It's survived because it happened to make a great natural ponzi scheme, which then made some people rich, and made some people financially invested in pumping the price higher, who now spend all their time telling you how useful it is in an attempt to get you to buy into the "Crypto" universe but really just want your fiat.

It's a libertarian currency. Don't be surprised that it's a greater-fool nightmare - that's exactly the point. There's a reason that the True Believers get the majority of the coins for no mining costs and the rest beg for fractions of a coin. It's pure FOMO and reflected in their unofficial motto: "Have fun staying poor".

All of the people replying to you trying to convince you that crypto makes sense have a personal financial interest in getting you onboard. They have a larger interest in shooting down dissent and mocking non-believers, because if people stop believing the whole house of cards comes down.

I stand to gain nothing if you believe me or don't believe me, so take it however you wish.

When I'm interested to get a feel for the range of crypto projects with significant traction, I sometimes start here: https://snapshot.org/#/

But it's hard to point to a single place. There are many worlds in crypto. Twitter is a portal to some. One must go on an adventure.

Here's something a friend works on: https://www.regen.network/

For me, crypto enables experimenting with new kinds of corporate structures. That's what I work on. I think we have a decent shot at replacing the current model—basically psychopathic projections of sick humans minds—with something that won't destroy Earth.

It's very hard to do that without programmable money.