Dear Readers,

When the idea for Bitcoin was made public on an obscure cryptography forum in 2008, a revolution in self-sovereign money was launched. And the subsequent go-live of the Bitcoin blockchain in early 2009 sent that revolution into overdrive. The world was reeling from the effects of the Great Recession, which was the culmination of decades’ worth of financial interference on the part of governments and banks. Humanity needed a decentralized monetary medium that could ensure financial self-sovereignty, and Bitcoin overwhelmingly fit the bill.

Bitcoin’s success has also unfortunately led to quite a number of copycat projects, as well as arguably questionable uses of its underlying technology. By this, I don’t mean to imply that everything in “Crypto” and “Blockchain” has no meaning or value. There are obviously tens of thousands of people around the globe, including many of you perhaps, who find value in one project or another. But neither do I believe that every bit of humanity’s existence needs to live on a blockchain or be decentralized.

Yuga Labs And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

I believe the recent fiasco on the Ethereum blockchain caused by Yuga Labs’ “Otherdeed” NFT mint provides an interesting example. The team behind Yuga Labs has publicly stated that it believes their NFT mint was the largest mint in history:

Whether or not that’s true, there certainly was a significant amount of demand from the market for the “Otherdeed” NFTs. Blockchain sleuths are already estimating that nearly $200 million in transaction fees were spent on the Ethereum blockchain during the mint, either on the mint itself or on other transactions that users had the misfortune of choosing to carry out at the worst possible time. For most users, the Ethereum blockchain was, at least temporarily, too expensive to use.

The impact to everyday users is without a doubt unfortunate. However, Yuga Labs’ proposed solution gives me pause:

In true Crypto fashion, the proposal amounts to nothing more than creating another blockchain among thousands. While that solution would arguably eliminate competition for blockchain space from non-Yuga Labs digital assets, I’m not convinced that it’s the right solution, mainly because I’m not convinced by the level of decentralization Yuga Labs or the Ape DAO it created to govern its projects claim to have achieved. After all, Yuga Labs has the means to acquire a controlling stake in the Ape DAO relatively easily:

The “Otherdeeds” mint helped Yuga Labs pull in around $300 million dollars’ worth of ApeCoin, on top of what it already owned. As we can see from the ApeCoin DAO’s guidelines, governance is determined by the size of your stake:

The ApeCoin DAO’s guidelines establish a straightforward way for members to delegate their votes to trusted “experts”, and even requires delegation for members whose coins are locked. Who is going to seem like more of an expert to most DAO members than Yuga Labs, the DAO’s creator and the primary driver of value on all the DAO’s projects?

The DAO’s roadmap also highlights certain governance positions that Yuga Labs is well-positioned to maneuver its way into given its voting capacity and its status as a highly-trusted member and proponent of the community:

I won’t beat around the bush any longer: Yuga Labs and their ApeCoin DAO seem to be prime candidates for the title of “Decentralized In Name Only”. And if it really is just a centralized company masquerading as a decentralized community, is there really any need for the company to have its own blockchain?

Decentralized Money Is A True Innovation

While the jury may still be out on the efficacy of and need for decentralization everywhere, the verdict is in regarding the world’s need for decentralized money. Don’t believe me? Think about how many people have suffered because of asset confiscations, financial sanctions and censorship, recessions, and other atrocities perpetuated using centralized fiat currencies and systems.

Lest anyone accuse me of being too optimistic, I don’t believe that Bitcoin will solve all the world’s problems by itself. But its resistance to censorship, confiscation, inflation, and other manipulations will put people in a position to control their own futures, financial or otherwise. And if you're truly in control of your own life, you’ll have a much greater capacity to find solutions to your own problems.

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