The Twitter thread this article is based on was originally published in 2021 by the now-banned @EatSleepCrypto account.

Geeks, MOPs, and Sociopaths by @meaningness is one of the top 5 pieces I’ve ever read.

If everyone in crypto read it, we would be far wealthier, and would achieve mass adoption within 2 years.

The article describes the evolution of subcultures that ends in their inevitable demise.

The author attributes subculture demise to the dilution of an initial scene of geeks by two groups: MOPs – members of the public, and sociopaths. In this context, sociopath is supposed to mean nihilistic and status/profit-oriented.

Defining subcultures

Subcultures are created and sustained by geeks.

There are two types: creators, and fanatics – sound familiar?

Creators invent a New Thing which fanatics rave about.

The New Thing catches the attention of MOPs who dilute and change it over time.

Sociopaths see MOPs’ affinity for a subculture and come in, posing as geeks in order to extract social and financial capital.

Eventually, the dilution of a subculture by MOPs and its perversion by sociopaths drives geeks away. MOPs follow geeks, and only sociopaths are left.

In this way, a subculture dies.

Quality Control

@meaningness suggests three ways to resist the dilution of a subculture by MOPs and sociopaths:

• Geeks can refuse to admit MOPs
• Fanatics can convert MOPs
• Creators can “be slightly evil,” or profit-oriented

In crypto we are uniquely able to do all three.

The crypto analogs of geeks, MOPs, and sociopaths are nerds, normies, and grifters.

Our New Thing is the blockchain and its novel implications, namely, inalienable individual sovereignty. Crypto, DeFi, and Web3 are the manifestations of the New Thing, but not the New Thing itself.

Gated Communities

Using crypto terminology now, crypto is unique because nerds – builders and fanatics, can refuse to admit normies.

This is enabled by the token-gating of events and discussions through NFTs, decentralized identifiers (DIDs) and verifiable credentials (VCs).

Fanatics in crypto are also uniquely positioned to convert MOPs.

Normies are more closely aligned with the principles of individual sovereignty than ever in history; political fallout is accelerating the trend.

@meaningness’s third suggestion is to “be slightly evil” – a better way to put it might be, be slightly profit-oriented.

Crypto is uniquely positioned to do this, but it’s not a given.

Goal of subcultures

Every subculture’s implied goal is to self-perpetuate.

From Meaningness’s article, we can see that a subculture’s survival depends on the profit-orientation of its early adopters.

Too much, and it alienates members of the subculture, and the subculture becomes a parody of itself.

Too little, and the subculture goes broke as grifters come in and destroy it.

Takeaways

I see three major takeaways from the article.

To preserve crypto culture:

1) We must create our own spaces and support token-gating

2) Fanatics should focus on onboarding normies

3) Builders must be profit-oriented

Token-gating crypto spaces

By the time this debate arises, this position will – by definition – be unpopular, which is why we should support it now.

Token-gating events and discussions should become standard as the tech to facilitate it develops.

There are plenty of ways to do this, from requiring NFTs to attend events, to systems of trust which are being developed in ReFi-adjacent spaces.

Onboarding normies

Due to draconian measures by governments worldwide in 2020-2021, normies have never been more aligned with crypto principles.

All that’s needed is UI/UX improvements, and education.

Builders need to emphasize UI/UX; fanatics can focus on education.

Profit orientation

To be profit-oriented, builders need to get better at value capture.

The cryptocurrency market will not remain speculative forever.

Many tokens are fundamentally worthless; when the market figures this out, they will be priced accordingly.

In order to do this, builders should focus on the demand for their token, rather than supply reductions to generate artificial scarcity.

This is the premise of demand-side tokenomics.

The future of crypto

We have been witnessing the perversion of crypto’s essential cypherpunk subculture through its dilution by normies for the last 10 years.

A few key events in the timeline:

• Bitcoin’s rebranding from A peer-to-peer electronic cash system to “digital gold”
• Coinbase and other exchanges’ degeneration into shitcoin casinos
• The rise of pfp NFTs and “web3” as distinct from cryptocurrency

While these events are disheartening, the intended message of this article is that these trends don’t need to affect the core subculture of crypto.

Because of its ability to exclude and convert MOPs, it’s possible for the crypto subculture to persist, untainted.

But if builders fail to capture value, and fanatics don’t onboard normies, crypto will follow the open-source movement and fail to make an impact outside of itself.

I hope builders and fanatics alike take note and begin to capture value.

It’s for this purpose that the entirety of Tokenomics 101 exists.