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Displeased with Coins, Let's View Them from an Anti-Authoritarian Perspective

When Bitcoin first appeared, the world was silent. As numerous altcoins emerged following Bitcoin, and coin prices soared hundreds of times, people were bewildered. When meme coins with dog and frog logos appeared, people clicked their tongues. Now, Bitcoin has become the most successful ETF in history, and we live in an era where the new U.S. president proclaims himself as the 'Crypto President' and creates meme coins named after himself and his wife.

Many are pondering how to view coins that constantly make us 'click our tongues' without giving us time to adapt. Let's view coins as a branch of the anti-authoritarian movement. Then, many displeasing things become understandable.

The Anti-Authoritarian Movement Alongside Civilization

As the rules governing human society evolved from violence to law and morality, anti-authoritarian movements have emerged worldwide. In 1215, the British made the king sign the Magna Carta, asserting that even the king must obey the law. The Renaissance movement of the 14th century, which turned the focus from the great gods and churches to humans, led to Martin Luther's Reformation. The Enlightenment movement of the 17th century challenged absolute monarchy and religious authority, laying the foundation for the French Revolution in 1789. As the awakened Europe created colonies worldwide with powerful armies, citizens of the 'Third World' resisted the authority of colonial rulers through nationalist and anti-imperialist movements. Our country's independence movement and India's nonviolent resistance movement are prime examples.

During the era of intensified military hegemony competition between the U.S. and the Soviet Union after two world wars, global citizens challenged military authoritarian regimes and social order through the '68 Revolution' that began in France. Movements against authoritarianism, such as the Prague Spring and the anti-Vietnam War movement in the U.S., spread worldwide, and this trend continues today. Even in our country, there was a president who dismantled the authority of the military regime and another who endeavored to dismantle societal authoritarianism.

What Does Coin Have to Do with Anti-Authoritarianism?

The biggest reason coins feel unfamiliar and displeasing is because they are anti-authoritarian. Financial institutions that create, sell, and manage financial products are typically large, famous, trustworthy, and authoritative organizations. With globalization, financial companies in each country have formed alliances with global financial firms, and their names have grown even larger with global authority. Consumers equate scale and authority with trust, a particularly strong phenomenon in Asian cultures.

Coins are the opposite. They do not rely on the names of great companies or individuals with authority. The creator of Bitcoin, 'Satoshi Nakamoto,' is anonymous and still unknown. Vitalik Buterin, the creator of Ethereum, was born in 1994 and was only twenty when Ethereum was launched in 2014.

Ripple's creator, Brad Garlinghouse, is a former Senior Vice President of Yahoo, but the authority of Ripple (XRP), with a market cap of $180 billion, seems insufficient to rely on. Justin Sun, the creator of Tron (TRX), was appointed as Grenada's Permanent Representative to the WTO and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, acquiring the grand title of "His Excellency Mr. Justin Sun, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Permanent Representative of Grenada to the WTO," but this title does not establish the authority of the Tron network or Tron coin.

This is because Bitcoin, the ancestor of all coins, was designed that way. Bitcoin is philosophically based on the cypherpunk movement, which inherited the anti-authoritarian spirit of the '68 Revolution. Satoshi Nakamoto is known to have designed Bitcoin by integrating ideas such as digital currency and decentralized networks discussed in the cypherpunk mailing list of the 1990s.

The 'Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System' Bitcoin was created this way, and Ethereum, which added smart contract functionality while inheriting Bitcoin's decentralization, anti-authoritarian, and trustless system, was developed. Cardano (ADA), Solana (SOL), Avalanche (AVAX), Sui (SUI), Tron (TRX), and other so-called 'Ethereum killers' have inherited Ethereum's philosophy and functionality while improving speed and functionality. Decentralized 'utility coins' designed to be used for specific functions on these decentralized platforms have emerged, and coins have evolved. Amidst the rise and fall of numerous coins, Bitcoin's decentralization principle has been continuously inherited. Only by not relying on the authority of a large central entity, that is, by having no authoritative entity, can it be a blockchain and a coin.

The appearance of meme coins, which seem like jokes to anyone, should be understood in this context. Meme coins are what remain when ideological and technical authoritarianism is removed from coins, leaving only 'anti-authoritarianism.' Names or logos of meme coins often use funny images or words from Reddit or Twitter (now X), trivial things, and this is why there are no serious discussions in the form of papers about grand philosophies, business plans, or technical implementations. The implicit rule of fair launch, where all coins are distributed to the market immediately upon issuance, rebelling against the industry's trend of relying on the authority of famous venture capitalists (VCs) and other early investors for the coin's credibility, also proves this (unfortunately, the Trump meme coin did not follow this rule, with Trump taking 80% of the issuance).

Decentralization of Finance and Capital

From Bitcoin to the Trump meme coin, we are witnessing the decentralization of finance and capital. Instead of suit-wearing elites from global giant financial institutions founded by great entrepreneurs who have reached the ranks of great figures, assets created online by anonymous developers wearing hoodies with headphones around their necks are traded globally, and as their prices rise, people feel uncomfortable with the dismantling of the authority of finance and capital.

How should we view this? Before evaluating and criticizing coins and meme coins, we must first discuss whether the authoritative existing financial system has indeed performed well. Bitcoin was launched in 2008, criticizing the global financial crisis. The phrase 'The Times' dated January 3, 2009, engraved on Bitcoin's first block, proves this. In opposition to the devaluation of savings held by ordinary people due to the government's unlimited printing of money, Bitcoin fixed the total issuance to 21 million and made the issuance speed and cycle predictable. This is why Bitcoin is called 'sound money.'

Once regarded as a money laundering tool or a haven for crime, Bitcoin has now become a financial asset handled by major global financial firms, and even the chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, who led the crackdown on virtual assets, recently admitted before resigning that it is 'similar to gold.' A month ago, the Fed's Chairman Powell made the same statement. The U.S. president, who holds the most powerful authority on Earth, has proclaimed himself as the 'Crypto President' and promised to make the U.S. the capital of virtual assets in the world. As the most authoritative figures in finance and politics have recognized Bitcoin, the anti-authoritarian movement of Bitcoin, and further, the anti-authoritarian movement of virtual assets, should be seen as successful, like the '68 Revolution or the Renaissance.

An Irreversible Trend of the Era

We live in an era where Bitcoin's market cap ($2 trillion) surpasses Saudi Aramco ($1.8 trillion), silver ($1.7 trillion), Meta ($1.6 trillion), and Tesla ($1.3 trillion). The combined market cap of meme coins with funny names like Dogecoin (DOGE), Shiba Inu (SHIB), Bonk (BONK), and Pepe (PEPE) exceeds $100 billion. The world's richest person, the 'dogefather' Elon Musk, has become the head of a newly established federal government department called DOGE (Department Of Government Efficiency), discussing the introduction of blockchain to reduce federal government costs. We live in an era where a Dogecoin spot ETF application is submitted just one year after the Bitcoin spot ETF was allowed on the U.S. stock market.

Anti-authoritarianism is unfamiliar. Police officers dancing to idol music are unfamiliar, and a president who seems like a friendly neighborhood grandfather is unfamiliar. Even the most famous Bitcoin critic in our country was severely criticized 20 years ago for wearing 'back pants' to the National Assembly as a new minister. However, anti-authoritarianism is an irreversible trend of the era. From the era of the Magna Carta and the Renaissance to the flood of meme coins, from the divine right of kings to global finance, humanity has innovated and developed amidst the dismantling of authority.

New things are not always right. Just as the Cultural Revolution, which challenged the authority of traditional Chinese thought and customs, resulted in chaos and massacre, the dismantling of authority is not always right. In the same context, not all coins and meme coins are right. There are certainly acts of unjust gain, such as deceiving investors. Nonetheless, the decentralization of finance and capital is becoming an undeniable fact as an irreversible trend of the era. Now is the time to consider how to protect investors and establish a reasonable order within this trend, rather than ignoring or denying it.

Kim Min-seung, Korbit Research Center Director

Kim Min-seung, Korbit Research Center Director

Kim Min-seung is...

A founding member and director of the Korbit Research Center. He works to explain complex events and concepts in the blockchain and virtual asset ecosystem in an easy-to-understand manner and helps people with different perspectives understand each other. He has experience in blockchain project strategic planning and software development.

▶This article is an external contributor column introduced to provide various perspectives to cryptocurrency investment newsletter subscribers and does not represent the position of the Korea Economic Daily.

Reporter Jo Mi-hyun mwise@hankyung.com