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As the cryptocurrency industry continues to gain increased attention by media, regulators, and newcomers of all types, I suggest the following as "best practices" in how we explain, proselytize, and advise: /1
2/ It's important to differentiate between A. Projects we think will succeed long-term, B. Projects that are reasonable experiments but that we're skeptical of, C. Doomed but well-intentioned projects, and D. Outright scams.
3/ Manage expectations. If we don't want media and newcomers declaring cryptocurrency dead and abandoning it when an exchange or protocol is hacked, it's in our interest to explain in advance that this is an ongoing aspect of both our industry and many others.
4/ Don't overpromise. A lot of the cries of "scam" targeted at bitcoin, at ethereum etc, are based on inflated marketing. It's fine to offer a visionary future, a glimpse at global disruption, but be careful with timelines for example.
5/ educate. Yes, many people will buy cryptocurrencies with no interest in learning about the underlying cryptography, engineering, consensus game theory etc, and that's fine. But...the more educated the users/owners, the better in every way.
6/ Keep it positive. We can take jabs at the money printers and regulators, but the overall impression we want to give is that we're participating in a trend of growth, of creation, and of healthy disruption...not of destruction.
7/ Emphasize the *value* not the *profit.* Yes, a core part of cryptocurrency's value proposition is that it contains a built-in network effect accelerator in the form of financial profit. But, we want people to understand the underlying value, like better economic coordination.
8/ it's great that BTC has been the top performing global asset of the last decade. Teach people *why.* Explain why bitcoin is transformative and enlarges the global economic pie, not just why a "short squeeze" will likely make number go up.
9/ tribal in-fighting is unavoidable, but we can be smart about it. Outsiders view two cryptocurrency devs calling each other scammers the way an atheist views two protestants of different sects calling each other heretics. We can fight, but let's not embarrass ourselves.
