The post Can the Real Cypherpunks Please Stand Up? appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.

Am I the only one feeling a growing sense of cognitive dissonance in crypto right now? The crypto industry has always had revolutionary roots. It emerged in 2008 with the Bitcoin whitepaper, a direct response to the financial crisis that decimated livelihoods while protecting a systemically flawed, corrupt banking system. Bitcoin wasn’t just a technical innovation—it was a political and ideological statement. A signal that builders and thinkers were ready to challenge the status quo with tools, not just words. As someone who’s worked in crypto for years, I should be celebrating. Today, decentralized technologies are no longer on the fringe. Fintechs are adopting stablecoins. Bitcoin ETFs are trading on traditional exchanges. The average person has heard of blockchain. From Capitol Hill to Davos, crypto is no longer being laughed out of the room. But despite this surface-level “legitimacy,” I can’t help but feel that something essential is lost. The ethos of crypto—the cypherpunk values that got us here—is being diluted, co-opted, and in some cases, directly betrayed. The Cypherpunk movement’s core belief is that technology can and should be used to rebalance power—away from overreaching governments and monopolistic corporations, and toward individuals. Peer-to-peer networks, end-to-end encryption, censorship-resistant platforms—these aren’t buzzwords; they’re commitments to improve our society. Stripe acquiring crypto infrastructure startups? Great, but it doesn’t create legitimacy in the crypto industry. That’s a survival move by big fintech to stay relevant and improve their product offering. Circle going public is a corporate milestone, not a validation of crypto’s principles. A Bitcoin ETF may bring liquidity, but it doesn’t bring ideological alignment. These fintech brands aren’t leading a movement—they’re reacting to it. They’re trying to keep pace with the crypto-native upstarts that are quickly rendering their legacy models obsolete. Let’s not confuse acquisition with validation. Just because the suits are…

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Filed under: News - @ June 18, 2025 4:24 am