The HEX Paradox — Why People Are Hostile and Dismissive to Revolutionary Ideas
In 1865, the gas car was invented. People were shocked and frightened by its ability to go 14mph — 8mph more than the average speed of the horse and buggy. The full potential of the gas car was suppressed via the “Red Flag Law”. This law required all cars to have a minimum of 3 drivers, drive no faster than 4mph, and be preceded by a man on foot holding a lantern and waving a red flag.
Cenophobia is the fear of anything new, and has persisted throughout the history of mankind (not fear of John Cena, which would be valid). Whatever we choose to call it, there exists in society a scientifically proven bias against creativity. We’re going to explore the forms this fear takes, and why.
Hostility is the behavior taken by those with something to lose, or with something they have already lost. This is most often money or reputation. In the 1960’s, Coca Cola paid millions of dollars to scientists to actively suppress the harmful effects of sugar, and instead promote the idea that fat was the real culprit. The number one distributor of sugary beverages had lots of money to lose by exposing the truth. Reputation is also at risk in the world of new ideas. You will no longer see Jordan Belfort try to sell you penny stocks. As a man already living a life of luxury, he chooses to protect his reputation as a motivational speaker and sales coach instead. The rare, life-changing small-cap investments still exist — he’s just trying to save face.
You will see these same types of people gatekeeping the HEX project today. CoinMarketCap and CoinGecko deliberately withhold accurate HEX data, which keeps it off of the front page. HEX uses DEXs while CMC owns a large centralized exchange. HEX itself is a decentralized product that takes value away from these large companies’ bottom line. Luckily, we have honest alternatives like nomics.com.
You may also see your favorite cryptocurrency ‘influencer’ attempt to steer you away from HEX. No doubt many of these people have burned themselves and thousands of others by promoting vaporware and scams that crashed to the ground in 2017. They don’t want yet another demerit on their reputations. Still, the lack of critical thinking and research is evident. They seem to have no problem promoting unaudited code, pump-and-dumps, and outright ‘rug pull’ scams like YAM and MEME, to name a “FEW”.
People dismiss an idea when they have a pre-existing filter. These filters often have triggers that are correct most of the time. However, this causes people to miss the 1% of creative and valid ideas — the diamonds in the rough. Kodak, the camera company, completely missed the digital revolution, after starting it. When a Kodak engineer pitched the first digital camera to his executives, they replied with “That’s cute, but don’t tell anybody about it”. The company was acting within the filter had worked for them — film and printing. Kodak dismissed the digital revolution because it did not pass through their filter — pun intended.
Individuals that are dismissive of HEX have a “BS radar” that works 99% of the time. It may come from personal pain, or close proximity to the pain of friends. The truth is, 99% of cryptocurrency projects have failed and will fail. There are all kinds of fantastic ways for cryptocurrencies to implode: inflation bugs, economic exploits, exit scams, and outright HYIPs (like the infamous Bitconnect). Keeping an open mind for the handful of good investments requires both intelligence and openness.
Culture creates boundaries that give us comfort, but we must exercise our creativity to break through those boundaries. The process of innovation and novelty is painful, because it creates uncertainty. Nassim Taleb reminds us that although we favor predictability, we must be open to the rare yet high-impact ‘black swan’ event. Hindsight will always be 2020.
The world of cryptocurrency allows us to view the dismissal of new ideas in fast forward — and to examine it within an echochamber (think Twitter). The truth is that most people rejected Bitcoin after it launched in 2009, yet it now sits at 1,000,000 times its price 11 years later. Many also called the next big innovation in cryptocurrency — Ethereum—a scam when it launched. However, it is now the worlds most popular platform for blockchain developers. Value created is not value captured, and people don’t adopt new innovations overnight.
HEX is the latest controversial innovation in the cryptocurrency world. It is the Facebook to Myspace, the Google to Netscape. It has sparked controversy primarily due to its lack of promises about future work. HEX feels just like Bitcoin did when it was only $1. Their price charts are eerily similar. Don’t make the same mistake twice. Go to HEX.com and capture the opportunity of a lifetime.
