Nic Carter Reflects: Why Continue Betting on the Future of Cryptocurrencies Despite Disillusionment

Cryptocurrencies promised to revolutionize the financial system. However, after a decade in the industry, many question whether we are truly building something transformative or simply expanding a global digital casino. This question is increasingly common among sector pioneers.

Nic Carter, partner at Castle Island Ventures, recently reflected on this dilemma, indirectly responding to arguments similar to those raised by critics like Ken Chang, who laments having dedicated years to the crypto ecosystem considering it fundamentally corrupt and speculative.

The clash between idealism and reality

When many entered the world of cryptocurrencies, they were motivated by libertarian ideals and the vision of decentralization. The dream was clear: transform a centralized and corrupt financial system into a more equitable and transparent one.

The reality has been different. As Ken Chang observed, what was supposed to be a new economic model became the largest speculation mechanism our generation has built. Yield vaults, perpetual derivatives, prediction markets, and meme coin launch platforms proliferated not out of necessity, but because market incentives allowed and financed them.

Nic Carter acknowledges the validity of these criticisms. However, rather than succumb to pessimism, he proposes a different way to evaluate progress in cryptocurrencies.

The five real directions of development

It is important to understand that cryptocurrencies do not pursue a single goal, but multiple currents coexist:

Global financial inclusion: Perhaps the most tangible achievement so far. Billions of people access financial services without traditional intermediaries, using stablecoins to store value, accessing tokenized capital markets, and interacting in digital economies from anywhere in the world.

Restoration of sound money: The original dream of Bitcoin: creating money independent of state control. Although progress has been slower than maximalists expected, Bitcoin positions itself as a significant monetary asset after 15 years.

Improved market mechanisms: Bank transfers, COBOL language, and the SWIFT system remain outdated. Cryptocurrencies offer an alternative path to upgrade this infrastructure without completely replacing the legacy systems that move trillions daily.

Digitization of business logic: Smart contracts, mainly driven by Ethereum and Vitalik Buterin’s vision, enable complex transactions to execute automatically. While they find greater utility in financial derivatives, they hold potential in specific niches.

Sovereignty over digital property: The Web3 philosophy of “read-write-possess” recognizes that our identity and digital spaces do not truly belong to us. Attempts with NFTs and decentralized social networks arrived prematurely, but the premise remains valid.

Accepting side effects

Carter is honest about the cost: the normalization of senseless financial betting among youth, the proliferation of speculative schemes, and economic nihilism are real and unpleasant side effects.

This is inevitable in financial markets without entry barriers. There is no mechanism to prevent it without sacrificing the openness that makes blockchain valuable in the first place.

The historical perspective is useful: bubbles accompany all major technological changes. Speculative excesses finance infrastructure that ultimately has real utility. The human cost is genuine, but it is also the price of building on an open pathway.

Pragmatic optimism, not naivety

So who is right? The idealists who still believe in the crypto revolution, or pessimists like Ken Chang who see only a casino in disguise?

Nic Carter’s answer is a third way: maintain evidence-based optimism, not based on fantasy.

It is unrealistic to expect the mass adoption of Bitcoin overnight. NFTs did not revolutionize digital property. Smart contracts are mainly limited to derivatives. Tokenized assets are progressing slowly. No authoritarian regime has fallen because of crypto wallets in citizens’ hands.

However, applications that have found real market fit continue to expand: Bitcoin as a store of value, stablecoins as programmable money, DEXs as custodial-free markets, prediction markets as information systems.

The real challenge is to distinguish between blind hope and tangible opportunities. If your vision is an absolute libertarian utopia, the compass toward disappointment is already calibrated. But if you recognize that progress is gradual and that collateral costs are real but do not disqualify the entire project, then there are reasons for confidence.

Nic Carter concludes that the current situation is more promising than ever. Not because everything works perfectly, but because we have more evidence than ever before about what really works and what doesn’t. The crypto industry remains a territory in dispute between reckless speculation and genuine infrastructure building.

The difference between Ken Chang’s pessimism and Carter’s pragmatic optimism is not between being “inside” or “outside” cryptocurrencies. It is between recognizing their current limitations while persisting in their real possibilities, or abandoning the project due to its inevitable flaws.