On paper, this could be the best of times for crypto. Instead, the industry of Bitcoin and NFTs seems to be struggling to find its purpose, reports Dan Brunskill.

Harry Satoshi, a crypto consultant from Christchurch, believed in Bitcoin so strongly he legally changed his surname to that of its pseudonymous founder Satoshi Nakamoto. Now, the 27-year-old founder and editor of Cryptocurrency NZ is worried the whole project has strayed off course.  

The original vision for Bitcoin was to create a peer-to-peer payment system beyond the control of governments and financial institutions. That hasn’t really happened. “Crypto is facing an identity crisis,” Satoshi said. “What most see now is a speculative asset class that behaves like…