Who here remembers ‘The Button’?It was a social experiment initiated by Reddit in 2015 as an Aprils Fools with seemingly no purpose what so ever. The rules and setup were pretty simple. The button would count down from 60 seconds and would only reset itself if pressed by someone before the timer hit 0. Pressing the button would assign a flair/color to the user and disallow them to press it again.The assignment of color followed this structureWhat happened after the button was released, nobody could really anticipate. Factions were built around the different colors, which all defended the legitimacy of their chosen color. Soon a cult-like phenomenon arose and factions were trying to infiltrate each other to push their own agenda. Even not participating and pressing the button became a faction, with ‘non-pressers’ heralding not pressing the button and giving in to temptation.The experiment ran more than two months and included more than 1 million participants, until finally someone did not press the button and the timer reached 0. This concluded the experiment and while most were anticipating some sort of closure to the experiment, it never happened. The meaning of the experiment was whatever the users themselves gave it and it took off with flying colors. A community was built around simply pressing a button for months end with no purpose and even within said community, there were factions competing to give the experiment meaning.So, why is all of this relevant?Well, I think that ‘The Button’ is a perfect example to draw parallels from when it comes to tribalism in modern time. Earlier studies have shown that it doesn’t take more than a color, a name or an artifact to divide people into separate groups. This experiment proved just that and more so that factions will attack other factions to legitimize their own agenda. Does this ring a bell?Many cryptocurrency projects are legitimizing their existence or purpose by throwing mud at other projects. How is the cryptocurrency community at large expected to grow and be taken serious with so many internal factions that are preoccupied with attacking each other rather than help adoption? I understand that everyone suffers from confirmation bias and that seeking congruency is sometimes a driving force behind decision making.With the size of the current cryptocurrency market, there is plenty of room for everyone to grow and thrive and there is really no need for internal fighting. There should be no competitors in this industry, only potential partners.
Submitted January 29, 2019 at 09:44AM
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