Are we winning?

I can't seem to be able to get this question out of my head. It comes to mind each time I read the next trending topic in crypto.

Are we winning? What does winning mean in this industry? Thought we all said fuck banks, so what's this about?

We initially wanted to replace the traditional banking system, now we are mostly adopting, integrating, building a bridge, creating room for it to flourish, however one might want to put it, essentially, we've derailed, this all, wasn't the goal.

It was for retail, it was about the little guys escaping the establishment, getting the unbanked onto crypto, creating a resistant economy that can flourish on shared-governance that truly respects its “design” to scale and grow sustainably.

Of a surety, one would argue that mass adoption wasn't going to happen without the “big guys” coming in with their vastly “unethically-acquired” wealth.

That, I acknowledge. Notwithstanding, what we see today is in no way what we dreamed of. Crypto cannot pass off as just another “financial instrument” or “asset class,” because whatever falls into that category will be controlled by the centralized government.

Just a couple of days ago, we had heated conversations on Coinbase creating IOUs of bitcoin for Blackrock. This story has since been addressed and pushed back on but the most obvious reality is that purchases are not settled in real time as the announcements make them seem and Coinbase as a custodian will try its best to keep as many of its clients addresses off the public eyes.

At the end of the day, we can track and pick up on certain transactions that reveals patterns we can leverage to determine what bitcoin belongs to who, it's Bitcoin afterall, very tracable, but the reality is that despite saying fuck the banks for years, we now have bitcoiners ass licking institutions like Blackrock and calling for similar adoption.

The target market is kept off actually owning bitcoins, hence cannot contribute to the security of the network and ecosystem, that power is now in the hands of Blackrock.

But it's Bitcoin, how does owning the coins play any role in governance being that the network is based on proof of work(PoW) and not proof of stake(PoS)?

Well, that's a great question. In certain circumstances, the narrative holds true that Bitcoins - as in the coins mined in each new block - does not hold governance influence, however, it holds market influence, which one could say is vastly more important.

Remember, money makes the world go round.

Owning enough bitcoin to manipulate the market is enough power to influence the mining network. Market manipulation can be leveraged to shake off miners, effectively centralizing the network to a few functioning nodes - which the vast majority could be controlled by the market manipulators.

This is one reality that many do not consider, probably because it doesn't seem like an immediate threat to the Bitcoiners dreams.

Blackrock investment inflow has already proven to have very little market effects. Even Elon’s tweets had better market reactions when he mattered in the space.

All of this begs the question: are we winning?

We now see institutions like Chainanalysis trying to break Monero’s untraceability and failing at it by the way, but we'd constantly see bitcoiners take a jab at the Monero community because they understand that Monero has something they don't, and recent treatments its received from centralized exchanges and institutions shows that it's serving the much needed purpose that's essential for a truly inclusive and decentralized crypto ecosystem.