You were supposed to be free now. That was the promise.

Instead, you're watching the president shill coins. Billionaires pumping tokens. Your uncle lost money on some dog-themed scam. Every day there's a new headline about crypto fraud.

So you decide: fuck this. I'm out.

Congratulations. You just did exactly what they wanted.

The Trick That Never Gets Old

Every time a technology promises to redistribute power, the same thing happens.

The powerful don't ask if it's good. They ask: "Can I use this?"

They experiment. They fail. They learn. They build infrastructure.

Regular people ask different questions: "Is this safe? Will I look stupid? What if it's a scam?"

They wait for proof. Wait for social acceptance. Wait for someone trustworthy to validate it.

By the time they're comfortable, the architecture is built. And it wasn't designed for them.

You saw it with the internet. Could've been peer-to-peer, encrypted, user-controlled.

Now it's surveillance capitalism. You're the product.

You're seeing it with crypto. Could be permissionless finance. Self-sovereign money.

But the president's involved. Scammers are everywhere. It looks like a casino.

So you walk away.

The Psychology That Keeps You Losing

Three traps in your head right now:

1. Judge tools by users. Billionaire using it = bad tool. But billionaires experiment with everything first because they can afford to. Your instinct is backwards.

2. Chaos as danger. Your brain sees lawless territory and screams RUN. But someone WILL write the rules. Question is whether you're there when it happens.

3. The 99% blindness. Yes, 99% of crypto IS scams. But while you're dismissing everything, activists are moving money past authoritarian banks, workers are sending remittances for 1% instead of 15%, people are protecting savings from hyperinflation. Millions of people. Real use. You don't hear about it because "Nigerian artist earns living wage" doesn't generate clicks.

You think you're choosing safety over risk.

You're actually choosing familiar exploitation over unfamiliar possibility.

Your bank already excludes you. Already charges fees for being poor. Already requires minimums you don't have. Already crashes and gets bailed out while you lose your job.

You've just made peace with it. You know how it screws you.

Crypto might screw you differently. That uncertainty feels worse than the certainty of your current screwing.

But here's the thing: choosing the devil you know isn't wisdom when the devil is definitely fucking you.

What Happens Next

While you rage-quit, central banks are building their version. CBDCs. Surveillance coins that track every transaction. Programmable money that expires. Money that can't be used for things the government doesn't like.

Two versions are being built: the permissionless one and the surveillance one. Which wins depends on which one regular people understand and use.

The cypherpunks warned us about surveillance capitalism. We chose convenience. Now every email is read, every click tracked. Same choice. Except this time it's your money.

Do you want to be right or do you want to be free?

You can be right. Point to every scam. Say "I told you so".

And still use the same banks that already exclude you. The same gatekeepers who already decide your worth.

Or you can be wrong sometimes. Lose some money learning. Look foolish figuring it out.

And maybe have options when everyone else realizes too late that they should've learned this shit years ago.

Every generation faces liberation technology. Every generation watches the powerful exploit it. Every generation walks away.

That retreat guarantees the next system looks like the last one — just with new people at the top.

The technology isn't your enemy. Your psychology is.

Fix that first.