Part 1: The Bitcoin Ecosystem is a Long-Term Narrative
When it comes to holding a cryptocurrency, the logic should always be independent of short-term prices. During a coin’s peak, if you choose to believe a narrative, you should consider if that narrative can still convince you when the price drops by 10%. If it can’t, maybe it’s time to reevaluate the persuasive power of that narrative.
There are some narratives that only work within a certain price range. If the price drops, it means that the narrative is no longer valid. On the other hand, there are narratives that can stand independently from price fluctuations, as long as there are no fundamental changes (such as the project team abandoning it or a black swan event). These narratives can hold their ground regardless of price movements.
Temporary narratives are often used to fuel FOMO (fear of missing out) emotions. Once the price drops, people have countless reasons to refute it (perhaps even before, to maintain an objective investment mindset). On the other hand, reliable and sustainable narratives are used to amplify beliefs during FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) moments. Even during calm periods, just one mention of a narrative can reignite FOMO. However, it’s important to note that even if these narratives are truly independent of price, they often become overly embellished during FOMO and are subject to dubious claims during FUD.
If you are a long-term believer and choose to hold a cryptocurrency, you should try to avoid temporary narratives (even though they can be difficult to identify at times) and instead opt for narratives that appear convincing and independent of price. Taking Bitcoin as an example, even if it crashes to $20,000 tomorrow, I can still confidently tell you that it will reach $1 million in a few years—no explanation needed.
Bitcoin is straightforward, and everyone understands its “eternity.” However, simplicity is becoming scarce, and it’s increasingly difficult to understand how long a narrative surrounding something will last.
The cryptocurrency market is ultimately a huge stage, where seemingly complex things are used to deceive and manipulate. Some say that no matter what happens, Bitcoin will rise, while altcoins will eventually go to zero. This is reasonable because the stage is like that.
However, there is something different—the “Bitcoin ecosystem.” It may seem complex, but it’s not that complicated. Everything is related to Bitcoin; everything is another aspect of Bitcoin, all to make Bitcoin better. From Bitcoin to everything else.
The term “Bitcoin ecosystem” is a reliable long-term narrative. You can refute individual projects, second-layer solutions, and every trending wave associated with Bitcoin. However, it’s difficult to completely refute the five words “Bitcoin ecosystem.”
How do we define the “Bitcoin ecosystem”? If something is called the Bitcoin ecosystem but has no connection when more people are using Bitcoin or when Bitcoin is rising, or if it develops well but doesn’t bring any value to Bitcoin itself or even harms it, then it is not needed by Bitcoin and has no meaning in the Bitcoin ecosystem. Only the patterns that truly contribute to Bitcoin’s development will form a complete, long-lasting gameplay that will not be lost from the Bitcoin mainnet.
Even if everything in the “Bitcoin ecosystem” eventually goes to zero, the charm of these five words will ignite a fire in the blockchain’s future at some point in time. See, this is a narrative that is independent of price.
Outside of Bitcoin, various public chains try to refute each other, and various memes try to prove why they are necessary while others are not. Only Bitcoin, you can’t refute it. Bitcoin and everything around it will only get better, it just takes time to prove it.
Human technology will continue to advance, healthcare will improve, the internet will prosper, and people’s lives will become happier… In addition to these parallel sentences, you can confidently add that Bitcoin will get better and better. What about everything around Bitcoin? It won’t be any different.
Therefore, if the endgame for altcoins is truly zero, the endgame for the Bitcoin ecosystem is the revival of all things, peace and prosperity, rivers returning to the sea, and the illumination of the path.
Part 2: Atomicals is an Opportunity of Certainty as Far as the Eye Can See
We have discussed why the narrative of the Bitcoin ecosystem can endure and even be considered “eternal.” Now, the question is how to find opportunities of certainty within this “eternal narrative.”
The simplest approach is to bring everything from web3 into Bitcoin—
A casual response: It should be possible since Bitcoin is the endpoint of everything. This seemingly casual response is actually the initial response from the masses, and as a result, various sub-ecosystems and projects emerged on Bitcoin, striving to meet market demands.
At the same time, more attention has been focused on the Atomicals ecosystem.
Atomicals is not a project created by someone on a certain day. It is a necessary part of Bitcoin’s development process—colored coins, Bitwork, AVM, Realm, and all other conceptual gameplay ideas that naturally emerge as Bitcoin matures. It just happens to be named “Atomicals.”
If it were up to me, I would call it the “Bitcoin Application Ecosystem (also known as Atomicals).”
Based on our previous discussion, simply copying everything from web3 is not entirely correct. Imitation can never surpass the original and only leads to the success of the imitated. Therefore, it is better to say that people enjoy comparing the imitated version, which ultimately fuels innovation.
Launching tokens, creating DeFi projects, playing with NFTs, or exploring decentralized identities (DID) on Bitcoin are all old tricks. The market is there, but the “paradigm innovation” brewing behind these markets is the true new frontier. It is these “old” things that allow people to flock to them inadvertently, leading to a wave of transformation in the Bitcoin ecosystem.
Atomicals is the culmination of maximizing Bitcoin’s “playability” since the Taproot upgrade two years ago. Why didn’t anyone create these ecosystems in the past decade? Innovation in Bitcoin faces countless conservatives and requires a long period to change the underlying environment. The conditions for this innovation soil have only been met in the past two years, and today’s ecosystem is the result of perfect timing, favorable conditions, and human efforts. Don’t think that you are participating in just another small protocol. Atomicals is completely different from those “seemingly ecosystem but actually projects” gimmicks. It is developed for Bitcoin itself, adding use cases that truly serve Bitcoin, and it is strongly tied to Bitcoin.
Atomicals is a genuine ecosystem that can make significant strides in “narrative endurance.” Some “protocol” ecosystems can be easily refuted with the same argument, questioning their overall viability. However, if you were to refute Atomicals, I believe you can only criticize a specific sector within it. Do you think colored coins are not good? Or do you think Bitwork mining is not good? Or do you dislike the domain names in Realm? Or do you have issues with DMINT, the NFT issuance method?
Many people think they are participating in a “sub-project” within the Bitcoin ecosystem, but that’s not the case. Atomicals is inherently connected to Bitcoin itself. We are tired of using words like “native,” “orthodox,” “authentic,” “genuine,” and “dogmatic.” Within such a large ecosystem, colored coins are one module, mining coins can be considered another module, domain names can be seen as another module, and AVM smart contracts are yet another module. This is what we mean by the “Bitcoin Application Ecosystem (also known as Atomicals).”
You can argue that a particular subsector within Atomicals is not appealing, but it is difficult to find fault with the new era of “Bitcoin applications” created by the new programmable, extensible, highly flexible, and highly playable nature of “coloring” and “decoloring.” The general direction is correct, and as for programming methods, mining gameplay, trading modes, and even community culture, all the details are being gradually optimized within the framework and will eventually improve.
Look, when Quark reached 130, I spoke and wrote like this, and now it’s over 30, but I still adhere to this way of speaking. At that time, the protocol dragons’ top atom was around 15,000, and now it’s over 3,000. This narrative or this type of narrative has spanned different market sentiments and different capital rotation cycles during both high and low markets.
Why does my logic remain unchanged during price drops? In the past, the drops were mostly due to environmental influences. As for why I chose to stay:
What does the market think? It doesn’t matter. I stand strong, regardless of the wind and rain. Little did I know, we may be at a turning point in history.
