The curse of knowledge is a subtle effect. Not understanding how much you know compared to how much you once knew, compared to what the average person you might be talking to might know breeds more communication errors than any other I’m aware of, except maybe the infamous Dunning-Kruger effect (thinking you are more aware of something than you are.)
People often refer to learning about Crypto-Currency as falling down the crypto rabbit-hole. I think thats a surprisingly apt analogy. Rabbit holes branch and become warrens, difficult to understand for those unfamiliar with them but deep and complex, and for those bunnies intimately familiar with them, comfortable home spaces that might confuse intruders.
Thus it can be very challenging to invite in those who are unfamiliar with cryptocurrency to enter the rabbit-warren with you, to help them navigate the entrance and the first turn. This recent piece by Jon Stokes is described as “such a good introduction to cryptocurrencies and DeFi for non-crypto people” by the folks at 1729
I found the blog informative and interesting. It spoke well to the potential power of cryptocurrency, blockchain and especially decentralized atomized systems in contrast to generally understood centralized systems. It did so largely in the simile of comparison to e-commerce. Atomizing authentication, reviews, merchants, customers and the databases and tables of each and how they might interact and who might have the authority to “CRUD” each. It was indeed, as 1729’s newsletter pointed out a welcome alternative to all the articles emphasizing “”econ buzzwords like “fiat” and “sound money,”“. But it wouldn’t have always landed with me.
See these days I’m already fairly comfortable in the crypto rabbit-hole. But would not have always been. In fact I wouldn’t always have been comfortable even with this specific article’s concepts of atomized services necessary for a centralized e-commerce site. Heck, I was nearly through my 3 month business internship at Amazon before a kindly engineer explained the super novel concept I thought I had for a database where someone could make create, read, update, and delete functions for a specific group was a very common and very old operation summary called CRUD.
So, if you’re comfortable with high level e-commerce web design, the basics of databases and their operation and interaction and you’ll likely get 90%+ of the value of this article (but I’d wager you’re likely to already be passingly familiar with cryptocurrency then.) If you’re not, and you happen to be reading this, it’s still likely likely worth your time and will likely deliver 70% or so of its value. But I will not be insisting that my non-tech friends read it.
So if you’ve made it this far, give it a read and let me know what you think!