I've been thinking about this for a very long time. The question is simple: where is crypto actually heading? Evgeny Gaevoy, founder of Wintermute, recently shared some deep thoughts about the philosophy of crypto and its future.

So, the story goes, he draws a lot of inspiration from Dune Messiah— a book that teaches an important lesson: humanity needs diversification to survive. The concept of the "Golden Path" is basically about how we always fall into the same pattern: from chaos to organization, then to empire, and eventually collapse. The cycle repeats endlessly.

And the most important thing of all? We must embrace diversity, reject centralization, no matter how attractive the stability it offers. But in today’s world? There’s too much "protected comfort"—in countries, in corporate financial systems, everywhere. This is slowly pushing us toward destruction.

Gaevoy sees three possible futures: anarcho-capitalism (company dominance), nationalism (state dominance), or fascism (both collaborating). But there’s one different side—something that doesn’t offer "protected comfort" but instead forces you to be sovereign and independent. What is that? Cryptocurrency, of course.

Now, this is interesting. After nearly 9 years in the industry, Gaevoy says he’s never felt this confused. We’ve got what we wanted—institutions are entering, technology exists. But the "soul" is gone. The feeling of "what are we actually doing?" is also gone.

He sees three paths ahead. First, traditional finance swallows crypto—popular stablecoins, chains with KYC, Bitcoin becoming digital gold under government control and ETFs. We lose completely. Second, governments surrender to blockchain—everything permissionless, KYC/AML gone. A world that’s free and glorious—but that’s pure imagination, with minimal probability. Third, we build something parallel and completely separate from the existing system. We win honestly. Probability? Entirely depends on us.

Gaevoy is clearly not interested in the first solution. That just makes the existing machine run more smoothly. The second solution? Pure fantasy—governments won’t relinquish sovereignty, companies won’t voluntarily give up monopolies. So, the only option left is the third: build an ecosystem that’s truly independent.

The biggest problem? Many people haven’t really internalized this lesson to the bone. Especially those living in comfortable Western countries. But in 2022-2024, we actually experienced it—SEC and CFTC attacks, plus centralized entities almost owning half of the crypto world. What lesson did we learn? The opposite direction. We thought just putting the right people in the right positions would make us win. But that’s not enough.

For years, we’ve complained about bad UX, Bitcoin being impractical as a payment tool, endless hacking attacks. But what if we’re all wrong? What if these inconveniences are actually the price we have to pay for sovereignty?

Gaevoy says we need to optimize UX, but not for the 50% of the world’s population that doesn’t need it, but for the 50% that truly does—people in developing countries witnessing democracy erode, or in developed countries increasingly resembling China and Russia with anti-privacy laws.

Our goal isn’t to oppose regulation or government. Our goal is to create something they can’t control. The key is not to depend on points that can be cut: fiat on/off ramps, app stores, DNS resolution, centralized sorters, social media platforms, or centralized stablecoins.

Specifically, Gaevoy suggests: embrace permissionless sovereign protocols, build truly decentralized DAOs (not just superficial), learn not to depend on centralized systems or be ready to switch immediately, bring back sustainable algorithmic stablecoins, and protect privacy with any tools available.

In the end, he says: we must build something that gives future generations a place to escape, while allowing the real world and crypto world to coexist. The tool for escape is the only thing worth building. One day, when cryptocurrency is no longer popular, it can still function without outside interference. That’s what matters most.

Most of us will still choose to live alongside empires—due to responsibility, comfort, or other reasons— and that’s understandable. But a small remaining group will create an exit. Wintermute and other builders in the crypto space are basically trying to do exactly that—build infrastructure that’s truly resilient and permissionless for a freer future.