We are infected with this idea. It is ingrained in us as a part of society. To emphasize the point, we use sport analogies. We are led to believe it is all a part of "competition".
In fact, it got so bad we bring it into all facets of our lives. Even within marriages, some operate from this premise. The idea is that things are a zero-sum game. This means that in order for someone to win, another has to lose.
Unfortunately, this ends up creating the "winner take all" mentality and that the only way to approach things is from this perspective. Everything becomes a conflict in the question to achieve this end.
The reality is far different. Very little in life is a zero-sum game.
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The Sports Analogy
Sports are a major part of society. We use it as inspiration, motivation, and for entertainment. Top athletes tend to be some of the most popular celebrities. Those in the professional ranks are the highest paid individuals.
One thing about sports is that it is a zero-sum game. Whatever the contest, there is a clear winner in most instances. That means, in order for that team to be victorious, another has to lose. Both cannot win. It is not how sports are designed.
Because of this, we derive the mindset that we tend to apply to all of life. Politics is now a sport with the only goal to obliterate the other side. Negotiations are battles, with neither side looking to reach an agreement. Mutual benefit is not part of the package.
Of course, we take the metaphors a step further to the stage of war. Sports is not longer a game but a battle. Athletes are going to war. They need the warrior mindset. This is what we esteem.
Now we apply that to business leaders. Jeff Bezos is noted for his determination in destroying the competition. Mega-technology companies seek to control all they can. Anyone who rivals them has to be eliminated by any means necessary.
This is now present in cryptocurrency. People take sides. The Bitcoin maximalists believe that is going to dominate everything. If it is not Bitcoin, it is worthless. Naturally, of late, the Ethereum maxis has a similar outlook, only applying it to Ethereum. Bitcoin is pretty much outdated and useless. Hence, Ethereum is going to be the world's only "virtual computer".
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Counter To Reality
When writing this, it is laughable how absurd it is. As the idea is put into words, it becomes even more asinine.
Leaving cryptocurrency aside for a moment, very little in life operates according to this principle. In fact, society progress comes from the fact that we do not see much that is a zero-sum game. Sure there are losers in every aspect. However, that is not a result of someone else "winning".
The key point is expansion. We tend to grow all aspects of society. Very little in life is finite. For this reason, more than one can be a winner. If we use another common analogy, we do possess the ability to grow the pie.
Many people feel that markets are a zero-sum game. If one is to have a winning trade, another has to lose. This is not the case. Markets are often expanding as new money pours in. Here we see the pie growing. Also, when one purchases an asset, say a stock, and it goes up, that person made money. Of course, the person that it is purchased from could also be in a profit. Over time, even the latest buyer can end up coming out ahead.
Just look at a company like Google that went public more than 20 years ago. If we look at the chart, here is what we see.
Certainly there were opportunities to lose money yet, for the most part, everyone who got involved with Google came out ahead. And there weren't really any losers from a business perspective since Google was one of the early players in search. A few started like AskJeeves ended up going away but nothing of any size. Hence, Google added a lot more than it destroyed from this perspective.
What we end up seeing is massive expansion. Another example is newspapers. No doubt they were "losers" in this scenario. However, did the loss of the traditional "information purveyors" end up giving all the information to just another competitor? This is not a zero-sum game. We now have access to millions of times more information than we did 30 years ago when newspapers reign supreme.
The pie got a lot bigger.
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Cryptocurrency Is Part Of The Growth
Cryptocurrency is growing exponentially. This is true by any metric we use. For this reason, the idea of zero-sum makes absolutely no sense.
To start, it is resident in the digital world. Here we also see consistent expansion. The basic components of infrastructure are getting faster and more powerful. At the same time, communication systems are also seeing increases in speed as well as capacity. Hence, the number of transactions taking place globally is on the rise. This is aided by the fact more people are getting online each day, having surpassed 5 billion.
The cryptocurrency networks that are established are still small in terms of usage. While many have scalability issues, there is no concern about the future need. A lot of bandwidth is going to be required to handle all the volume. Simply put, it is not going to decrease.
Industries are capable of expanding. They do not remain stagnant. Even mature industries with a slowing growth rate can keep going. When we look at where things were 100 years ago and compare them to today, we can see how this operates at a societal level. Across the world, standards of living were raised.
Does this mean every cryptocurrency project is going to be a massive winner? Absolutely not. There are many reasons for projects to fail and it is part of the progress forward. Failures can be learning experiences.
It also does not mean that established companies will not end up out of business. This happens to for a variety of reasons. Usually, it is tied to an unwillingness of a company (actually its leadership) to adapt to changing conditions. Either way, there are going to be household names that are gone in 10 or 20 years.
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Nevertheless, we are in an exponential era of technology. This means the different areas of life are going to see massive increases in production. A lot of this is attributed to the tentacles of digitization that is penetrating more areas of our lives. This sets things on a massive growth scale.
All the talk about the Metaverse does have one thing correct: we are working towards a world with near infinite potential. The only constraints are bandwidth and processing power. That opens up new realms of possibilities.
After all, what is the limit on number of web searches that can take place? It is likely there is a number but none of us know it. And whatever it is, that can be adjusted with the addition of more servers.
Cryptocurrency truly is nothing more than data. We see this, in general, increasing at an astronomical rate. As we add more algorithms, the volume of data grows exponentially. This is something else that is not likely to wane.
Once we step passed the idea of this being a zero-sum game, we start to see the enormous potential all around us. We are going to see a lot of life changing ideas coming forth. There is no reason to believe only one or two will "win".
There is plenty of room in this realm of massive expansion.
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