also be applied to political society, thus giving birth to the political philosophies of Montesquieu and Rousseau, promoting political reform.

During the Industrial Revolution, industrial capital combined with colonial expansion, and Spencer proposed social Darwinism, giving rise to the legitimizing discourse of imperial colonialism. The power of technology was used to oppress others, seize resources, and accelerate plunder. Humanity thought it had conquered nature, yet unknowingly became new slaves to technology and capital.

Technology and thought, science and philosophy, are inherently interdependent and inseparable. Technology shapes human capabilities, while thought determines how humanity uses those capabilities. True enlightenment is not a one-dimensional knowledge revolution but a resonance of spirit, thought, and technology.

Only when thought and technology evolve together can people avoid losing themselves in the illusion of progress.

4. Transcendence of Cycles

We must acknowledge a reality: only by recognizing and accepting this reality can our critique of the industry's "gambling frenzy" avoid being superficial outbursts or evolving into a condescending disdain. This reality is that the crypto space remains one of the best choices of this era.

As the channels for class ascent are gradually cut off, as social unemployment rates continue to rise, as AI replaces human labor, and as housing prices and inflation drain hope, the "gambling frenzy" of the crypto world becomes one of the few spaces still possessing open entry and wealth liquidity. People escape here not merely out of blind greed but out of an instinct to seek an exit in a closed world.

In such an era, discussing ideological change seems extravagant. But it is precisely because the times are like this that thought becomes particularly necessary.

Before the Renaissance, Europe frequently faced famine, and people believed hunger was "God's punishment." Since the Enlightenment, people began to realize that poverty is a systemic issue—thus the emergence of social contract theory, free economy, and public education. Thought did not immediately fill the bellies of the peasants, but it changed how people understood their own destinies, allowing them to dare to establish new systems and new power structures, ultimately enabling the later Industrial Revolution to truly benefit the masses.

People's anxiety, speculation, and unemployment are real sufferings. But if we stop thinking due to suffering, it is equivalent to voluntarily cycling in that suffering.

Thought may not immediately free people but can prevent them from being blind. Only when humanity responds to fate with thought can civilization possibly transcend the cycles of suffering.

And this may just be the starting point of a new ideological revolution.