I believe in the power of stories. I believe they are a fundamental aspect of what makes us human, and it’s our ability to tell stories that separates us from every other species on this planet. Stories can help us to remember the past, have the power to connect us, and teach us valuable lessons, as well as inspire us to reach for the stars.
Stories help drive humanity forward, they shape our perception of the world, and I have no doubt that a big part of why I am the way I am is because of the stories I learned growing up. Stories about doing the right thing, about hard work and sacrifice, about love, and heroism, and standing up for your beliefs.
When I think of the people in my life, I often associate them with one story or another. Something that may have happened in the past that I always connect with that person.
It can be the same with companies. When I think of Apple, I think of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak leaving HP and starting their new company in Jobs’ garage, or the story of Jobs being forced to resign from the company he founded only to return more than a decade later and reclaim the title of CEO.
On the other hand, when I think of Facebook I think of Mark Zuckberberg coming home drunk from a frat party and making a website to rate his female classmates, eventually leading to the formation of the biggest social network in the world and him getting sued by his former friends and business partners.
Obviously a good story isn’t a prerequisite for a successful company, but I believe a good narrative is.
What’s the difference between the two?
I recently came across an essay about exactly that, and I don’t think I can explain it any better:
“People will pay for a story, but people will die for a narrative.
“Someone died, and that was very wrong” starts a narrative that can turn into a revolution.
Story vs. Narrative? And Why it Matters by Gillame Wiatr
People will pay for a story, but people will die for a narrative.
Not only that, but perhaps what’s more relevant here is that I believe the right narrative can help a project attract new contributors, new investors, and new users, all of which are necessary ingredients for success.
So the question is, what is the eCash narrative?
I’m not talking about the story of eCash and how it came to be. I’m talking about where the eCash project is heading and how it plans on getting there.
For me, XEC is about creating a financial revolution. It’s aim is to build a civilization changing technology that can transform the future of humanity.
It’s also about a creating cult of engineering, and going back to first principles to analyze a problem and come up with an effective solution.
This means going back and asking basic fundamental questions like what is money?
The answer is that money is what we use to store value, as a medium of exchange, and as a unit of account. The last is one of the reasons why eCash chose to move the decimal point and make the base unit 100 satoshis instead of 100 million like Bitcoin and every other Bitcoin fork.
Amaury Sechet, lead developer of Bitcoin ABC
I think the eCash narrative must be one that attracts A-players, not bozos. It needs to attract people who are patient, and intellectually honest, and passionate about making the world a better place as opposed to people who seem to only be passionate about looking for some get rich quick scheme.
The eCash project is about creating hype because there’s something to be hyped about, not just for the sake of it. It’s not about doing things for short-term gains but building towards a long-term vision, the vision of creating “a purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash” that would allow for the creation of an “electronic payment system based on cryptographic proof instead of trust, allowing any two willing parties to transact directly with each other without the need for a trusted third party.”