It is very clear that there is a global downturn in the markets, and we expect 18 months up to 3 years of downturn, potential recession on the global markets, etc. This is the first time ever that a global market recession overlaps with a crypto bear market.

As we are approaching stage 3 of the crypto bear market, we are seeing many overnight changes – price drops, currency crashes, company layoffs, etc.

1/ There are 3 stages of a bear market.

We just entered stage 2 🧵

— Yano 🟪 (@JasonYanowitz) June 13, 2022

Coinbase has confirmed it is cutting 18% of its workforce, Celsius halted all transfers. Crypto scams are popping up everywhere and news headlines are not bringing joy to anyone… Panic and fear are everywhere. 

We all got focused so much on this negative aspect of the ‘crypto winter’ that we keep on missing to notice that there is a bright side!

🤔 Bear Market or Builder Market?

So, Coinbase might be firing, but Binance says it’s planning to ramp up hiring.

It was not easy saying no to Super bowl ads, stadium naming rights, large sponsor deals a few months ago, but we did.

Today, we are hiring for 2000 open positions for #Binance. pic.twitter.com/n24nrUik8O

— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) June 15, 2022

Zero-Knowledge Proofs are finding their direction on the journey to mass adoption;  Ethereum PoS Merge is closer by the day.

📣 Ropsten Merge Announcement 📣

Ethereum's longest lived PoW testnet is moving to Proof of Stake! A new beacon chain has been launched today, and The Merge is expected around June 8th on the network.

Node Operators: this is the first dress rehearsal💃https://t.co/0fDHObLOmn

— timbeiko.eth (@TimBeiko) May 30, 2022

The signs of progress are there and are very clear! So if we take a step back and look from another perspective, the ongoing bear market though painful is actually a good thing for blockchain development! The good projects will stand out from the bad ones, and the focus will fall more on building, learning, and educating.

TL;DR: Markets may be down but you can’t stop the builders.

Many might feel like society is on the verge of collapsing, but still, there is no better answer to all of that than decentralization! 

As a conclusion, we will leave you with this quote from an open letter our CEO – Edi Sinovcic has sent to us a few days:

Shard Labs was forged in the last bear market, and we survived it and prospered, and it made us even greater. The same thing we will do in this one.

Bear markets are builder markets. They remove weak ones and reward strong and persistent ones. We were always builders and will continue to be, not pursuing short-term profit but long-term growth. If you need to talk about anything, we are all here with you, no matter how personal it is. Talk about what bothers you, and how we can support each other in this troubling time.

Builders market on! Let’s build the heck out of it.

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