The Emperor's New Moonsuit

Let's talk about something useful today. About miracles, specifically.

Look, we all need a miracle sometimes. That final push when you're this close to hitting your goal. And while praying to Nobody might work (They have a solid track record of not helping), there's a more practical approach: good old-fashioned bluffing.

Silicon Valley built an entire culture around this concept: "fake it till you make it," which is a fancy way of saying "lie until it becomes true or you get caught." And look, this isn't necessarily bad. Early-stage startups are basically professional pretenders – everything is always "launching soon," teams are always "expanding rapidly," and metrics are always "growing exponentially." That's fine. That's business. Really. Nobody (the actual deity, not your team) understands that sometimes you need to stretch the truth until it snaps back and hits you in the face.

But here's the thing about bluffing: it's like cooking with ghost peppers. Used sparingly, it adds spice to your story. Used excessively, it destroys everything and everyone involved.

The rules are delightfully simple:
• Don't bluff about things people can immediately verify
• Have something real behind the smoke and mirrors
• Make sure getting caught won't kill you
• Choose right moment
• Know your audience (VCs are smart people too, supposedly)
• Create urgency, but not panic
• Keep enough reputation tokens for the occasional redemption arc

Nobody teaches us "Let thy bluff be like morning dew - temporary and serving a purpose - not like concrete, permanent and blocking growth."

Speaking of bluffing gone wrong: Cosmoverse happened this week. You know, that annual gathering where Cosmos SDK enthusiasts discuss how to make their blockchains more buzzword-compliant. Our favorite blockchain performance artists, Bostrom, made an appearance. Again. This time selling Moon Citizenship. So relevant in 2024, I know. But this isn’t a take.

The best part? Their blockchain was completely down. As in, zero blocks. None. Nada. They're literally selling moon tickets while their earth-based operations are having what medical professionals would call a flatline situation.

But wait, it gets better.

So, here’s the situation: your blockchain is stuck, and you’re out of ideas on how to fix it. What do you do? A normal team might, I don’t know, talk to the Cosmos SDK creators who are literally right there.

Here's the truly magnificent part: imagine having a physics homework problem while at a party with Einstein, Feynman, and Oppenheimer. Most people would, you know, ask for help. Not Bostrom. They walked right past the actual creators of their SDK to deliver a speech about dominance. Or something. The speech was about as clear as their blockchain's uptime, which – did I mention? – is still zero.

This is what happens when "fake it till you make it" becomes "fake it till you break it."

Look, some pretense is fine in crypto. No-one expects you to have a perfect product before talking about it. But there's a difference between painting an ambitious vision and selling real estate in your fever dreams.

When should you bluff? When your product mostly works but needs momentum. When your code runs but needs users. When you have something real but need attention. Your testnet might need some narrative support. Your validator set might need some social proof. Your liquidity pools might need some encouraging words.

When shouldn't you bluff? When your GitHub AI-repo is emptier than your promises. When your team's credentials are more creative writing than resume. When your community pool is just your Telegram admins playing musical chairs with your tokens.

The crypto industry has enough actual innovation happening that you don't need to pretend. Build something real. Test it. Deploy it. Then talk about it. Revolutionary idea, I know.

Nobody said: "Blessed are those who bluff with foundation beneath their feet, for they shall inherit the mainnet."

Amen.