The first time I ever spent actual American dollars on a non-fungible token was quite the emotional rollercoaster ride. I had already been poking around the fantastical world of Crypto Twitter for months, digesting the endless acronyms and bizarre new aesthetics, and during that time I felt two primary emotions. I was driven by curiosity first of all, by a fascination I’ve always had for niche cultures and secretive societies. But this began giving way to pure envy as I watched the improbable and insane August 2021 NFT craze surmount new dizzying heights day after day. I wanted to be In, bitten by an addictive bug as I trolled through newly discovered Discord forums and scrolled through Opensea auction listings watching prices go Up, Only. I have always been a sucker for the Rabbit Hole narrative, in literature, film and on the internet. Being initiated through the secret door into a world open only to those with guarded knowledge and a key granting access is a heady drug, and it’s a dangerous one. But it can also be a powerful spur towards truth.
When the desire to see for myself finally overcame my natural risk aversion and penny-pinching, I loaded up a brand new Metamask wallet and went shopping. Telling myself I would limit my buy to something affordable, I started looking through new profile picture projects that fit the paltry 0.05 ETH budget that I set for myself. I found my next investment the old fashioned, tried and true way: I browsed Twitter for about 5 minutes until I found someone with cool art in their profile pic, looked up the project, purchased it, and then realized I really needed to research what I now owned.
There are a lot more emotions hidden in this stage of the story. Excitement, fear, a rush of gratification, sudden apprehension and maybe even a twinge of remorse. Now I was the proud verified blockchain owner of a digital image depicting a cartoon whale dressed as a sailor, and I was immediately hooked. Within days I had more carefully researched another project, through a series of steps that I actually cannot reconstruct because I can no longer remember exactly how I first learned about its existence. Somehow, I found myself in their Discord and then got preminting privileges, early access to purchase for a much lower price. Convinced the project was going to be a success, I put another .21 ETH plus fees towards 3 shiny new CryptoDads, and then settled back to watch my savvy and meticulous art investments pay off.
Now I know what you’re probably thinking. We’ve been conditioned through years of cautionary investing tales to expect the twist right at this stage in the story. You’re all ready to start shaking your head knowingly, chuckling and thanking God that you, a cagey and careful saver, aren’t like other men. You think this is where I tell you the project collapsed, I lost my shirt, and I’ll never risk my hard-earned money in such foolishness again.
But that’s not how this story goes. Because instead, my hastily purchased digital images of what looked like rejected characters from a Simpsons episode increased in value from .07 ETH to just over 1.0 ETH within a matter of days. Not only that, but some of them had rare traits that made them stand out from the rest, and increased their worth to 3–4x the standard value. I was suddenly sitting on a 10X+ investment (at minimum) that I had made almost entirely with my camera off during Zoom meetings. Remember, I was still learning, at this point, what an NFT actually was. And yet I succeeded, and continue to succeed as the project builds even more momentum.
But I feel terribly guilty. Why am I not totally ecstatic? Because at the back of my mind is the insistent scratching reminder that I have no idea how this happened, or how to make it happen again. Because I know, without a doubt, that I haven’t worked hard enough to earn this. It feels strange that I’ve probably created more long-term financial worth through crypto than in my day job this year. And I’m reluctant to even talk about the whole situation because of how angrily dismissive most people are of the entire crypto space.
We have to understand what makes the world of cryptocurrency, NFTs and blockchain technology so important, and why so many people seem so confused and angry about it all. Crypto destroys the illusion modern society has created that all wealth is earned or merited by its holder. This makes crypto a powerful tool for reminding us just how reliant we are on so many uncontrolled factors for our daily rent, groceries and utilities. Unfortunately, society has taught us that capitalistic markets are perfectly efficient, distributing value to reward work and rewarding it proportionately. And for quite some time, the Church has gone along with this, oftentimes teaching a wealth gospel of “God helps those who help themselves” (go look that up in the Bible, you won’t find it). And this is why so many people get so angry when they see foolish, untrained people making large sums of money quickly off of careless investments in crypto. Because this reality rips the curtain off of the financial world and reveals that, after all, we haven’t built a system that can escape Matthew 20:1–16.
In Matthew chapter 20 Jesus tells a parable that you might not hear frequently discussed in Christian circles. This of course makes it vital for us to understand what He is saying, and to correct our own blind spots. In the parable Jesus tells the story of a man who owns a vineyard, and chooses to give the same wages to all his workers, both those who worked an entire day as well as the ones who arrived near sunset and worked an hour or two. Context is key here: Jesus had just spoken to a rich young man who refused to follow as a disciple because of the hold material wealth had on his heart. Jesus had just stated “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle then for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God.” And now He tells a story that seems to all of us, if we are honest, completely unfair. And He knows that it is unfair, and closes the story like this:
Matthew 20:15–16 “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?' 16 So the last will be first, and the first last.”
The reason I felt guilty at my foolish success was because I was being blessed beyond what I knew I deserved. I think that the crypto space, full of wild swings and obvious absurdities, reveals in these single insane moments what is naturally occurring every single day. Crypto shows us that most blessings are received, not earned. We aren’t used to nuance and complexity anymore, so bear with me here. Don’t start thinking “Oh I see, Pr0ph3t just hates capitalism/hard work/rich people and that’s why he’s saying this!” That isn’t true. I am simply reminding us all of one of the deep truths of the universe we live in: We owe everything we have to grace. That’s why we know in our hearts that Hustle Culture is wrong. It’s why we instinctively grimace when the ultrawealthy cheat their taxes or underpay their laborers. We know that hard work doesn’t guarantee anything. We know how many times we have been freely given things that we did not earn.
This is really why I believe that crypto is a generational opportunity. As we cast our bread on the waters, spreading our little investments into many little corners like seeds in the ground, we are becoming more and more dependent on forces so inexorable that they resemble extreme weather more than a stolidly compounding 401k. We are learning that desperation, and humility, and even fanatical belief, can produce wildly asymmetric returns. I am learning, daily, how to let go of the sense that I have built my family’s net worth from nothing with my own sweat. I can see, more and more, the blessings that I did not deserve. Why do you think so much of crypto culture is built around hilarious generosity? I think it is because crypto teaches us that money, in itself, doesn’t have worth. It cannot be a totally accurate store of work because often it is created without work at all. What if money is simply a conduit of blessing and value? A good tool, if received as God’s blessing, and then used to build a more right world, creating order and joy for others without expectation of gain or return.
I’m still holding onto my Dads. Learning how to plant seeds, then looking to the sky and praying for rain. You’ll hear from me again soon.
WGMI. 😎
If someone passed this on to you, why don’t you see what they’re so excited about? Step right this way…