https://medium.com/helloitsmagic/why-most-blockchain-projects-are-bullshit-2e3918439270
And How to Spot the Ones That Aren’t
This is a good overview to blockchains and mountains of bullshit talk circulating around it:
“The key to separating uses with promise from bullshit projects is asking what can onlybe done with the specific features blockchains provide, and whether those things are worth doing or having. In almost all useful cases, blockchains don’t solve technological problems, they solve people problems.“
218 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
Olga Kharif / Bloomberg:
Report: 47% of traditional hedge funds have crypto investments, up from 29% in 2023; among who already invested in crypto, 33% plan for more by the end of 2024
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-10-10/almost-half-of-traditional-hedge-funds-are-dabbling-in-crypto
Tomi Engdahl says:
AI Bot Pumps Meme Coin 7,000% Following $50,000 Gift from Billionaire Marc Andreessen
The sudden surge of meme coins like GOAT underscores a broader trend where digital memes are fueling speculative financial bets.
https://decrypt.co/286478/ai-bot-pumps-meme-coin-7000-following-50000-gift-from-billionaire-marc-andreessen
Tomi Engdahl says:
In using a SIM swap to gain access to the official SEC X account and post false information about Bitcoin ETFs, one man managed to temporarily (and dramatically) increase the cryptocurrency’s price before selling off many of his assets.
https://arstechnica.com/security/2024/10/how-alleged-sim-swap-and-hacked-x-account-drove-up-price-of-bitcoin-by-1k/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=dhfacebook&utm_content=null&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR06XTlldgKC2h9vgg4tHdBmrM_8xytrZo3qTkLTYSz0tIJISF9Sg_Vhf5E_aem_Krws9jASbuDhmkmBwPcq-Q
Tomi Engdahl says:
MK Manoylov / The Block:
Filing: Microsoft puts an “assessment of investing in bitcoin” as a voting item for its December 10 shareholder meeting; its board recommends voting against it — – Microsoft placed an “assessment in investing in bitcoin” on the voting ballot ahead of its 2024 annual shareholder meeting in early December.
Microsoft places ‘assessment in investing in bitcoin’ as a voting item for December shareholder meeting
https://www.theblock.co/post/322962/microsoft-places-assessment-in-investing-in-bitcoin-as-a-voting-item-for-december-shareholder-meeting
Tomi Engdahl says:
Zeke Faux / Bloomberg:
The 2024 US election cycle showed how crypto has turned out to be a practically perfect special interest group for an era of unlimited corporate spending
The Crypto World’s Victory Lap Begins
The industry made a $135 million bet on the election. It paid off spectacularly
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2024-11-08/crypto-world-takes-victory-lap-after-big-us-election-bet-pays-off?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTczMTEzMDQ0NiwiZXhwIjoxNzMxNzM1MjQ2LCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJTTU1NR1NEV1gyUFMwMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiIwNEFGQkMxQkYyMTA0NUVEODg3MzQxQkQwQzIyNzRBMCJ9.q3kg48Fe0kIRfYAhfL3gIse-8C6dl2BuRZ5OV8mVvww
It might seem odd that an industry that started as a rebellion against government control would stake its future on politicians. But in the 15 years since the first Bitcoin was mined, the only use for crypto that’s found widespread appeal is trading on exchanges—in other words, using real money to gamble on the prices of made-up coins. (One of the most successful coins in crypto’s recent resurgence was “dogwifhat,” a Dogecoin knockoff whose logo is a dog wearing a beanie. Its market value is about $2 billion.) These crypto casinos are extremely profitable, and the SEC essentially wants to shut them down.
The details of the SEC cases are technical. But pretend we’re talking about traditional gambling. The commission basically wants to restrict bets to a few racetracks, with strict drug testing for the horses. The crypto industry wants the field to be so wide open that people can bet their primary residences on livestreamed Nicaraguan cockfights and use shares in the winning gamecocks to pay for coffee at Starbucks.
That’s not how crypto bros would describe it, of course. They call crypto an “American innovation” and talk about how it will give people financial freedom. The political ads the industry paid for don’t even mention crypto. Fairshake ads supporting Moreno said he would stop “illegal immigrants from taking Ohio’s tax dollars.”
By the time the election rolled around, it seemed like crypto’s cynical strategy was working. Kamala Harris had started making overtures to the industry, albeit muddled ones, such as confusingly listing crypto regulation as part of her agenda to help Black men.
Trump even began promoting his own cryptocurrency, World Liberty Financial, after his sons got pitched on the idea by a get-rich-quick guru who once called himself “the dirtbag of the internet.” Although the crypto industry viewed the Trump coin skeptically, several partisans told me it had created a helpful conflict of interest, making the former president more likely to follow through and ensure that crypto was regulated favorably if he won.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Callan Quinn / CoinDesk:
FTX sues crypto trader “Humpy the Whale” alleging margin trading market manipulation from January 2021 to September 2022, leading to FTX and Alameda losing $1B
Humpy the Whale Cost FTX, Alameda $1 Billion in Losses, Lawsuit Alleges
The suit also links him to organized crime in Eastern Europe and terrorist groups.
https://www.coindesk.com/business/2024/11/11/humpy-the-whale-cost-ftx-alameda-1-billion-in-losses-lawsuit-alleges/
Tomi Engdahl says:
a16z crypto:
a16z says it is “very optimistic” that the US government will “foster innovation” in crypto and there is a “pathway for constructive engagement” with regulators
A Positive Path Forward
https://a16zcrypto.com/posts/article/a-positive-path-forward/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mitä ihmettä Bitcoinille tapahtuu?
Yhdysvaltain presidentinvaalien tulos on antanut kryptovaluutoille vauhtia, ja Bitcoinin arvo on korkeampi kuin koskaan. Analyytikko sanookin ”Trump-pumpin” olevan voimissaan.
https://www.iltalehti.fi/digiuutiset/a/35e653cf-7a1b-4b0d-bbfd-d2bfc7c3d738
Tomi Engdahl says:
Brendan Greeley / Financial Times:
A bitcoin strategic reserve is a resilience strategy for the “hodlers”, not the US state, as a bet on bitcoin is bullish on permanent institutional collapse
The delusions behind a bitcoin strategic reserve
https://www.ft.com/content/73fa6fd9-6f34-4e59-8f0f-04de3be7387a
Tomi Engdahl says:
Daniel Kuhn / The Block:
RTFKT, the digital wearables NFT startup Nike acquired in 2021, is shutting down by the end of January 2025; DefiLlama: RTFKT brought in nearly $50M in earnings — – RTFKT, the digital wearables NFT startup acquired by Nike in 2021, is shutting down, according to an announcement on Monday.
Nike-owned NFT wearables startup RTFKT is winding down
https://www.theblock.co/post/329097/nike-owned-nft-wearables-startup-rtfkt-is-winding-down
Tomi Engdahl says:
Some kuohuu – ”Hawk Tuah”-naista syytetään härskistä petoksesta
Haliey Welch on kiistänyt väitteet.
Some kuohuu – ”Hawk Tuah”-naista syytetään härskistä petoksesta
https://www.is.fi/digitoday/art-2000010886963.html
Hiljattain kryptovaluutan lanseerannutta somepersoona Haliey Welchiä kohtaan esitetään laajaa kritiikkiä sosiaalisessa mediassa.
Welchin keskiviikkona lanseeraaman Hawk-kryptovaluutan arvo saavutti 490 miljoonan dollarin markkina-arvon pian lanseerauksen jälkeen. Kuitenkin jo muutamassa tunnissa se menetti 95 prosenttia arvostaan.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Charlie Warzel / The Atlantic:
The crypto industry’s impact on the 2024 US elections shows that crypto is a perfect anti-establishment tech for the turbulence and distrust of the 2020s
Crypto’s Legacy Is Finally Clear
An anti-establishment technology for an anti-establishment age
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/12/cryptos-legacy-finally-clear/680956/?gift=bQgJMMVzeo8RHHcE1_KM0fWBvUFbIRQwiiz8VD-TuRM&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share
For years, crypto skeptics have asked, What is this for? And for years, boosters have struggled to offer up a satisfactory answer. They argue that the blockchain—the technology upon which cryptocurrencies and other such applications are built—is itself a genius technological invention, an elegant mechanism for documenting ownership online and fostering digital community. Or they say that it is a foundation on which to build and fund a third, hyperfinancialized iteration of the internet where you don’t need human intermediaries to buy a cartoon image of an ape for $3.4 million.
Then there are the currencies themselves: bitcoin and ether and the endless series of memecoins and start-up tokens. These are largely volatile, speculative assets that some people trade, shitpost about, use to store value, and, sometimes, get incredibly rich or go bankrupt from. They are also infamously used to launder money, fund start-ups, and concoct elaborate financial fraud. Crypto has its use cases. But the knock has long been that the technology is overly complicated and offers nothing that the modern financial system can’t already do—that crypto is a technological solution in search of a problem (at least for people who don’t want to use it to commit crimes).
I tend to agree. I’ve spent time reporting on NFTs and crypto-token-based decentralized autonomous organizations, or DAOs (like the one that tried to buy an original printing of the Constitution in 2021). I’ve read opaque white papers for Web3 start-ups and decentralized finance protocols that use smart contracts to enable financial-service transactions without major banks, but I’ve never found a killer app.
The aftermath of the presidential election, however, has left me thinking about crypto’s influence differently.
Crypto is a technology whose transformative product is not a particular service but a culture—one that is, by nature, distrustful of institutions and sympathetic to people who want to dismantle or troll them. The election results were at least in part a repudiation of institutional authorities (the federal government, our public-health apparatus, the media), and crypto helped deliver them: The industry formed a super PAC that raised more than $200 million to support crypto-friendly politicians. This group, Fairshake, was nonpartisan and supported both Democrats and Republicans. But it was Donald Trump who went all in on the technology: During his campaign, he promoted World Liberty Financial, a new crypto start-up platform for decentralized finance, and offered assurances that he would fire SEC Chair Gary Gensler, who was known for cracking down on the crypto industry. (Gensler will resign in January, as is typical when new administrations take over.) Trump also pledged deregulation to help “ensure that the United States will be the crypto capital of the planet and the bitcoin superpower of the world.” During his campaign, he said, “If you’re in favor of crypto, you’d better vote for Trump.” At least in the short term, crypto’s legacy seems to be that it has built a durable culture of true believers, techno-utopians, grifters, criminals, dupes, investors, and pandering politicians. Investments in this technology have enriched many of these people, who have then used that money to try to create a world in their image.
Though the white paper that introduced bitcoin’s origins and philosophy—something of an urtext for crypto overall—does not discuss politics per se, cryptocurrency was quickly adopted and championed by cyberlibertarians. Their core belief, dating back to the 1996 “A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace,” is simply that governments should not regulate the internet. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are built on blockchains, which are fundamentally anti-establishment insofar as they are decentralized: They do not require a central authority or middleman to function.
Yet today, crypto’s culture is far more diffuse. Exchanges such as Coinbase and Robinhood have effectively opened trading markets to anyone with a bank account and a smartphone. There are certainly true believers in the technology, but they are accompanied by celebrities and memelords drumming up new coins based on viral memes, and scores of day traders hoping to catch one of these speculation tokens at the right moment. Because crypto profits are driven by generating hype and marketing, the technology has spawned a durable digital culture of people longing for community or chasing after the allure of 1,000x returns, as well as those who relish just how much crypto pisses off the right people. Even as crypto becomes more mainstream, many of the industry’s boosters see their investments and community as a countercultural force.
It is easy to make fun of the crypto hype cycles—the Beanie Babies–esque rise and fall of NFTs such as Bored Apes—and to roll your eyes at the shamelessness of memecoin culture.
As of this writing, Haliey Welch, a viral sensation turned podcaster (better known as the “Hawk Tuah girl”), is in the middle of a backlash for launching her own memecoin, which immediately spiked and then crashed, infuriating her fans. If that sentence makes perfect sense to you, I’d like to apologize, but also: You get my drift. Crypto culture, with its terminally online slang and imagery, is alienating and off-putting. The industry’s penchant for Ponzi schemes and defrauding retail investors—the implosion of insolvent companies such as FTX and platforms such as Celsius—is more than worthy of scorn. And yet, through all of this—perhaps because of all of this—cryptocurrencies have minted a generation of millionaires, billionaires, and corporate war chests. And now they’re using their money to influence politics.
Which brings us back to Trump. Whether he understands crypto beyond the basic notion that it’s a good way to win votes and get rich off the backs of his most fanatical supporters is not clear. But the alliance between Trump and the crypto constituency makes sense philosophically.
“Bitcoin, and to some degree the other crypto assets, have this anti-government, anti-censorship ethos,” she told me. The original crypto ideology, White said, was built around the notion that large financial institutions and the government shouldn’t be part of this new paradigm. “But many crypto advocates have established a great deal of power through the wealth they’ve managed to accumulate using these assets. And over time there’s been a shift from We don’t want those institutions to have the power to We want the power.”
White argues that the crypto industry has become a re-creation of much of what its original ideology claimed to despise. “If you look at Coinbase and other crypto companies, they do similar things to the financial institutions that Satoshi [Nakamoto, Bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator] was disappointed in. A lot of these companies work closely with the government, too, and they do things like the same type of ID verification that banks do,” she said. “They’ve re-created the financial system, but with fewer protections for consumers.”
It seems clear that in a second Trump administration, the crypto industry and its barons might get their wishes. It’s possible that the industry could see regulations declaring tokens as commodities, instead of securities, which would ease restrictions on trading and perhaps lead to more comingling between big banks and crypto assets.
You don’t have to be a cynic to see a flywheel effect: Crypto has become a meaningful political constituency not because its technology has broad, undeniable utility, but because it has made certain people extremely wealthy, which has attracted a great deal of attention and interest. The industry courts politicians with its wealth, and politicians pander for donations by making promises. Ultimately, the pro-crypto candidate wins, and the price of bitcoin surges, making many of these same people richer and thus able to exert more influence.
Trump hasn’t taken office yet, but you can already see how this might play out.
Crypto could also end up being the currency of choice for greasing the skids of the second Trump administration, but the broader concern is about what happens if crypto executives get everything they want. As my colleague Annie Lowrey wrote recently, “Industry-friendly rules would lead to a flood of cash entering the crypto markets, enriching anyone with assets already in their wallets, but also increasing volatility and exposing millions more Americans to scams, frauds, and swindles.”
“Back then, crypto companies weren’t too big to fail and there was no need for a bailout,” she told me. “If banks are allowed to get more involved and if crypto and traditional finance are enmeshed, my fear is the industry will grow bigger and the crashes will be greater.”
Crypto’s future is uncertain, but its legacy, at least in the short term, seems clearer than it did before November 5. It turns out that cryptocurrencies do have a very concrete use case. They are a technology that has latched on to, and then helped build, a culture that celebrates greed and speculation as virtues just as it embraces volatility. The only predictable thing about crypto seems to be its penchant for attracting and enriching a patchwork of individuals with qualities including, but not limited to, an appetite for risk, an overwhelming optimism about the benefits of technology, or a healthy distrust of institutions. In these ways, crypto is a perfect fit for the turbulence and distrust of the 2020s, as well as the nihilism and corruption of the Trump era.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Margaux Nijkerk / CoinDesk:
Electric Capital annual survey: total developers working in crypto fell 7% YoY globally, and Solana was the most popular blockchain among new developers
Solana Was the Biggest Draw for New Crypto Developers in 2024: Electric Capital
Ethereum remained the blockchain with the most devs, and the overall population of software builders in crypto was flat, the VC firm said in its annual survey.
https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2024/12/12/solana-was-the-biggest-draw-for-new-crypto-developers-in-2024-electric-capital
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hawk Tuah -nainen rajujen syytösten kohteena
Sometähteä syytetään petollisesta juonesta.
https://www.iltalehti.fi/viihdeuutiset/a/d52bf578-7820-499e-9ee0-12fc6fc072fa
Yhdysvaltalainen Haliey Welch nousi sometähdeksi yhdessä yössä.
Nyt Hawk Tuah- naisena tunnettua Welchiä syytetään maineensa käyttämisestä ihmisten huijaamiseen.
Welch oli julkaisemassa Hawk-meemikolikkoa, joka tuli ulos joulukuun alussa. Meemikolikot ovat kryptovaluuttoja, jotka perustuvat internet-meemeihin.
Hawk lanseerattiin 4. joulukuuta. Sen arvo ampaisi ensin kohti tähtiä, mutta romahti alle vuorokaudessa.
Forbesin mukaan valuutan markkina-arvo ampaisi tunneissa liki 500 miljoonaan dollariin (noin 476 miljoonaan euroon), mutta romahti nopeasti 25 miljoonaan dollariin (noin 23,8 miljoonaan euroon).
Welch on saanut raivokasta kritiikkiä sosiaalisessa mediassa. Viestipalvelu X:ssä Welchiä syytetään esimerkiksi ”hyväksikäytöstä”, ”ahneudesta”, ”huijauksesta” ja ”petoksesta”.
Yksi Welchiä syyttäneistä on kryptovaluuttaa kommentoiva Stephen Findeisen, joka esiintyy Youtubessa nimellä Coffeezilla. Findeisen on syyttänyt Hawkia ”rug pull” -huijaukseksi. Termi tarkoittaa kirjaimellisesti maton vetämistä sijoittajien alta.
– Vaikuttajien on tajuttava, etteivät meemikolikot ole hauskoja, kun ne tulevat fanien kustannuksella, Findeisen kommentoi NBC Newsille.
Rug pull -huijauksessa luodaan kryptovaluutta, joka liittyy johonkin suosittuun ilmiöön. Valutaan arvo pumpataan ylös luomalla ”hypeä” eli innostusta sen ympärille. Kun arvo on tarpeeksi korkealla, huijarit vetävät sijoituksensa nopeasti pois, minkä seurauksena valuutan arvo romahtaa.
Forbesin mukaan Hawkin ”kaoottinen lanseeraus” vaikuttaa aiheuttaneen isoja taloudellisia tappioita joillekin sijoittajille.
Hawk on edelleen markkinoilla. Brittiläisen The Guardianin mukaan Welch on sanonut, ettei hänen tiiminsä ”ole myynyt ainoatakaan tokenia”. NBC:n mukaan Welch on syyttänyt markkinoiden käyttäytymisestä botteja, jotka on ohjelmoitu ostamaan valuuttaa välittömästi sen lanseerauksen jälkeen ja myymään omistukset, kun hinta alkaa tippua.
Roisi haastattelu
Welch nousi sometähdeksi roisin haastattelunsa myötä. Häntä pyydettiin kertomaan, mikä ”tekee miehet hulluksi joka kerta” lakanoiden välissä.
– Miehelle pitää antaa ”Hawk Tuah”. Sylje sen päälle! Welch ohjeisti.
”Hawk Tuah” viittaa Welchin suuseksivinkissä sylkemisen ääneen.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Andrew Lawrence / The Guardian:
Sports stars promoting crypto coins and exchanges with little knowledge highlight the lack of mechanisms for consumers to distinguish opportunities from scams
Scottie Pippen and the heady rise of the athlete turned crypto bro
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2024/dec/13/scottie-pippen-and-the-heady-rise-of-the-athlete-turned-crypto-bro
Sports stars are rushing to promote coins and exchanges. But they are stepping into a world of which they often have scant knowledge
Tomi Engdahl says:
Vince Dioquino / Decrypt:
El Salvador to scale back its bitcoin efforts under an agreement for a $1.4B IMF loan; bitcoin acceptance will no longer be mandatory for the private sector
El Salvador to Scale Back Bitcoin Efforts Under $1.4 Billion IMF Deal
Under the agreement, El Salvador will make Bitcoin acceptance voluntary for the private sector while restricting public sector involvement.
https://decrypt.co/297722/el-salvador-to-scale-back-bitcoin-efforts-under-1-4-billion-imf-deal
Tomi Engdahl says:
Emily Nicolle / Bloomberg:
Crypto executives worry that the EU’s MiCA, which puts stringent conditions on crypto exchanges to list stablecoins like USDT, will drain liquidity from markets
Tether Removal Puts Europe at Risk of Missing Trump Crypto Boom
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-12-20/tether-mica-exit-puts-europe-at-risk-of-missing-crypto-boom-usdt
Crypto exchanges in EU must delist Tether’s USDT by Dec. 30
Executives are concerned that removing USDT will sap liquidity
Tomi Engdahl says:
How a 27-year-old busted the myth of Bitcoin’s anonymity
Once, drug dealers and money launderers saw cryptocurrency as perfectly untraceable.
https://arstechnica.com/features/2024/01/how-a-27-year-old-busted-the-myth-of-bitcoins-anonymity/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=dhfacebook&utm_content=null&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR3bpwhid_CElme9Xl1Ji1SF0NXHIG4AhtS-eBIK9kDm8O6n76lR29Ru2Fk_aem_P4QbTQJV0lpcoupXZXgPSg
JUST OVER A DECADE AGO, Bitcoin appeared to many of its adherents to be the crypto-anarchist holy grail: truly private digital cash for the Internet.
Satoshi Nakamoto, the cryptocurrency’s mysterious and unidentifiable inventor, had stated in an email introducing Bitcoin that “participants can be anonymous.” And the Silk Road dark-web drug market seemed like living proof of that potential, enabling the sale of hundreds of millions of dollars in illegal drugs and other contraband for bitcoin while flaunting its impunity from law enforcement.
This is the story of the revelation in late 2013 that Bitcoin was, in fact, the opposite of untraceable—that its blockchain would actually allow researchers, tech companies, and law enforcement to trace and identify users with even more transparency than the existing financial system. That discovery would upend the world of cybercrime. Bitcoin tracing would, over the next few years, solve the mystery of the theft of a half-billion dollar stash of bitcoins from the world’s first crypto exchange, help enable the biggest dark-web drug market takedown in history, lead to the arrest of hundreds of pedophiles around the world in the bust of the dark web’s largest child sexual abuse video site, and result in the first-, second-, and third-biggest law enforcement monetary seizures in the history of the US Justice Department.