“Mercenaries are driven by paranoia; missionaries are driven by passion. Mercenaries think opportunistically; missionaries think strategically. Mercenaries go for the sprint; missionaries go for the marathon. Mercenaries focus on their competitors and financial statements; missionaries focus on their customers and value statements. Mercenaries are bosses of wolf packs; missionaries are mentors or coaches of teams. Mercenaries worry about entitlements; missionaries are obsessed with making a contribution. Mercenaries are motivated by the lust for making money; missionaries, while recognizing the importance of money, are fundamentally driven by the desire to make meaning.” — John Doerr (KPCB)

For much of the last decade, the cryptocurrency ecosystem was driven by missionaries. The desire for financial sovereignty, the democratization of wealth, the solving of the most complex technical and game theoretic challenges are some of the few stars that guided these missionaries over the years. First came the desire to make an impact, and money just happened to follow. This is most evident in the Bitcoin and Ethereum communities.

Bitcoin and Ethereum are built by missionaries.

Much of the next wave is being built by mercenaries.

Let’s take two projects I admire, going after the same problem — decentralized computing — in radically different ways, Ethereum and Dfinity.

Ethereum and the Missionaries

Dfinity and the Mercenaries

One centralized team: The team is located in Palo Alto, has taken over tens of thousands of square feet of office space, and now looking to hire and have successfully hired some top talent to work in house.

The team is located in Palo Alto, has taken over tens of thousands of square feet of office space, and now looking to hire and have successfully hired some top talent to work in house. Sold to tens of professional investors: Andreessen Horowitz and Polychain Capital are the two major investors along with a few more VCs and friends of Dfinity.

Andreessen Horowitz and Polychain Capital are the two major investors along with a few more VCs and friends of Dfinity. In process of raising more than $100M: Have sold less than half of all available tokens. Dfinity will retain majority.

Have sold less than half of all available tokens. Dfinity will retain majority. Competitive: For anyone who has spoken to the founder and CEO, Dominic Williams, you know this first hand. Dom is ready to win and is not afraid of pointing out others’ weaknesses. He has inspiring confidence and is ready to lead.

For anyone who has spoken to the founder and CEO, Dominic Williams, you know this first hand. Dom is ready to win and is not afraid of pointing out others’ weaknesses. He has inspiring confidence and is ready to lead. Silicon Valley business/growth mindset: Dfinity has a clear business use case — “Reduce enterprise IT system costs by 90% through reducing human capital needs.” Dfinity will be run like and look identical to many other large tech companies.

Dfinity has a clear business use case — “Reduce enterprise IT system costs by 90% through reducing human capital needs.” Dfinity will be run like and look identical to many other large tech companies. Build in private: Most of the Dfinity tech is kept private. Just enough is put out to build some public excitement.

Conclusion:

Ethereum and Dfinity are going about their projects in extremely conflicting ways, almost opposite ends targeting the middle and we get to watch to see who wins. Will money beat community or will no amount of money beat a grassroots movement. Maybe Dfinity starts with money and heads towards community and Ethereum starts spending much more of their war chest to finance the war. There is no clear answer on who is correct. What is clear though is this will be one of the largest social experiments of this generation. Blockchains and decentralization have ushered in a new way of collaboration and coordination, not only in the digital but in the real world. Mercenaries and missionaries are both effective in different ways. We will have to wait and see which one will be more effective and win the blockchain war.