The current cryptocurrency cycle is teaching us hard lessons on commitment, decentralisation and utility

As every crypto bull run has wild concepts and ideas that spread like wildfire and turn FOMO into euphoria, every post-crash bearish phase has its own related events and themes, which serve to propel the crypto towards a new cycle.

Looking back on the past few years in crypto, some key behaviors will remain etched in collective memory as having fueled bullish sentiment or sparked chaos. Some will serve as warnings about how not to act in the future, while others can serve as building blocks for growth and improvement.

MicroStrategy and Michael Saylor

One of the main characteristics and one of the main arguments for selling Bitcoin is that, although it has supporters and defenders, there is no CEO, no figurehead, no individual who is responsible for receiving criticism or praise.

Bitcoin was created by Satoshi Nakamoto, but he may or may not exist. In other words, Satoshi could be the pseudonym of a single person or a group of pioneers, but in any case, whoever he is, he seems to have drifted away from his creation once it was launched.

This was a pivotal decision, one that established the authenticity of Bitcoin's goals (to be truly decentralised, accessible to all, and free from corruption), but it also meant that there was no figurehead to indicate the direction to take, like Vitalik Buterin or Charles Hoskinson, respectively at Ethereum and Cardano.

In place of such a leader, various independent Bitcoin experts came and went, giving talks with remarkable levels of engagement, in rooms that were sometimes nearly empty, while there was a wider lack of educational content.

This situation changed recently when MicroStrategy co-founder and CEO Michael Saylor got into Bitcoin. MicroStrategy now holds 129,699 bitcoins, acquired for $3.98 billion, with purchases starting in August 2020.

Its last purchases were in May and June, indicating an unwavering faith in Bitcoin despite tough market conditions. It is this kind of unwavering belief, coupled with the ability to convincingly articulate Bitcoin's strengths, that has allowed Mr. Saylor to become a highly visible champion of the Bitcoin cause. He has notably made appearances in mainstream medias that are not primarily cryptocurrency-related, such as his interview with Fox News' Tucker Carlson.

Bitcoin, of course, remains unchanged and will continue to operate regardless of what happens in the news media or who talks about it, but still, Michael Saylor was influential during this phase of the Bitcoin's existence. In fact, some of Saylor's latest advice may be a lesson many investors take as we move on from this latest crypto cleanup: "Bitcoin is the only investment-grade cryptocurrency."

No room for centralisation

There is a common theme that emerges when you look at the large entities brought to a halt by the crypto crash, and that is that they have little regard for decentralisation. This is evident in mismanaged crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital, which faces liquidation and bankruptcy, in the case of Celsius, a CeFi operation in financial turmoil, and when considering the likelihood of a additional market contagion eliminating centralised services.

The CeFi label indicates a system that offers some of the investment advantages available in DeFi, but managed by a centralised structure. A stark reminder that Celsius was not decentralised was made when it froze user withdrawals, a move that explicitly distanced it from the critical premises in which the crypto evolved.

So what does the bear market tell us? Over the past cycle, DeFi platforms have generated profits for those who have understood the mechanics, and they have continued to operate as expected. But, when centralisation and excessive leverage enter the crypto equation, creating insecure and opaque platforms with questionable practices, the delayed result turns out to be, perhaps unsurprisingly, a series of devastating meltdowns.

From a general point of view, it seems that cryptography will eventually punish those who deviate from its fundamental objectives, decentralisation in particular, and it will do so brutally since, by design, there is no authority control to provide relief.

Going forward, as crypto recovers, we should hope to see true DeFi mechanisms continue to develop.