The year 2022 has brought us one of the most enlightening and unforgettable years in crypto.
As we look back, I’m reminded of a story, one of King Solomon and the quest for a magical ring. King Solomon sent a faithful follower to search for a magical ring, a ring that could turn the happiest people sad and saddest people happy. His faithful follower scoured the kingdom for nearly 6 months, becoming increasingly discouraged and saddened at the thought that he might fail his king. On the very last day of his quest, he located a silversmith in a tiny shop. He asked the silversmith if he had ever heard of this magical ring. The silversmith thought for a second, took out a ring and inscribed it with three characters. When King Solomon’s faithful follower looked upon the message, his sadness turned to happiness. The ring was brought back to King Solomon as he was in the midst of a celebration. Upon seeing the ring his happiness turned to sadness, but then after another look, back into happiness. What was inscribed on this ring? The inscription read, “this too shall pass."
There are three undeniable lessons learned about crypto in 2022 that align with the story of King Solomon and the ring.
One, the ring was not magical and crypto is not magical – people are not magically becoming billionaires overnight. Instead, we’re finally seeing the bad actors for who they are, and these actions will not be tolerated as our industry grows safer and more resilient.
Two, our stories carry lessons with them. When Satoshi Nakamoto wrote the Bitcoin whitepaper, he envisioned a peer-to-peer network with no middlemen. We’ve come a long way from that vision but are learning again that we need to double down on building a decentralized, peer-to-peer financial system that’s protected from bad actors.
And three, despite the disappointment or dismay, and what it might feel like right now, this too shall pass. We are still in the early stages of our industry – an industry of builders – creating a new paradigm for a trustless economy between both people and parties. The ebbs and flows along the way are merely part of our journey as we bring the world closer together through blockchain.
With that said, for us at Fordefi, there’s a lot for us to be thankful for in 2022. Our seed funding led by Lightspeed set us up for an incredibly strong build year and a successful product launch. At the start of the year, our team was less than 10 and now we’ve grown to almost 40. I’m proud of the amazing people we’ve brought on but I’m even more proud of the team we’ve become. We’re thankful for our partners, investors, family and friends, all of which have added to a truly wonderful year for us.
In 2023, we’re looking forward to being positive change agents in the DeFi landscape, setting new expectations around security, transaction clarity, and institutional self-custody. We’re excited to maintain our momentum working with industry leaders to build for the demands of DeFi security, multi-chain connectivity, and forging a path to further institutional adoption without compromises.
We're grateful for the blessings of 2022 and despite some disappointing events of the last year, this too shall pass. We’re looking forward to 2023 and truly believe that the crypto industry will grow and flourish from our lessons learned.