I work in a shared office space (a WeWork). For a few months at the end of last year and through this year, there was a wave of "crypto bros" who suddenly appea

I work in a shared office space (a WeWork). For a few months at the end of last year and through this year, there was a wave of "crypto bros" who suddenly appeared and all claimed to be doing ICOs. Having to listen to them talk literally gave me headaches. Every single one of them would talk about how crypto was "changing the world" and "saving Africa's banking system" and all kinds of nonsense. But when I'd ask them if they or anyone they knew had ever bought anything with crypto besides other crypto, almost all of them said "no". Somehow this technology was changing lives even though they did not know a single person who used it for it's intended, non-speculative purpose. In other words, watching the the whole crypto fad pass is like watching the British version of "The Office" - just painfully awkward to live through. From the outside looking in, it seems so clearly overridden with scam ICOs and clueless investors. For example, a friend tried to get me to invest in an ICO for a "Blockchain Bank." The idea was that by using blockchain, the startup could offer anyone in the world a completely legit, low fee UK bank account - all without personal identity verification (again, because "blockchain"). It would destroy traditional banks AND PayPal! When I asked very basic questions like how they planned to get around Know Your Customer banking regulations, my friend said "Don't worry, it's all in the white paper!" But I read the white paper and it essentially just said "we'll figure it out!" There was absolutely no explanation of how it would ever work. But my friend was not interested in learning more - they just wanted enough of an appearance of legitimacy that they thought the ICO price would pop. These are the kind of lame startup pitches that would normally get laughed out of an investors office for having huge conceptual holes. But because they said "blockchain", people are lining up to literally throw money at them. It's not because anyone actually believes (or even cares) the technology will eventually work. It's just because they are afraid that they will miss out on quick returns on the immediate speculation of the ICO. This doesn't even touch on the widespread fraud, currency manipulation, pump and dump schemes, etc, that infest the crypto world in general. The point is that even if you are doing something really amazing with blockchain, now you have to rise above the general stink of the cesspool of the wider crypto world. Lots of people already have a pretty bad taste in their mouth.