The People of Crypto (Part 2 - The Good)

During Part 1 of the People of Crypto, we met a few of the bad guys. They’ve done damage to the financial value, community morale, and long-term prospects of crypto.

As promised, there’s more to the story. Let’s resume our heist-movie-styled intros, dive into “The Good”, and balance things out a bit.

Jordan Fish – The Crypto Cobaine

The first thing to know about Jordan Fish is that nobody knows him as Jordan Fish. He goes by Cobie, a shortened version of the nickname he gave himself. Cobie started trading crypto in 2014, made friends in the community, and has become one of the most popular personalities in crypto – especially on Twitter. He has more than 750K followers. In case you didn’t know, that’s a ridiculously high number. Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, has 1M.

Since Cobie got into crypto so “early”, he’s made a lot (estimated net worth today is ~$300M). But a big part of why he’s attracted so many people is that he doesn’t seem to have been changed by his good fortune. Rather than bragging about being right and early, he tries to help others be right, including flagging scams when he sees them. He was the first to flag suspected insider trading at Coinbase, using almost a decade of experience analyzing blockchain transactions to identify suspiciously quick buys. After he raised the alarm, Coinbase investigated and found out one of their product managers was front-running almost every coin they listed (more on that story in this article from Reuters).

Another time, there was a notorious crypto scammer who got called out on YouTube by a small content creator. The scammer sued for defamation, but then Cobie jumped in and donated $100K to the legal defense. The scammer eventually dropped the suit.

What struck me most in researching Cobie is how level-headed he is, despite his success and popularity. During an honest moment in a 2022 podcast, he was asked about wealth, and if it weighs on him. This is what he had to say: (edited for clarity)

The crypto community can at times be toxic, and often resembles the wild west, so it’s encouraging to see thoughtful actors like Cobie in the space.

Just as Cobie does for Twitter, there are other places where good actors shine. The duo that runs the Bankless podcast (Ryan Adams and David Hoffman) put out a lot of neutral information, make detailed disclosures about what they’re investing in, and generally act as good stewards for the space. They are honorable mentions for “the good”. The only knock on them is that they sometimes let their enthusiasm for the potential of crypto crowd out the risks.

And there are even bright spots on YouTube, where one example that stands out is Crypto Cred, an anonymous trader that has recorded hundreds of hours of detailed trade analysis tutorials. He seems honest and is unquestionably thorough, detailing his own mistakes and techniques. I’ve taken masters-level economics courses that don’t go as deep as he does. He’s another honorable mention.

It’s interesting – and in some ways inspiring – to see this fledgling industry clinging to unique sources of community (Twitter, YouTube, podcasts), especially during a crypto bear market. But there are also a few names that have spread beyond those circles. One of those names, and the person with the largest positive impact so far, is Vitalik Buterin.

Vitalik Buterin – The (Reluctant) Crypto King

In 2017, a group of international economic leaders met in St. Petersburg for what is sometimes called “The Russian Davos.” That year, attendees included Indian PM Narendra Modi, the UN Secretary General, and business leaders from Boeing and GE.

Who else went? Vitalik. He was 23 at the time. And I don’t mean he went as part of a student delegation, or because he found a golden ticket in a chocolate bar… He went as an international economic leader and cryptography expert. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

He was born in Russia in 1994, and when he was six, he and his parents moved to Canada. By the end of third grade, he got put into a “gifted” program because he loved math and was great at it. He was 17 when he heard about Bitcoin, and a year later in 2012 he founded Bitcoin Magazine, dedicated to writing about blockchain and cryptocurrencies.

Around that time, he also started helping developers strategize the launch of new coins. Because he knew so much about cryptography (the math behind crypto currencies), they leaned on him to give advice about “tokenomics”. Tokenomics refers to the strategy around coin launches and the ways of building value on the blockchain. Said differently – it’s what incentivizes people to use or trade the coin, and what incentivizes developers to work on it.

Eventually, he developed a strong point-of-view on what would work best, and he wanted to create his own coin. So in 2013 he did what the crypto industry does, in keeping with the tradition established by the pseudonymous bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto. He wrote a whitepaper.

The next year, he launched the thing the paper pitched – The Ethereum Network. It took off, and his blockchain’s coin, called Ether, is now the world’s second most valuable cryptocurrency behind bitcoin.

So it’s no surprise he ended up at that conference, or that he was on the cover of Time Magazine in 2022. He’s rocketed to success alongside his network. To be one of the “good guys”, though, requires more than that. It means being successful while also being of high character. So far, based on the interviews I’ve binged and the research I’ve done, he’s checking the boxes.

First, like Cobie, he’s eager to help. As the founder of Ethereum, Vitalik gets tons of spam tokens sent to him. Not wanting to endorse the product without really knowing or wanting it, he often donates them. When the world rallied around India at the start of their covid spike, he immediately donated $1.2B of these coins, no strings attached.

He has also helped by focusing on educating new crypto users via his incredibly polished and detailed blog. It has explainers that range from 101 to Isaac Newton, and I highly recommend taking a look (link here).

As another example of “good”-ness, he actively designed a system (Ethereum) that removes him from power. He doesn’t have a dual-class shareholder set-up, where he gets to overrule everyone and decide on a direction for the network. He has to convince his peers to agree with his vision, and then he rolls up his sleeves to help them build whatever they collectively decide… in public, like an open source project. And the thing he’s building is a system designed to be as fair as possible. Nobody gets special privileges, people can transact instantly without middlemen, and he becomes a plain-old user just like everybody else.

Well actually, it would be impossible for him to disappear and be a plain-old user at this point. Although he’s pushing Ethereum towards being independent, he’s simultaneously being pushed into the spotlight as a key spokesperson for crypto. And it’s clear, especially from recordings of early interviews, that he’s a lot more comfortable coding than he is with public speaking. There are painful bouts of stammering and sounding nervous, and not in the fake, boyish way that SBF (the biggest fraud in crypto) is known for.

So why does he do it? Why make yourself uncomfortable?

He saw the industry needed it and that nobody else was doing it. Other than Satoshi, who was always psuedonymous and disappeared after bitcoin launched, Vitalik is the largest public-facing figure in the entire space. He cares deeply about the principles he built Ethereum on, and this is his way to stay involved and be helpful.

Personally, I buy it. There’s definitely something compelling about a capable, reluctant leader.

Now, I can’t guarantee that Cobie and Vitalik are 100% good (who is?), but it’s already helpful to me to have a sense of balance. Just like in every other field, there are good and bad actors. In a few weeks, we’ll get into the third and final part of this series, “the gray” people of crypto. They’re more human, blurring the lines between good and bad. For now, though, enjoy this dose of goodness.