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Ask HN: Feel bad about working in crypto, what to do?

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Ask HN: Feel bad about working in crypto, what to do?

#1
I work for a DeFi protocol that has a token. I joined in 2021.

I would describe myself as having neutral stance towards the crypto industry, DeFi/Ethereum more specifically. I am not a fan of most other alternative chains or Bitcoin. I understand that the majority of tokens and services are scams and markets caps are a bubble driven by speculation, but I also see true potential in the technology and ideology. Both of these opinions kind of cancel each other out leading to me being neither fully pro- nor fully anti-crypto.

However, the constant backlash from the public is nagging me. All the hate for crypto, even though much of it is uninformed, makes me question my decisions. I am also worried about future employability. If crypto fails, which is a real possibility in my mind, will I be unemployable because I spend several years in the scammy crypto industry?

Just feeling a bit lost. Anyone else in a similar position?

Re: Ask HN: Feel bad about working in crypto, what to do?

#2
I have dedicated the majority of my professional career to crypto. I am deeply passionate about the industry and its potential to disrupt the global financial system, and IMO it has already in significant and profound ways. Whether you agree or not, it has certainly brought the discussion of fiat currencies, central banks, and the philosophy of monetary systems from the backwater of forgotten academics to a real debate in the public sphere.

I work in this industry because it combined my libertarian beliefs with my software skillset. I work with a lot of like-minded people, and the atmosphere is very freedom-oriented and open to debate compared to the average tech company.

The 2018-2020 bear market was a true test of die hard crypto employees. Bitcoin went to $3k as the tech industry boomed. So many talented people capitulated and went to FAANG pa$ture$ but those of us who stuck it out also got paid.

I can’t really give you advice other than, if the industry and / or company disagrees with your moral beliefs, you should find another line of work. Similarly I don’t work in adtech or social media because I find it distasteful. You can’t earn a paycheck that makes up for a dissonance in your sense of self.

I agree there are more scams than most in crypto, but I don’t work for scams. I greatly enjoy the technology and the freedom it enables. YMMV

Re: Ask HN: Feel bad about working in crypto, what to do?

#4
> will I be unemployable because I spend several years in the scammy crypto industry?

People that worked at Enron, Lehman, LTCM, et al all got new jobs quite easily. You'll be fine.

> the constant backlash from the public is nagging me

The public is mostly angry that they paid too much. They were speculative gamblers that bought into the bubble extremely late. This is no different than people who aggressively took loans to play landlord at the height of the housing bubble. I can empathize with people that buy idiotic scam tokens as well as people that end up holding a ton of debt as their houses get foreclosed but at the end of the day they, not you, are responsible for their poor decision making. Do you really think it is your fault that people out there mortgaged their house to do 100x leveraged longs on dog themed coins?

If the wheel of fortune had gone their way instead of those shorting them, they wouldn't show any sympathy for the shorts.

Re: Ask HN: Feel bad about working in crypto, what to do?

#5
The crypto dent is on your resume now.

At this point, you may as well stick around and make a dent in the crypto world.

Find a way to have an impact. Write blog posts. Get a serious project delivery under your belt.

As to what you (or other people) think about your resume: don't be so hard on yourself. You made this choice for a decent reason. Follow your intuition and try to have fun / have an impact somewhere.

Re: Ask HN: Feel bad about working in crypto, what to do?

#7

> I also see true potential in the technology and ideology A good reason to continue on your path.

Also crypto isn't going anywhere, in fact its about to be adopted by the FED with a CBDC, FedCoin. The price is down today, but the price isn't what is important about the technology

Re: Ask HN: Feel bad about working in crypto, what to do?

#8
I’m curious that do individual devs of these crypto protocols really earn a lot like what many would have thought about them? By a lot, I mean like at least a million dollars a year that range of income. I mean, as we all know, in many of these protocols, not saying that your protocol is one of those though, the devs have almost full control over the protocol’s operations. It’s not really that “decentralised” as many thought of them.

I’m curious because many of these protocols, such as dex/farms or maybe tomb forks etc, claim they earn pretty well either through fees or what not from participants, and their tokenomics often have a good portion going to devs.

Also, if defi protocol devs really do make that kind of money and I was one of them, I wouldn’t be too worried about employability because I know I could easily retire within a few years! But that’s just me though.

Re: Ask HN: Feel bad about working in crypto, what to do?

#9
I’m not in your position but can understand your concern. At the end of the day there is an enormous shortage of developers with good skills, and if you’ve spend your cruft in understanding the systems and all the insights that come with it, than they’d be rather easily transferred into others. Not knowing in what part of the system you’re involved, but given the presence on this forum I can only imagine you’re involved from a technical pov.

Back end engineers and data engineers are very much sought after and the distributed nature of tokens in general give raise to a large set of interesting problems, that in my opinion are some times better solved without involvement of the blockchain. But a lot of other concepts do still hold.

Seniority and being a good team member are also invaluable and hard to find, and something that doesn’t matter what technical skill you’re involved with.

So in short I wouldn’t think to much on the fact that you spend time in crypto, but rather spend the time thinking on what concepts and systems are transferrable to other domains and roles and have it be reflected in your resume and cv accordingly. Being a good team member is much more than technicals. You’re a human in a team with insights and knowledge.

Re: Ask HN: Feel bad about working in crypto, what to do?

#10
This is a tough one.

I wouldn't worry that much about employability. If you're honest, hardworking, and love writing software then I don't see any issues there. I'm sure you've solved enough hard interesting problems that'll carry over to other industries. It's all about moving bits anyway. You'll even have a leg up if you have a better than average understanding of security.

You may be holding yourself back because it does take some time to ramp up in a new "vertical" (so to speak). Building new professional connections, etc. So like... maybe in an alternate universe you'd be working your way up the ladder at Apple or Google or whatever. That time invested does pay off and there's an opportunity cost there.

The tough one is the ethical question. Sometimes it's hard to tell if our disillusionment is internal or external. In other words, is it nagging you because you can see why the public is negative towards crypto or is it nagging you because you don't want to alienate yourself from the crowd?

If it helps, I've long held the strong belief that I should wake up in the morning guilt-free about my job. I need to feel excited about coming in to work and tackling the next big problem. I refuse to work for or with jerks. I refuse to work on products that aren't striving to make things better. I refuse to work on exploitative or manipulative products. I refuse to work for unfairly low pay. And all of that positive energy (great product, great people, great mission, good/great pay) make the dark/hard times easier to manage.

In the long run I feel like this philosophy has made me a happier and more successful engineer.

EDIT: Just to give you an idea of how I applied the above philosophy. I once quit a well paying job in the very first month because a senior engineer was an insanely venomous person and no one seemed interested in stopping them. I didn't make a big stink about it, just quietly moved on. The next job I found was amazing and I'm so glad that I did what I did. Yes it was scary.

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