The winner of Crypto: The Game S2 was anonymous Player #733, with proceeds donated to the legal defense fund of Alexey & Roman, builders of Tornado Cash.
71.8 ETH has been transferred to the campaign’s address, the largest single donation made to the fund. 0.2 ETH has been transferred to the anonymous NFT donor, as a reward agreed upon by the collective.
The motivation for Player #733 was fueled by a desire for a happy ending to S2, following a season of absolute chaos. CTG is the most fun I’ve had onchain and offchain in a while, but not without its psychological warfare and sleep deprivation. The most interesting social experiment I’ve participated in to date. Dylan calls it “cutthroat’.
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I was eliminated on Day 8 by a sniper attack in the last few minutes, alongside many of my tribe mates. In the spreadsheets, night 8 was called the “red wedding”. What a game. I was still smiling ear to ear and also slightly relieved that I could finally sleep properly. On Day 9, I was just starting to readapt to my regular life when the telegram chats started buzzing again a few hours before final voting.
Several jurors and I realized just how much scheming and deception had been going on this whole time, we were upset! Butthurt! We had just uncovered evidence of a mole that had used info against us, and were maybe even the ones who eliminated us, how dare they! At the same time we identified at least 2 jury NFT whales, and you just know “King Wilbert” was hunting the chain. At this moment another level of the game unlocked for me, of course everyone was playing the deeper game! I had been hypnotized by the tribal kumbaya, the “winning is a team sport” comments; how could I have been so silly? with my single player NFT and my jolly attitude.
Many had made their spicy motives known or were so secretive they’d created much suspicion, causing significant distrust and fragmenting collaboration. There were psyops, there were hit lists, there were screenshots, group chats dedicated to certain players/groups not winning, secret cross-tribe alliances, misinformation, NFT sales, antics, cabals and whales oh my! Everywhere I looked, us vs. them and winner-take-all strategies were becoming the norm. We had finished playing our toy games and had entered the arena of the larger, meta game that is CTG: who wins the pot. But this is a game and games must be played.
With these latest realizations, it became clear the most likely endgame would not be a wholesome player winning, because they would likely be outvoted by the large cabals or whales - probably the same folks who used their ways to climb to the top, fairly. Simultaneously, myself and others were thinking about who to vote for, who “deserved it”, what did that even mean in game theory? We didn’t feel aligned with the cabal or whale win. David Phelps, many jurors and I felt there could be another outcome. It seemed we were getting back in the game.
We announced the new goal on twitter and started a public group chat, but waited to acquire the player NFT until we had enough offchain support in the next few hours (hopefully 50+ people). Otherwise we would delete the chat and call it a a day. Within ~1 hour of sharing on socials, we had Player #733 volunteer their NFT for this finale showdown. “Are you sure?”, ‘Positive!’ they said. In 12 hours, nearly 100 jurors had coordinated in a public group chat, soft committing their vote. I think the speed at which the initiative grew is evidence of how many S2 players related to the vibes of the desired outcome, or simply also felt there was no better option to vote for.
Fighting the cabals, whales and others was nothing personal, just as I’m sure their actions to try to win were nothing personal as well. By the time players had started canvassing finale support, the Free Alexey & Roman train had already left the station and the people were on a mission. As my non-playing friend observed: “when eth nerds see the opportunity to coordinate for something bigger than all of us, we take it”.
What it really came down to was coordination games. Players agreeing the best outcome for themselves was the one where they did the same thing as other players. I believe this jury proved that positive sum outcomes in maximally game theoretic situations are possible, albeit unlikely. This required at least 20 jurors to be highly active in the telegram streets, promoting the cause and sharing the deets. This literally would not have been possible without the mass coordination and teamwork.
I do not expect S2’s outcome necessarily sets precedent for future seasons, as I believe this was a potion of unique circumstances that made it possible. First, many S2 players were highly competitive and equally deceived by cabals/whales and the dynamics of NFTs, thus motivated for an outcome they were more aligned with. Second, the theme was Anon Island, so we were larping anonymous and private tech, which was very fun, but in the end didn’t feel great in light of third, (maybe most important) the timing.
Alexey Pertsov’s trial was less than 1 month ago and his sentencing is in ~ 1 month. Many players are early ethereum contributors who supported TC, or were TC users, or knew the devs themselves or simply strongly believe in our right to privacy. As slighted as some players are about being manipulated, everyone is more slighted about the way these trials against privacy devs are unfolding. And how could we play a game that enjoys anonymity while the devs actually building the real thing are standing trial. We want real Anon Island. We felt this was the best outcome for the satisfaction of the most players, for supporting the legal aid, and also to reignite awareness.
~$2M in legal fees are expected in 2024 alone. I imagine without donations, our fellow soldiers are also going into serious debt, simply for writing code. If we aren’t going to support them then who will? The battle against Alexey & Roman is one of the most existential cases brought against crypto, the irl Crypto: The Game. It not only threatens the livelihoods of engineers, but the premise of open source software, smart contracts and our right to privacy. Privacy is normal.
Although being mischievous is not against the game rules - the only rules are the rules of the chain - that doesn’t mean all players will align around that story. The game is played as intended because of what the parameters allow, and no player had an advantage (even sponsors!) Everyone used the strategies that suited them best. CTG is interesting because most of the game you’re colluding to figure out who to slay each night, until the last night when you’re colluding to figure out who should win. In the end what won was a narrative that aligned the most jurors and hopefully helped the future of privacy. While the official winner was anonymous Player #733, the real winner of S2 was the private you.
I greatly enjoyed my time at Anon Island. I told myself I’m too tired to even think about S3 and probably wouldn’t play, but a new fren assured me when S3+ comes around, I’ll be tempted.
PS….for future seasons…TRUST NO ONE.
PPS… huge shoutout to the NFT donor, David Phelps, Vijay Michalik, Jess Houlgrave, 0xJoshuaSL, Paris Rouz, Stani Kulechov, Mark Beylin, Maria-Paula, Alex Masmej, Alexis, Yalor Moon, 0xmatthewb, christian_defi
& all voting S2 jurors.