Why do we have tokens? From builder PoV: tokens helped them raise funds faster, without gatekeepers, VCs, or legacy institutions slowing them down. From investor PoV: tokens gave them instant liquidity, a chance to exit, hedge, or flip - something traditional equity never allowed. From trader PoV: you get another market to trade human emotions 24×7, where greed, fear, and narratives move faster than fundamentals. Tokens were born as a counterculture to stocks/equities. A counterculture built on rebellion, against closed systems, financial elitism, and slow-moving capital. But that spirit wasn’t preserved. It collapsed quietly after the ICO crackdown in 2018–19, when regulators came knocking and communities stopped believing. A counterculture that slowly morphed into a money-making machine for opportunists. Where whitepapers became marketing decks. Where ideals were diluted, and everything was reduced to price action. A counterculture where the original ethos, decentralization, community ownership, trustless design, died a slow, unnoticed death. A counterculture that now blends into mainstream culture, dressed in the same suits, talking the same language it once opposed. There is no counterculture anymore. So maybe the need for tokens will fade, at least at scale. Or maybe the need was never truly there....