Bankless: 2022 Crypto People and Moments in Review
Original Author: Ben Giove
Compilation of the original text: Deep Tide TechFlow
2022 will undoubtedly be an eventful year in the history of cryptocurrencies.
2022 Crypto People and Moments in Review: It Was the Worst of Times, It Was the Best of Times
2022 will undoubtedly be an eventful year in the history of cryptocurrencies."Over the course of the year, the industry has seen dramatic changes as prices plummet and reshuffle."There is so much to cover when trying to take stock of what's going on in 2022. But luckily, Ryan and David decided to pass their
The Biggest Crypto Moments of 2022
5. Michael Saylor
Live does this for us.
5 heroes
Saylor incurs a $3.4 billion loss in 2022, as BTC has fallen by more than 63% in 2022.
4. Anthony Sassano
Judging by his performance, it's fair to question Saylor's strategy, but his conviction is admirable.
Saylor has continued to buy throughout the downturn while shunning all other assets in existence. This is All In Web3.
While not as well known as Saylor, Anthony Sassano certainly deserves to be on this list.
3. Cobie
Sassano runs The Daily Gwei newsletter and YouTube channel where he provides free educational content on all things Ethereum.
Sassano is as steady as his reported on-chain block production, delivering highly informative content day in and day out.
Cobie is famous for being one of the most legendary traders in the cryptocurrency space, but in 2022, he showed his philanthropist side.
2.ZachXBT
This year, Cobie defended atozy against BitBoy's frivolous lawsuit by donating to Twitch streamers and providing $100,000 in funding.
In a true display of his generosity, Cobie even let atozy keep the money after BitBoy dropped the lawsuit.
ZachXBT has done God's work in 2022 as one of the best self-regulators in crypto.
The anonymous on-chain sleuth uncovered a plethora of scams, scams, and unethical business practices across the industry.
ZachXBT’s actions are very brave, as he took considerable personal risk in publishing his exposé and did his part to make cryptocurrency a safer and more ethical space.
1. The developer of The Merge
5. Richard Heart
The developer of Merge takes the top spot on our list of heroes. These developers include Hsiao-Wei Wang, Parithosh Jayanthi, Marius Van Der Wijden, Ben Edgington, Tim Beiko, and Danny Ryan, who managed to pull off one of the most monumental technical feats in cryptocurrency history, transitioning Ethereum from PoW to PoS. What makes this achievement all the more impressive is that despite the complexity of the task, the distraction of the madness of 2022, and dealing with a $200 billion+ network, the merger went off without a hitch.
4. Alex Mashinsky
5 deadly sinners
3. Su Zhu and Kyle Davies
Richard Heart is number five on our list. Not only is Heart behind the highly controversial token HEX, but he has also drawn the ire of many for his ostentatious and obnoxious displays of wealth.
2. Do Kwon
The CEO of Celsius had his business floundering due to unbelievably poor risk management and excessive risk-taking. That wouldn't necessarily put him on the list, but Mashinsky and Celsius executives withdrew millions in the weeks before the platform suspended withdrawals and declared bankruptcy.
1.SBF
As we've discussed before, the 3 AC debacle wreaked havoc on the industry. So it's fitting that its co-founders and supercycle proponents Su Zhu and Kyle Davies make it into this ranking, especially after they were accused of double mortgages and misrepresenting their finances to lenders. Su Zhu also said unreasonably on Twitter that Ethereum abandoned its users...
Do Kwon is number two on our list. The creator of the algorithmic stablecoin combined poor protocol design with reckless risk management decisions, such as choosing to back UST with Bitcoin. Kwon did not help solve the problem through his tweets. He even stated that in his hands, DAI would die from now on, but he did not expect to die himself.
I believe no one will be surprised by this, SBF is the biggest "villain" of 2022. He stole $8 billion and committed one of the worst financial crimes in human history. The recent arrest of SBF has done immeasurable damage to the field. He is likely to spend a long time in prison.
top five worst moments
5. Tornado Cash Sanctioned
Many in the cryptocurrency industry believe that the judicial system is unfair to the industry for a reason. Today, while many of cryptocurrency’s worst scammers and scammers go unpunished, Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev was arrested in July after OFAC sanctioned the protocol.
The arrest of Alexey Pertsev, imprisoned simply for creating a code that protects the human right to privacy, is one of the most injustices of 2022.
4. The collapse of Terra
The collapse of Terra was one of the largest capital destruction events in human history, with LUNA and UST losing over $60 billion in combined value in a hyperinflationary death spiral.
The implosion of algorithmic stablecoins was scary enough in itself, but in hindsight it was even worse, as it catalyzed a credit crunch and contagion that wreaked havoc on CeFi.
3.3 Bankruptcy of AC
The fall of Three Arrows Capital, once a titan of the industry, had a devastating effect on the field. The hedge fund used large amounts of undercollateralized loans to purchase assets and employed unprofitable strategies such as GBTC discount trading.
The collapse of 3 AC led to a massive sell-off as their positions were liquidated, wiping over 1 trillion in cryptocurrency market cap and affecting CeFi institutions such as Celsisus, BlockFi, and Voyager, among others.
2. Hacking of Ronin and Wormhole cross-chain bridges
Cross-chain bridging is not safe! This is a lesson we have learned time and time again as billions of dollars have been hacked in cross-chain bridges.
Two of the biggest victims in 2022 are the cross-chain messaging protocol Wormhole and the cross-chain bridge of Ronin, the L1 that hosts the P2E game Axie Infinity.
With more than $1 billion stolen from the two protocols, the Ronin hack was particularly egregious because it occurred due to mismanagement of private keys and helped spur OFAC sanctions against Tornado Cash.
1. FTX Bankruptcy
It should be the undisputed number one.
The FTX debacle revealed a massive fraud in which CEO Sam Bankman-Fried used client deposits as his own personal money to buy real estate, invest in risky deals, make political donations and make loans to his hedge fund, Alameda. In the months and years to come, FTX will represent a blot on the industry.
But if there is any lesson from this situation, it is that it reminds us once again of the importance of decentralization and self-regulation. NOT YOUR KEYS, NOT YOUR COINS.
4 best moments
4. Cryptocurrency supports Ukraine
Cryptocurrency has proven that it can be a very effective tool for facilitating political donations in a fast, efficient and permissionless manner. Tens of millions of dollars in donations have been used to support Ukraine's defense, including the sale of a $6.5 million Ukrainian flag NFT.
3. L2s overtake L1s in trading activity
We may be a year late, but we're finally (sort of) into the summer of L2. In October, Layer 2 surpassed Layer 1 in average transactions per second (TPS), according to L2 Beat.
While we are still a ways off from having enough block space to host enough transactions, billions of transactions, slowly but surely, Ethereum is starting to scale.
1. The Merge
2. Web2 uses NFTs
In 2022, a large number of different Web2 companies will start to adopt NFT, such as Reddit, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter. Your casual friend might still hate them, but there's no denying that NFTs are laying the groundwork for their integration into everyday life.
As mentioned earlier, the merger is a monumental technical achievement. Its impact on Ethereum cannot be overstated, as it reduces energy consumption and ETH inflation by orders of magnitude, while paving the way for future scalability upgrades.
review the whole year
As we can see, 2022 is one hell of a year.
With cryptocurrency prices depressed, it's easy to focus on the worst people and events of 2022. Frankly, this is also understandable. Because things have been really bad this year.
However, it's also important to remember the bright side. Long-term builders continue to build, NFT adoption increases, and crypto shows incredible potential as a tool for good.
We can now rebuild from first principles. Cryptocurrencies can and will be stronger than ever.
