Thinking about how the modernist religious response to accusations that religion = magic was to say "nuh uh, it's, uh, philosophy." This was not a good move, because the heart of "religion" is exorcistic alchemy (or alchemical exorcism if you prefer a different emphasis).

I do not think you need systematic theology in order to engage in the practice of transforming your black, iron heart into radiant gold, and there is actually some danger that it will get in the way.
Nietzsche was, I think, correct that the "rationalizing," "systematizing," element of Greek thought helped to produce the implosion of Christendom.
Metaphysics, cosmology, etc... So much fluff the moment they are no longer tethered to the purpose of casting out the demons and healing the sick.

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So the cryptocurrency industry has basically two products, one which is relatively benign and doesn't have product market fit, and one which is malignant and does. The industry has a weird superposition of understanding this fact and (strategically?) not understanding it.


The benign product is sovereign programmable money, which is historically a niche interest of folks with a relatively clustered set of beliefs about the state, the literary merit of Snow Crash, and the utility of gold to the modern economy.

This product has narrow appeal and, accordingly, is worth about as much as everything else on a 486 sitting in someone's basement is worth.

The other product is investment scams, which have approximately the best product market fit of anything produced by humans. In no age, in no country, in no city, at no level of sophistication do people consistently say "Actually I would prefer not to get money for nothing."

This product needs the exchanges like they need oxygen, because the value of it is directly tied to having payment rails to move real currency into the ecosystem and some jurisdictional and regulatory legerdemain to stay one step ahead of the banhammer.