20 Comments

A crypto-critical restaurant called "Buy The Dip" that only serves dip appetizers but it takes 7 hours to make them and the waitstaff just shrugs and says "early days ¯\_(ツ)_/¯"

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Amy Castor and I wrote up the Swisher thing as a post in more detail (we both did the research, she did the writing): https://amycastor.com/2022/05/23/kara-swisher-promotes-cryptos-for-your-retirement-compares-it-to-early-internet/

It's difficult to overstate how reprehensible this stuff is.

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Why is "people have choice" the first line of defense for any indefensible choice?

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I can think of two use cases for a cryptocurrency.

The first is to support a use of blockchain that has independent value. I can conceive of moving real estate titles to blockchain, and that could be valuable. If an associated cryptocurrency made that easier, fine.

The second is so that internet criminals can pay for illicit activities — stolen identities, child porn, etc. Obviously, no thank you.

It seems to me that if your cryptocurrency doesn’t have the first, it will have the second, plus speculators.

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I think the current job of our consolidated media reporters is to comfort the comfortable, and afflict the afflicted, and they seem to be doing that pretty ceaselessly.

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If you look at the investment/payoff schemes of things like Tether, you can see a very clear link to the early days of the Internet - it’s beenz! And they learned nothing from it!

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mIRC and EverQuest - were you me as a child?

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"Writer and friend of the newsletter David Gerard dug into the company in question, one that invests your retirement in cryptocurrencies..."

Jesus fucking christ

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Interestingly, the first time I heard the ad in question was actually on an episode of Decoder. I know (or at least I think I know?) Nilay's personal feelings on dumping your retirement funds into an MLM, so I can only assume that whomever was booking ads was just asleep at the wheel (or the check was huge).

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