Gwart, who took his memorable profile pic from a mute character in the TV show "Silicon Valley," has an uncanny ability to condense down the ovehanging problems of the contemporary crypto scene into 280 characters. It's not that others haven't pointed out that crypto, after nearly a decade and a half (about as long as Uber has existed), hasn't yet found a use case, it's that he covers the bitter truth with a little sweetness.
"I troll in a way that even when I'm being pretty sarcastic about something that maybe people feel very ideological about I do in a way that is, like, sort of endearing," he said.
You may not think that crypto, which has spent much of the past year in the doldrums, being criticized by the media and avoided by the greater public, doesn't need to be mocked any more. But Gwart's commentary and criticism is often seen as valuable.
"I think I'll say things in a way that people are kind of like 'yeah, that's sort of undeniable,'" he said, adding, "but maybe I might give myself too much credit."
Gwart can disarm while also getting people to engage. That's part of the reason the Hayden Adams and Paradigms of the world interact with and respond to him. The other part is, as a super heavy DeFi user, his concerns are valid. He said he "went so far down the rabbit hole" of DeFi and emerged thinking "this stuff is ridiculous."
It doesn't take an econ degree from a good school, which Gwart has, to know that circular tokenomics and trading systems where "frontrunning" is an expected (and maybe necessary) part of the market structure to know something is amiss. But unlike his fanbase, the kings and queens of DeFi, Gwart is losing hope solutions will be found.
While his biggest audience hails from Ethereum, Gwart is a Bitcoiner. "To the extent that I'm dogmatic about anything, it's probably bitcoin," he said. "I've sort of drunk the Kool Aid."
Although he is not a "laser-eyed maxi" (i.e. the stereotypical Bitcoin maximalist is carnivorous, hates the Fed and prays to Satoshi before sleeping), he does think bitcoin has more "durability" than crypto and potentially the U.S. dollar.
"With crypto, it's like, 'move fast, break things,'" Gwart said. "A lot of times we don't even really know what we're attempting to accomplish." There could be future use cases for blockchains, but that whole side of crypto is basically just tech, he said. It can iteratively improve, but doesn't really have an "end goal."
Bitcoin, on the other hand, is a movement with a destination. "I'm here for the revolution," he said. Crypto, especially DeFi, or the subsector working to replace actual financial operations like credit extension, banking and exchanges with intermediary-less, self-executing smart contracts, might beg to differ.
Gwart hesitates to dismiss the wider world of crypto entirely, he admits that there's likely something to the core idea behind NFTs (he likes CryptoPunks and Miladys, in particular) and that U.S. dollar stablecoins have found "product-market-fit." But the fact that the biggest use for blockchain today are things like USDT and USDC is sort of an affront to the founding vision that inspired this industry.
Many Gwart supporters may not like hearing all this, but it's hard to imagine Gwart caring. Gwart apparently did well for himself during DeFi Summer (2020), and is currently unemployed and in no rush to go back to work. He owns a small real-estate company and, for a time, chose to work part-time on a farm to fulfill a longtime dream. That is to say, Gwart enjoys spending his days busting chops on Twitter and stirring up trouble using his various pseudonymous accounts (Gwart is his biggest).
"I'm sort of the black sheep," Gwart said, when asked about his family. He said his parents know he sometimes calls himself Gwart online, which makes a handful of people, including a few in crypto, who know both the man and alias. "They are generally very supportive of whatever I do. They just assume I'll figure it out," he said, laughing.
So what's next for Gwart? He said he would consider working at a Bitcoin company, one that he's ideologically-aligned with. And someone recently approached him about doing a podcast…
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– D.K.
@danielgkuhn
daniel@coindesk.com
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