Conversation

SBF
@SBF_FTX
3) The crypto community is, of course, dominated by crypto bulls. That's sort of what it means to be in the community. So, yeah, more people are long than short.
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SBF
@SBF_FTX
4) And actually of _course_ there's more long than short; we actually know _exactly_ now much more. There are about 18.5m tokens more longs than shorts in BTC, and eventually there will be 21m.
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SBF
@SBF_FTX
5) In addition, there's some sense than one is "better" than the other. Sometimes "better" means "will make money", "is smart", or "I enjoy". But it also means "morally better". There's a fairly strong sense in the crypto community that it's morally better to be a bull.
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SBF
@SBF_FTX
6) You can see this in a lot of places, but really you should have always expected it, I guess. When it comes to "generally bullish about BTC, and ETH, and idk new things if they're good", it's mostly uncontroversial. That's sort of what it means to be in crypto.
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SBF
@SBF_FTX
7) But recently there's been some tension in the community. Is it good or bad to be bullish about yield farming? The divide isn't about making money, it's about being right.
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SBF
@SBF_FTX
8) First off -- I think it's a complicated topic and there are good arguments either way.
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SBF
@SBF_FTX
9) Pro: yield farming is: a) a way for the community to have a stake in the ecosystem b) economically reasonable: billions of $ worth of coins dropped c) igniting excitement in DeFi d) fair
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SBF
@SBF_FTX
10) Con: yield farming is: a) unfair to builders and too generous to whales b) economically crazy, APY shouldn't get above 30% or so c) terrible PR, like the ICO boom d) distracting from real value creation
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SBF
@SBF_FTX
11) There have always been rumblings of worry about yield farming, which makes sense. So the rest of this post isn't about yield farming. It's about everything else in crypto.
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SBF
@SBF_FTX
Replying to
@SBF_FTX
13) No one was posting that they were short anything large in crypto. And more, there was strong virtue signalling that it was *good* to be bullish DeFi and *bad* to be bearish.
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SBF
@SBF_FTX
14) Sure, some were bearish on $PICKLE. But very few thought the same of DeFi. Which is weird: because the rest of DeFi was up, too, a lot. And it was up _because_ of yield farming.
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SBF
@SBF_FTX
16) So if yield farming drove ETH up 30%-- --and yield farming was a bubble-- --then ETH is rich too, right? No one seemed to say that, though.
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SBF
@SBF_FTX
17) There was this weird agreement: that vaporware doubled DeFi. And that the vaporware was going to crash, and that maybe it was *morally bad*. But that the sector's gains from it were real and permanent and *morally good* and a sign of the strength of the community.
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SBF
@SBF_FTX
18) "Smart money" was decrying the yield farming bubble and running from it. The same people were going head over heels into the blue-chip rally it had created. There were no bears until things crashed.
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SBF
@SBF_FTX
19) It was reminiscent of... ...well, everyone knows where this sentence is going. I remember a high school classmate's post on Facebook: "sure bitconnect might be a scam, but c'mon, look at that graph. I'm up 5000%; you missed it."
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SBF
@SBF_FTX
20) And smart money was like "lol have fun when the scam crashes, we're going to go buy BTC and ETH and EOS and XRP and NEO and FIL". Which, then, also crashed.
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SBF
@SBF_FTX
22) So, ok, back to DeFi. Did the blue-chips "deserve" their gains? Were their losses "unfair"? What's their future?
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SBF
@SBF_FTX
23) I don't know, that's for the world to decide, not me. But I guess what I'd ask is: In a post-hype world (are we there yet?), how are the products?
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SBF
@SBF_FTX
24) When they're forced to stand on their own, with no bubble lifting them up: will they float? Some will, probably. Some won't. That is the way.
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SBF
@SBF_FTX
25) And it's sad, and unfortunate, that not everything's great. Sometimes things are underrated, sometimes they're overhyped. But it is what it is, and I don't think it's morally bad to say so, or morally good to pretend otherwise.
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