The real winners from the Gamestop saga
The Gamestop price surge has undoubtedly taken everyone by surprise, in response to this, brokerage firms such as Robinhood, TD, Schwab and even my own brokers XM and eToro have all halted trading for the stock in an attempt to force buyers to sell.
Followed that up with the banning of the infamous Wallstreetbets group on Reddit, Facebook, and Discord shows how such centralized entities can easily shut down any organized efforts.
I may have deliberately exaggerated on certain issues, but the point remains highly centralized entities such as a broker like Robinhood or a social network like Facebook can and will decide, on your behalf, what is tradeable or what kind of speech is allowed.
The real winners of this epic moment in history are not the people in the Wallstreetbets forum, it isn’t the stockholders of Gamestop, and it most definitely isn’t Wallstreet. The real winner is the cryptocurrency industry.
That is because the solution to all these problems can only be found in the crypto space.
The problems in short:
- Market manipulation by centralized brokers and market makers
- Speech censorship by centralized social networks
Note that both problems are caused by highly centralized entities.
The simple solution to that is simple, decentralisation.
And the great news is that these solutions have already been identified and are currently being built out by some of the smartest people in the world.
Decentralized Finance
To solve the first problem of Wallstreet, an entirely new movement has been birth namely, Decentralized Finance.
Decentralized Finance allows people, no matter where you are in the world, rich or poor, black or white, to access basic financial services without the same discriminatory practices by banks or market manipulation by brokers or market makers.
This means you can trade freely in an open market, no one can “temporarily halt trading” on a particular stock or stop you from investing in a new startup because you are too poor (not an accredited investor).
Your assets are yours and yours alone, and no bank or entity can suddenly freeze them or confiscate them away.
For most people living in a comfortable country, the benefits aren’t immediate. But for people living in a war-torn, corrupt or simply in a broken financial system, the benefits are lifechanging.
If you wanna get started trying out the DeFi ecosystem you can check out this guide I wrote: Getting started with DeFI!
Web 3.0
Another movement birthed by the cryptocurrency space is known as the Decentralized Web or also known as Web 3.0.
We are currently living in Web 2.0 where your status updates or new Instagram post (user-generated content) makes up most of the content on the internet. But the problem is that you are uploading it to a centralized service, such as Facebook or Youtube, where they can change their Terms of Service overnight and suddenly your content now violates it and it has to be taken down.
The Decentralized Web will allow people to create entire websites, forums, and even social networks where free speech means free speech. Nothing can be taken down or censored because no single entity or Government owns it.
As for how it works, you can check out these resources to learn more:
1. A Beginner’s Guide to the Decentralized Web
2. What Is Web 3.0 & Why It Matters
Final Thoughts
I genuinely believe that the decentralized infrastructure being built out now is currently laying the foundation of our future.
Although there are many existing problems with the current infrastructure before it can meet real-world demand, solutions are already being built out and there’s a ton of potential.
If you are in a place of uncertainty in your career, you should definitely consider a career in the cryptocurrency space as the way it is right now, it is comparable to the early days of the internet and exploding with opportunity. Heck, the space could use more smart talent like yours.
The whole Gamestop saga and the response from it by Wallstreet is simply nothing more than an advertisement campaign for a decentralized future.
