In 2019, I blogged about "cryptocurrency". I had no idea at the time more posts would follow, nor that they would be far from sufficient to appease the madness.
Since 2019, I have written several posts about crhypeto:
2019-06-25 - "Cryptocurrency": the pseudo-currency which no one understood or accepted, but which many bought
2019-12-15 - Bitcoin is Not Going To Zero, and more on blockchains
2021-01-03 - New Religion
2021-07-08 - Smooth summer bitcoindoctrination
2021-07-27 - Crhypeto propelling Malaysia and Argentina towards gold medals, squeezing every last bit out of Earth
2021-09-26 - What happens when an alternative currency becomes legal tender?
In the good old days, everything there was to know about crhypeto had been summarized exquisitely in a Venn diagram from the unfortunately defunct Buttcoin Foundation.1
But the rally of organized crime and the design of new scamming schemes―all while tremendous financial contagion pushed it closer to the white market―has changed the landscape. Not only is it still unclear whether Peak Crhypeto is over, but I've had to retract part of the above following the apparition of these dynamics:
2022-01-02 - Happy 20th anniversary, €? Oh, and mea culpa
In September 2023, Zeke Faux's book Number Go Up revealed that crhypetomania has created a new layer of victims enslaved into making their own victims in order to avoid torture and execution. While such highly organized crime is obviously reliant on misgoverned countries, the essential role which crhypeto plays in such schemes forces reassessing whether laissez-faire remains a viable/optimal approach.
Unfortunately, despite all of the misinformation now out there, reaction has been slow. There is still no central crhypeto debunking website or organization which can join everyone's efforts. If you are aware of a movement to collaborate on the development and distribution of open material debunking crhypeto, thanks for letting a comment below. However, I am thankfully not alone in my crusade. Countless renowned individuals have expressed their skepticism, but some of us have been leading the charge. Besides Zeke Faux:
- David Gerard was probably the first one to publish a book on the topic. His website also provides a lot of material.
- Dr Nicholas Weaver's research and lectures also depict the theme as bluntly as thoroughly.
- Molly White has been debunking crhypeto since 2022, notably in the freely-licensed Web3 is Going Just Great, which invites contributions from others.
- In 2022, technologists from the USA signed the Letter in Support of Responsible Fintech Policy.
- A Buttcoin/Crypto Reality Community for messaging was established on Discord in 2023.