4 ms·

This. I saw this happen with the early internet, and then later with crypto... It took a long time for the Internet to go from 1) only know to geeks to 2) grif

This. I saw this happen with the early internet, and then later with crypto... It took a long time for the Internet to go from 1) only know to geeks to 2) grifters promising the world to 3) wider acceptance. Maybe this will happen too with crypto, but until it sorts out its grifter problem, it will be always be stuck at stage 2.

blamestross 5y ago
I don't think the internet has left phase 2 yet either.
- wccrawford 5y ago
  You're getting downvoted for that, but you aren't wrong. There aren't fewer grifters on the internet. There are just more regular people. And also more grifters, but they can hide in the rest of the noise. It's going to be the same with cryptocurrency if it sticks around. There will always be people trying to trick less-wise people into giving up their money for nothing.
- s-lambert 5y ago
  If the internet is stuck on phase 2 then telephones are still stuck on phase 2 as well, there's still plenty of phone scams through calls/SMS.
  - morelisp 5y ago
    Telephones managed to regress from 3) to 2), in part due to the ease of automating phone scams over computer networks.
rzwitserloot 5y ago
The amount of time the internet took to show it is a solution to real problems, as well as the time it took for the internet to 'grow up' beyond the grifter stage (which was about the same time, and probably that is not a coincidence) is far shorter. Already - and bitcoin/crypto shows no sign of growing beyond the grifter phase. What, something like 1/3 of everybody who bought Bieber's NFT thing got it grifted? That's insane. Bitcoin is over 10 years old.
- ekianjo 5y ago
  Internet was around for a very long time before we got the www... And even when the www came around it could not do much. people have short memories.
  - notahacker 5y ago
    No, people distinctly remember that when the first wave of hype about the web came along, the public was being encouraged to buy books on Amazon.com, other stuff on eBay.com browse masses of content on Yahoo and AOL and of course post lots of messages on the social media of the day. Most of this interaction was free to the user not an "investment", and it was recognisable as a slower and lower resolution version of most of what we had today by the middle of the first decade of the Web. The Internet existed before then in various forms, but never as an industry of rich people trying to convince poorer people to invest all their savings in email.

blamestross 5y ago

I don't think the internet has left phase 2 yet either.

wccrawford 5y ago
You're getting downvoted for that, but you aren't wrong. There aren't fewer grifters on the internet. There are just more regular people. And also more grifters, but they can hide in the rest of the noise. It's going to be the same with cryptocurrency if it sticks around. There will always be people trying to trick less-wise people into giving up their money for nothing.
s-lambert 5y ago
If the internet is stuck on phase 2 then telephones are still stuck on phase 2 as well, there's still plenty of phone scams through calls/SMS.
- morelisp 5y ago
  Telephones managed to regress from 3) to 2), in part due to the ease of automating phone scams over computer networks.

rzwitserloot 5y ago

The amount of time the internet took to show it is a solution to real problems, as well as the time it took for the internet to 'grow up' beyond the grifter stage (which was about the same time, and probably that is not a coincidence) is far shorter. Already - and bitcoin/crypto shows no sign of growing beyond the grifter phase. What, something like 1/3 of everybody who bought Bieber's NFT thing got it grifted? That's insane. Bitcoin is over 10 years old.

ekianjo 5y ago
Internet was around for a very long time before we got the www... And even when the www came around it could not do much. people have short memories.
- notahacker 5y ago
  No, people distinctly remember that when the first wave of hype about the web came along, the public was being encouraged to buy books on Amazon.com, other stuff on eBay.com browse masses of content on Yahoo and AOL and of course post lots of messages on the social media of the day. Most of this interaction was free to the user not an "investment", and it was recognisable as a slower and lower resolution version of most of what we had today by the middle of the first decade of the Web. The Internet existed before then in various forms, but never as an industry of rich people trying to convince poorer people to invest all their savings in email.