Were any of you around here back in 2017?

I was just thinking about this last night, how much the crypto space has changed since way back in 2017. I was curious how many of you were either into crypto or even on this subreddit back in say 2016 or 2017. Was curious how you guys see the space as having changed, how things like NFT's changed things, how the crypto community itself has changed, and how this subreddit has changed.

I have fond memories of the crypto world from 2017, everything was new and exciting, even though things are still the "wild west" in some senses, there was even more so a wild west atmosphere back then. There was so much possibility for what the future held but at the same time much less certainty that crypto was going to stock around as back then there wasn't as much institutional adoption, it was newer, crypto wasn't as mainstream.

One thing I really miss is how much simpler the space was. There wasn't nearly as many coins and there wasn't as much movement in the top 20, top 50, even top 100 coins. Back then coins that were popular at the time were things like Ark, Lisk, NEM, AntCoin ie prior to NEO. You kind of knew what coins were in the top 100, because there were less projects out there you likely knew what each coin and project was about just because there wasn't as much to keep up with, and you it was easier to kind of learn the price movements and patterns of the coins.

There was also, at least to me, a lot more of a sense of community, we were all pioneers together on this path of which the future was uncertain. Maybe its that the space has changed, maybe its that mainstream adoption and the growing of a niche kind of kills some of that community, it kind of makes me think its like when you know some artists or band who's not popular and then they become popular, while its cool to see people appreciate them it also loses something by going mainstream, it loses some of that I'm on the ground floor of something new allure and loses some of that exclusivity it previously had.

Then we have NFT's, its funny how we have Crypto Kitties back in like late 2016 early 2017 but I don't think anyone actually called them NFT's and oddly enough while the were briefly popular nothing ever came of them, NFT's or digital products in the crypto realm were all but forgotten about and then somehow resurged in or around 2020. Not to get too far off topic but do you think NFT's were good for the space or bad for the space?

Then we had staking and the ability to earn interst. In many ways this changed the game, previously there was really no reward for holding. If you bought Bitcoin for 5k, it surged to 20k and it came back down to 5k you have nothing to show for your time. At least with staking you can continue earning/stacking whether price goes up down or sideways, this was a big change for the space and kind of made it more attractive to hold through down markets. This also brought all the rug pulls and hacks and a lot of the nonsense we've seen over the past couple years.

Maybe it's that I've changed and I'm not as involved and don't follow the space as closely, maybe the crypto space and the community has changed, or maybe a bit of both but I don't feel the same excitement or connection to others I had back in 2016/2017. Curious how many of you guys have been around in the space and even more so on this sub prior to say the 2017 bull run? What's your thoughts?