That saddest thing to me about all this is the idea that here we've been blessed with the closest thing left in this world to a true, free market - one of the few places left in the world where a truly free market still operates without the interference of corrupt politicians, dictators, bureaucrats, corporations, lobbyists, elites and influence peddlers, and it's been so often and so widely abused.
Crypto was supposed to be a demonstration that top-down regulation wasn't needed, that people are better off with free markets without centralised government interference/influence/corruption. Absent some serious changes/innovation, that experiment is clearly failing, and I'm not just talking about CINNI (see sys, clstr, intellicoin, usecoin, etc - the casualty list goes on and on and on).
Can free human beings interact with one another and regulate themselves in a way that better ensures the mutual prosperity of the community, without the heavy, corrupt hand of centralised, governement regulation that ruins everything and suffocates innovation and growth? That remains to be seen. Here's hoping - for all of our sakes.
Take all of these "corrupt politicians, dictators, bureaucrats, corporations, lobbyists, elites and influence peddlers" and now look at everyone in crypto and you'll be able to replace pretty much all of them with certain players in crypto whether it's devs, pump-n-dumpers or whatever.
Left to their own devices, humans are fundamentally corrupt. Welcome to the reality of it all.