[dundarious]

I don't think anybody selling Beanie Babies was claiming to be transforming finance and democratizing intellectual property or making any of the many other ludicrous claims in the web3/crypto space. When I look at web3/crypto, at best I see "solutions" in search of a problem, but mostly I see confused techno-utopianism mixed with Beanie Babies and various other scams and empty crazes.

A lot of stuff on the Web sucks (always has), but importantly, there was always a sizeable proportion that didn't (Wikipedia, etc.). Cryptocurrencies are so bad at doing what they originally set out to do (function as currencies in at least some of the ways that currencies are useful), that anything in the space is almost universally exhibiting the problems I mentioned above.

I had the thought a few months ago that crypto is just a meme, a potent viral marketing scheme for the modern era. The gig economy notion of the article resonates strongly with me.