When the Code Broke Down: Why Did I Stop Believing in Decentralized Finance?

The Quiet Swing

I stared at the screen at 2:17 a.m., Pacific time. NEM’s price dropped from \(0.00353 to \)0.002645 in less than a day—25% down, then 45% up, then nothing. The numbers weren’t random. They were breaths—each tick a heartbeat of trust eroded by silence.

Not Just Numbers

The trading volume? Over ten million transactions. The turnover rate? Nearly 33%. But no one talks about who held the keys when the smart contracts failed silently—no audit trail, no voice, no apology. I’ve reviewed these charts since my mother taught me Perl scripts beside her kitchen table in San Francisco, where English and Cantonese tangled like wires in the wall.

The Algorithm That Forgot Us

They call it ‘decentralized.’ But when every node flickers off because no one is home? When governance votes are cast by bots with no faces? This isn’t market volatility—it’s existential weariness in Web3’s hollow promise.

My Night Shift

I didn’t sell XEM because I believed it could change things. But now? I wonder if code is ever meant to serve human dignity—or if it was always just another liquidity pool dressed in investor fantasy.

You Too?

Did you feel this too—the quiet crash before dawn? Send me a note if you still believe there’s something more than metrics.