![In the glory days, [Olympus enthusiasts] dressed up this ins...](https://readwise-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/static/images/article0.00998d930354.png)
In the glory days, Olympus enthusiasts dressed up this insight in the notation of game theory: “(3, 3)” was their way of saying that if everyone buys it it will go up, while “(-3, -3)” means that if everyone sells it it will go down.
When I first found out about Olympus, and this notation, and what it meant, I laughed really hard for a long time. What a trivial point, I thought. But after the last few months I have developed a certain respect for it. In a sense the game theory of crypto is obvious, but Olympus was right to emphasize it. This idea — “if everyone cooperates, we’ll all get richer, but if people defect it will collapse” — might be close to the core of crypto.