cryptocurrency

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cryptocurrency is a use of a proof of work blockchain to create exchange value, has been discussed at some IndieWebCamp sessions, highly criticized for a variety of reasons, often the source of "web3" mischaracterizations of decentralization, and in the past been used for personal tip page payments specifically using Bitcoin addresses.

IndieWeb Examples

None currently.

Criticism

General criticisms

• Feed of criticism: https://www.jwz.org/blog/tag/dunning-krugerrands/
• 2022-01-27 NYTimes: How Crypto Became the New Subprime /

  crypto ends up being an awkward, expensive way to do things you could have done more easily in other ways … The response, in my experience, tends to take the form of incomprehensible word salad.

• 2021-12-31 The Case Against Crypto
• https://inthesetimes.com/article/the-ticking-bomb-of-crypto-fascism
• Criticism: thread: https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1493288001107021826
  • "I've just read one of the most lucid, wide-ranging, cross-disciplinary critiques of cryptocurrency and blockchain I've yet to encounter. 1/" @doctorow February 14, 2022
• ^ full talk for thread 2022-02-09 DSHR’s blog: EE380 Talk, based on 2021-12-08 Talk at TTI/Vanguard Conference titled: Can We Mitigate Cryptocurrencies' Externalities?

Not decentralized

• Not actually decentralized, e.g. during an AWS outage: https://twitter.com/ndaxio/status/1468263956242440197
  • "Due to a global outage affecting AWS, we are currently experiencing an interruption with cryptocurrency deposits and withdrawals. There is no effect on trading or fiat deposits and withdrawals.
    
    We will post updates on this thread as we get them. Thanks for your patience!" @ndaxio December 7, 2021

Pyramid schemes

• parallel to Albanian pyramid schemes: 2021-07-04 FT: Albanian lessons for regulators nervously eyeing the crypto world / Albania’s 1990s pyramid scheme debacle highlights risks of regulatory paralysis on the cryptocurrency explosion

Hype-based marketing

• 2022-02-02 NYTimes: Why Is Matt Damon Shilling for Crypto? / Just buy it, he seems to suggest; what are you, a wimp?

  Entertainers and athletes have ample money to risk in speculative bubbles; their millions of admirers don’t have that luxury and may be left holding the bag when a bubble bursts.

Unable to withdraw

• Criticism: unexpectedly being unable to withdraw: https://twitter.com/Anthony/status/1483540705947668482
  • "http://Crypto.com, which froze withdrawals yesterday, announced that someone hacked the platform for $15 million in ether (4,600 ETH).
    
    This money is now being laundered through Ethereum mixer Tornado Cash in batches of 1,000 ETH
    
    https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/01/18/cryptocoms-stolen-ether-being-laundered-via-tornado-cash/" @Anthony January 18, 2022

NFT criticisms

• 2021-11-15 James Grimmelmann: I do not think that NFT means what you think it does (archived), law prof at Cornell:

  The bottom line is that almost everything NFT advocates want to do on a blockchain can be done more easily and efficiently without one, and the legal infrastructure needed to make NFTs work defeats the point of using a blockchain in the first place.

• 2021-12-20: Video summary criticism of what is an NFT: https://twitter.com/yuroon/status/1472962930677325830
  • "" @yuroon December 20, 2021
• 2022-02-04 The Atlantic: Celebrities and NFTs Are a Match Made in Hell

  If Hilton and Fallon and their celebrity friends are going to go out there and pump-and-dump their way to additional wealth, they could at least do the rest of us the courtesy of being a little more discreet about it. Instead, they sound like they think this is stupid, and like they think the rest of us might be stupid enough to buy in.

• 2022-02-04 Vice: Racist 'Meta Slave' NFT Project Rebrands After Being Called Racist
• 2022-02-07 Fortune: Wrath of the crypto bros: Buzzfeed attacked for revealing identity of Bored Ape NFT creators

  Part of the controversy around crypto-asset vendors is that the use of fictitious identities throws the door open to criminal elements. Grifters can more easily exploit people’s fear of missing out on lucrative fads and get-rich-quick schemes, while money launderers use decentralized finance (DeFi) to conceal the origins of illicit gains from tax authorities.

Backlashes against organizations or products exploring or planning NFTs

• Chaosium: 2022-02-16 Call of Cthulhu Maker Chaosium Suspends NFT Program After Backlash
• Discord: 2021-11-10 TechCrunch: Discord pushes pause on exploring crypto and NFTs amidst user backlash
• Salesforce: 2022-02-22: Fast Company: Salesforce employees revolt over NFT moves
• Sega: 2022-01-10 gritdaily: Sega backtracks on NFT plans following backlash
  • 2022-01-10 nordot: Sega backtracks on NFT plans following backlash
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: 2021-12-16 The Verge: S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 will no longer have NFTs after fan outcry / The NFT plans came under heavy criticism
• Team17: 2022-01-31 IGN: Team17 Nixes 'Environmentally Friendly' Worms NFT Project After Backlash / The cost of minting 100,000 NFTs will use the same energy as the average annual kettle usage of around eleven households.
• "The Batman" movie: 2022-02-08 Fans Threaten to “Boycott” ‘The Batman’ Over NFT Controversy
• Troy Baker: 2022-01-31 The Verge: The voice of Joel from The Last of Us steps away from NFT project after outcry

"the most boring form of art ever created"

• Phineas Harper: 2022-05-03:There are far more radical forms of digital art than the cultural dead-end of NFTs

Whether NFTs are here to stay or not, they are the most boring form of art ever created, centering value in nothing more than ownership. Owning art is the least interesting aspect of art. A great artwork might be pioneering in its use of media, arresting in its formal composition, or rich with symbolism.

First, those best able to profit from the NFT bubble are those already in command of substantial followings, like the famous musicians Grimes, Eminem and Snoop Dogg, who all recently released lucrative NFT collections. If there is cash to be made from issuing tokens, it will mostly flow to the already wealthy few rather than the struggling many.

Second, minting an NFT is not free, requiring makers to buy into cryptocurrency exchanges at their own risk like a pyramid scheme. For all the designers who have successfully cashed in on the hype machine, many more will lose out, predominantly those least able to do so.

Above all, NFTs erode the most radical and adventurous aspect of the internet: sharing. Sharing is a nourishing act of solidarity, fundamentally more enjoyable and resource-efficient than the kind of private, solitary ownership that consumerism promotes.

See Also

• Bitcoin
• blockchain
• 2022-01-31 NYTimes: Wealth Inequality Drives the Appeal of Crypto
• Criticism: false dichotomy arguments: https://twitter.com/ttiurani/status/1505248312781422593
  • "There is a very important difference with only the authorities being able to track money to stop tax evasion and money laundering, and both the authorities AND me knowing everything my neighbour has ever bought. (And multiple crypto wallets is not a real solution.)" @ttiurani March 19, 2022
• ^ cont'd: https://twitter.com/ttiurani/status/1505250526069469184
  • "...in that the former doesn't need blockchain, but does require functioning democracy, whereas the latter uses blockchain but results in a totalitarian society without a right to privacy.
    
    I root for the former. The right to privacy is most needed by the most vulnerable." @ttiurani March 19, 2022
• Criticism: 2022-03-10 Forbes: Interest In NFTs And The Metaverse Is Falling Fast

  … almost every major publisher seems to have been scared straight on NFTs after being lambasted by fans every time they are brought up…

• Criticism, refutation of NYTimes 2022-03-20 puff piece “The Latecomer’s Guide to Crypto”: The Edited Latecomer's Guide to Crypto
• NFT backlash example: https://twitter.com/tommorris/status/1508359707194544131
  • "If you're having an "oh god Homebrew is getting into cryptoweb3bollocks" panic, here's the calming "phew no thank fuck it isn't" reassurance.
    
    https://twitter.com/MacHomebrew/status/1506952626323308556" @tommorris March 28, 2022
• Criticism: 2022-03-10 Jacobin: Crypto Is Making Everything Worse / There’s lots of breathless chatter out there about how cryptocurrency will reshape the world. But the truth about crypto is simple: capitalists are using it to get rich and screw the rest of us.
• Criticism: obfuscates and makes it more efficient to exploit and put poorer people at more risk. Thread: https://twitter.com/edzitron/status/1508935621250748419
  • "Today's Substack is about the $600m Axie Infinity cryptocurrency hack which has left millions of people with potentially worthless investments - and how it's finally time for us to stop humoring cryptocurrency and treat it as a threat to society.
    https://ez.substack.com/p/the-infinite-exploitation-of-cryptocurrency" @edzitron March 29, 2022
• NFT cartoon: https://mobile.twitter.com/thestuffofmemes/status/1509086018900746247 perhaps based on actual supposed events: https://www.inputmag.com/culture/stephanie-matto-90-day-fiance-fart-jars-nfts
  • "The Beano just destroyed NFTs https://twitter.com/yourpalfanton/status/1509060913747345411" @thestuffofmemes March 30, 2022
• Criticism: 2021-06-23 Financial Times: Why we shouldn’t listen to crypto ‘experts’ / Most are just insiders talking up their interests / Those who get in at the start must continuously draw in new believers to keep the whole thing going
• Criticism: 2022-04-12 New study explains why narcissists, sadists and manipulators are attracted to crypto
• Criticism: hype not actually decentralization: https://twitter.com/json_dirs/status/1514513848216141825
  • "hey internet archive, love your work. I see there are only 15 spots for people with income <$50k. before I sign up, given that most people will, I suppose, be very wealthy, can I get a sense of the proportion of cryptocurrency hype vs technologies that actually decentralize?" @json_dirs April 14, 2022
• Criticism: "Crypto colonizing": 2022-01-13 WaPo: ‘Crypto colonizers’ in Puerto Rico try to sell locals on the dream / A new wave of wealthy investors is moving to the island. Locals are greeting them with excitement — and suspicion.
• Wikimedia Community voted to stop accepting cryptocurrency donations: https://twitter.com/theresnotimefor/status/1514020667204775936
  • "The Wikimedia community has voted to stop accepting #cryptocurrency donations to #Wikipedia ✨" @TheresNoTimeFor April 12, 2022
  • See the RFC and vote itself: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Requests_for_comment/Stop_accepting_cryptocurrency_donations
• Criticism, why you shouldn't bother with .eth “domains”, in addition to usual megatons of carbon, gas fees can spike anytime: thread: https://twitter.com/dearsarah/status/1520861117857222656 and https://mashable.com/article/ethereum-gas-fees-skyrocket-bored-ape-yacht-club-otherside-nft-launch
  • "Dear .ETH, Web3, & crypto proponent friends,
    
    Anyone know who is calculating the wasted carbon & other environmental costs of yesterday’s #YugaLabs #BAYC #APECOIN #Ethereum debacle?
    
    Whose prosperity is increasing? Does it justify this?" @dearsarah May 1, 2022
• Criticism: putting at least one country at risk of debt default: 2022-05-14 WSJ: El Salvador’s President Went All In on Bitcoin. Then It Tanked. / Bitcoin losses add to growing fears of a debt default under President Nayib Bukele
• Criticisms: 2022-05-13 Why This Computer Scientist Says All Cryptocurrency Should “Die in a Fire” / UC-Berkeley’s Nicholas Weaver has been studying cryptocurrency for years. He thinks it’s a terrible idea that will end in disaster.
• Criticism: 2022-07-12 The Guardian: ‘They couldn’t even scream any more. They were just sobbing’: the amateur investors ruined by the crypto crash / Fuelled by hype and hysteria, the market in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies went from an obscure niche to a $3tn industry. Then the house of cards collapsed

  “They call it ‘being an alpha’,” he says. “You have to be on Twitter, and follow the right people, and be in the right Discord channel. You listen to the right chatrooms.

  Emphasis added to illustrate the cognitive dissonance employed to scam people, selling the label/identity of being an “alpha” (a leader) by getting them believe in and do the opposite: “follow” and “listen”.
• https://twitter.com/patdennis/status/1518637225789042688
  • "Sick of people calling everything in crypto a Ponzi scheme. Some crypto projects are pump and dump schemes, while others are pyramid schemes. Others are just standard issue fraud. Others are just middlemen skimming of the top. Stop glossing over the diversity in the industry." @patdennis April 25, 2022
• Criticism thread, from US White House Office of Science & Technology Policy: https://twitter.com/WHOSTP/status/1567889351312396295
  • "Crypto-asset mining can use a lot of electricity.
    
    That's why @POTUS directed @WHOSTP to examine the rapid growth of digital assets and provide recommendations on the climate implications.
    
    Here's what we found 🧵" @WHOSTP September 8, 2022
• Criticism of NFTs from Stephen Diehl: 2021-11-19 The Tinkerbell Griftopia /

  … NFTs are the emperor running around with no clothes and crypto acolytes are selling broken hyperlinks to each other as either vanity projects or get rich quick schemes. […] the entire enterprise of NFTs is like a mental contagion that can only sustain itself by perpetual proselytiz

• "number go up", at least for length of prison terms: 2023-09-09 BBC: Thodex cryptocurrency boss jailed for 11,196 years in Turkey for fraud
• 2024-01-24 So long, hexagon: Twitter removes NFT profile picture support

  … about two years after launching a feature in which NFT owners could show off their NFTs with special, hexagonal profile pictures, Twitter has apparently removed support for adding NFT avatars.

• criticism: Tantek Çelik: we should stop calling it proof of work (POW) because "work" generally implies something productive and useful is being done, while in the case of performing a bunch of random math just to show that you have and for no other reason is a waste of energy. Hence let's call it "proof of squandering energy recklessly" (POSER) because as elsewhere documented, such energy usage is displacing actually directly human useful energy usage, and contributing to carbon emissions directly or indirectly, which is reckless for the whole planet