$PEPE and The Fight for Independence from Venture Capital

Update, July 2023: $PEPE has been compromised by venture capitalist crypto firm Gemini, a close collaborator of a16z and obviously, a venture capitalist aka the enemy. Turnaround time was less than two months.

Quick post here and just wanted to share a very interesting development out of crypto, that being the $PEPE community that has absolutely exploded over the past week. $PEPE is a coin that has seen the fastest growth of a coin ever, and importantly, it is doing something very different: a community based approach committed to keeping out VCs and maintaining a VC and VC-scammer free community. It is being called “the people’s coin” because it represents something that was actually built by the community and for it, instead of being about making a bunch of venture capitalists rich as they manipulate the crypto ecosystem. 

Carving out any bit of independence at all, from the venture capitalists who have such a vice grip over all of the crypto economy and infrastructure, means everything. Far from opening the potential of the blockchain, big VC like a16z has spent hundreds of billions of dollars establishing monopolistic crypto platforms, centralized exchanges, entire BANKS owned by them. It has been them and all their corrupt friends who have the most amount of money on the platform, and wealth distribution of Bitcoin is even more unequal than the current distribution of wealth in the United States. Which is truly stunning.

There are many reports of VC manipulating crypto markets using outsized influence, the media, various of their fake movements, and of course, their insane amount of money. Like we see in technology broadly, everything in crypto is owned and controlled by VC. Rather than a realization of the possibilities of cryptocurrency to actually make lives better and produce better economic systems, venture capital is profiting from taking it over. While blockchain has the POTENTIAL to be generative and liberatory on the level of global prosperity, venture capital is doing everything possible to keep that from happening. Crypto and fintech was built to be a financial infrastructure for them, that they own and control and get rich off of. They have been hands on in manipulating major coins and many people in the crypto community have begun to have animosity and conflict with them; wherever VC goes, it makes enemies of the people. 

This… $PEPE, it is something different. And that is absolutely compelling to me because what it is, is, this is an independent community, this is an independent coin, that RECOGNIZES itself and asserts itself as independent, and wants to stay free from the venture capital influence. That is putting the people first. 

You fucking love to see it. This feels a bit like some of the energy around 2012-2014 where people in technology were sick of VCs owning everything and sick of VC scumbags, and came together to try to build independent tech.  

This could potentially be the start of a broader community effort to start reclaiming crypto and the blockchain from venture capitalists. They used to advertise all these values — decentralization, openness, access, community — that were just cynical plays and empty promises. The crypto revolution now threatens to be exclusively for the venture capitalists. Problem is, they didn’t get here alone — they never do — and there IS *actual* grassroots interest and momentum, and there is a desire from the community to build and run independent things. 

In venture capital, they go insane trying to stop anything that is independent infrastructure. Independent infrastructure is anathema to them; they are open monopolists and they are only able to succeed by controlling and manipulating the market and maintaining exclusive chokeholds on economic infrastructure. They actually would not be able to compete in an open situation because they play not by winning but by rigging the whole playing field like a Christmas tree. These are market fixers and market manipulators.  

In the last bubble, there was a movement in the tech industry for independent infrastructure, to set up and operate things that were out of venture capital control, and to get better distribution of capital to support building that up. We set up an independent tech press — I ran that for about 3 years. There was a global, independent, VC-critical conferences series called Alterconf that brought speakers from around the world, as well as a number of smaller events. Independent hacker spaces were a common theme. We funded, independently, hundreds of projects, from independent social networks to new OSS communities, to new ways to raise money for and pay people to work on independent software projects. 

Venture capital, over the course of about 5 years, dismantled all of these movements brick by brick; yet the core ethos still shows up all over the field. And now in crypto. 

I think it would be so important to make this a truly global movement; crypto users all over the world are getting fucked up by venture capital. 

Here’s the thing: VCs are not just doing this to us. This is a global problem. Venture capitalists haven’t just been dicks to the American crypto boys, they cause monumental damage everywhere they go, okay, these are financial terrorists, they destroyed Oakland and the Bay Area, they are a tremendous power and I highly encourage everyone to start taking that seriously. The worst, extremist and fascist versions of venture capital have taken over the field, see: a16z. To fight global threats we need global movements. There IS another way to run technology and crypto.

That means connecting this struggle to the broader struggle against tech dominance. Most people don’t know that a16z has been building out a very extensive portfolio of weapons startups. Which means that a lot of crypto money is literally blood money, with returns going into VC’s weapons portfolios and vice versa. The money is continuously being re-circulated in their market. 

Something that crypto users need to realize is that VCs will be using this to wield global domination, taking the worst possible routes that crypto and blockchain could go in. 

Most importantly in my mind is that venture capital is in the middle of using Bitcoin as an excuse and basis of predatory development deals with poor countries in the Global South. The VCs come in, make deals with the local government for tax breaks and shelter from regulation, and like in Oakland and San Francisco before them, fall to the devouring venture capital vortex. They will exploit labor, colonize, steal, install military juntas, arm oppressive and dictatorial governments, and strip-mine every city and country they enter. 

This is what they are using crypto to do. 

El Salvador’s government is thoroughly wrapped around crypto venture capital hands, and they have installed new legislation that eliminates all taxation for technology wealth including crypto and AI. This means that venture capital can now safely operate out of El Salvador, where reckless implementation has made the financial system worse than ever as the country is condemned by Amnesty International for human rights abuses. This is just classic colonialism; the Bitcoin is just an excuse. Venture capital has left the Valley and is spreading its necrotic influence everywhere. 

They are in a battle for world domination and crypto plays a big role in their plans.   

The need for independent infrastructure against VC is only going to grow. Even if $PEPE doesn’t succeed the way we want it to, it is a huge stand against venture capital control, it is building the political consciousness of the community and their awareness about a shared threat. This could be the start of something broader. We need to stand together against venture capital and engage in a very serious war over this infrastructure. We can’t lose. We also can’t leave other peoples and countries and cities alone and unequipped against the venture capital threat. 

I also think $PEPE has been genuine and dynamically creative, fun and interesting. So far, with a few small exceptions, it’s been more friendly than other crypto communities I’ve run into, with more of a focus on education, positivity, community building and the power of the people. I did go into one Twitter space and attempt to give a short briefing on what we learned from the web 2.0 movement in the startup sector, and was shut down by some absolute jackass. I hope that is the exception and not the rule. It’s okay to have fun, but it’s not okay to be unserious about something of this magnitude. Many people in crypto have an extremely limited view of the full scope of venture capital and would benefit from fucking listening and learning what is actually happening around here. It will make you more money, too.

So, here’s to independent infrastructure!! It is a necessary part of the ongoing fight against venture capital, which actually started more than 10 years ago, and some might argue 30, and is manifesting in this part of the field now. 

Ribbit Ribbit!!!