5 - First thoughts on Catalyst

I’ve always been an outsider and so I was very well practised for my role pitching a new project to the community on the Cardano blockchain. Needless to say, as a complete newbie I failed to convince them to give me any $ADA. Despite the lack of funds I have to say that this experience, like all experiences, taught me a lot. Our project is a radical one, it is a new concept which will severely disrupt the traditional financial system, including the crypto space, and for that reason it was difficult to sell.

The process of submitting a proposal like ours brought to light for me a contradiction which seems to run through the entire crypto space but is more visible in the most interesting and decentralized of the blockchains, Cardano.

The contradiction is this, on the one hand, the blockchain movement, its influencers and experts, are radical outsiders, on the cutting edge of revolutionary change. They converse in their own specialised language and discuss technical concepts which are a million miles away from the preoccupations of everyday folk. They are a pioneering band of brothers and sisters navigating the unchartered waters of an obscure sea. Most of the rest of the world are only just discovering the size of the boat!

On the other hand they are very conservative in their approach to money. The technology is new but the financial and economic ideas are at least as old as the 17th century. As a financial instrument, most see crypto as a investment, either like gold or bonds for long term stability, a hedge against inflation in the fiat system, or as short term, get rich quick, speculative gamble.

The crypto eco-system, in general, copies most of it’s financial instruments directly from the traditional financial industry. In the past we were convinced to move from buying real gold to buying paper gold, now we buy digital gold. A couple of centuries ago we would invest in a exciting new exploration project in the New World, now we try our luck with the latest meme coins. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying there isn’t real innovation in the sector but the revolution is still to come.

Inside the dragon’s den of Project Catalyst I also found many genuine pioneers and incredible creative thinkers. The folks at Cardano over coffee @coc_space for example gave me a really warm welcome and asked the most challenging questions. There was a spirit of curiosity and openness to new ideas that I hadn’t found elsewhere. I would also like to give a big shout out to @tsnnst and @CSWAP_Destroy for inspirational advice.

We will build our project because we have a passion for decentralization and we will build it on Cardano because it’s the most decentralized chain. #Fund12 wasn’t ready for us but we will regroup and focus on #Fund13.