Toward the end of my interview with Antony, I asked what he thought was the most rewarding, challenging, or surprising thing about his crypto journey so far...

https://twitter.com/caincurrency/status/1888623852810580464

After delivering a perfect joke about how "it was the friends we made along the way", he gave it some real thought and had this to say:

"It's nice to work on something that you believe in. A significant thing to work on. I guess that's what I'd say. It sucks to have a job where you're just doing a daily grind in some bureaucracy where you don't really believe in it [...] For me, I still believe in the mission. So I'm motivated to try and make it happen."

I loved Antony's answer because it reminded me why I'm still here, and why I'm still so obsessed with the eCash project after all these years.

I know most people see crypto as nothing more than an investment, a vehicle for speculation, or just a get-rich-quick scheme. And that's okay. I understand that most people don't have the bandwidth, or simply aren't interested enough, to look deeply into this technology, how it works, or why it's supposed to be valuable. I see that not as their problem, but as a problem that needs to be solved by the crypto industry as a whole.

The space has been so focused on "number go up' that we've forgotten why the number is supposed to go up in the first place.

I feel like it's hard to believe in much of anything these days. Many of us have lost trust in our institutions, in our leaders, and in the system in general. It's become so easy to fall into a trap of doomerism and believing that nothing matters anymore. We seek only to escape, but instead of putting in the necessary work to lift ourselves up, we choose to play games to get ahead at the expense of others.

But crypto was never intended to be just a zero or negative sum game. It wasn't meant to be just a way to gamble with less friction, and the value of our coins wasn't supposed to go up and down solely on the basis of one tweet, but because of their usefulness.

You don't spend your hard-earned money on a new car because you think that in a few months, someone will come along and pay you double what you paid. You do so because the car provides you with utility.

Up until now, crypto has mostly failed to demonstrate its utility to the masses, but that doesn't mean it will always be the case. As long as there are still people like Antony, it gives me a reason to keep believing and writing these articles and trying to spread adoption.

Sometimes I think about the countless hours of my life I've spent obsessing over this stuff and wonder if it's been a big waste of my time. Would I have been better off focusing my energy on something else? Maybe. But like Antony, I still believe in the mission. I still believe in the significance of creating electronic cash for the internet and I'm still motivated to try and make it happen.

The reality is as Antony described. Most of us spend our time grinding away in some bureaucracy that we don't really believe in. But eCash offers us something more, something bigger than ourselves that can have a lasting impact on humanity.

In my last article, I wrote about my lack of patience and tendency to get frustrated that things aren't moving fast enough. But I think it proves how much I care about this project and how badly I want it to succeed. I want the eCash project to show people how useful crypto can truly be. I want newcomers to have a great user experience rather than a mediocre one. I want to remove as much friction as possible, not for gambling, but for understanding what crypto is all about, and that it's not just about buying and holding, it's about using and building.

It's been a long and difficult road, and I'm guessing there will be more pitfalls and challenges ahead. But I do feel like we've already come a long way. We're finally starting to see this project bear fruit in the form of new applications and new utility tokens, and if the first four years were all about survival, the next four years must be all about growth.

In the meantime, I will continue to write and try to explain what the mission is for those who are curious. I will keep iterating until the message becomes loud and clear. A message that explains the goal of the eCash project, how it intends to accomplish that goal, and why it's something worth believing in.

All I ask from you is that you help spread the word. If someone you know is curious about crypto, help them create a new Cashtab wallet and give them a few hundred XEC to play with. Then send them a link to this blog so they can experience magic internet money for themselves.

I accept that most will not accept the invitation. And even among those who do, many won't see what the big deal is, or why any of this matters. But I refuse to believe that we're alone. I have faith there are many more who are searching for the right mission, want something to believe in, and are willing to be the new pioneers.

All we need to do is find them.

Searching for Pioneers