> But the blockchain’s entire purpose is political. If crypto is no longer about teh magic of decentralization, then why would anyone want to use it?<p>Making big $$$, obviously.<p>It's very clear that the whole decentralization tech angle failed a long time ago. I had a passing interest, but completely lost it around 2017-ish, when BTC blocks started filling up.<p>It seemed completely clear to me that a "Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System" couldn't tolerate such dysfunction. Usage as cash wasn't working. In the end capacity had to be promptly increased, or obviously there'd be huge problems for everyone.<p>The first nail in the coffin was that blocks weren't expanded. The second one was that while there were plenty alternatives, BTC retained dominance, and that even forks that theoretically were superior because they did what they were supposed to do far better, BTC still won out.<p>So clearly I was wrong, BTC wasn't functioning as a "cash system", and this obviously didn't matter to the BTC users, and didn't matter to the world at large either.<p>Thus eventually it dawned on me that there were maybe a few people out there that had some interest in a "Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System" and the "tech", but the vast majority out there were only interested in a world-wide game of hot potato, where the only point is to accumulate coins early, then sell them to some fool on the top, and cash out.