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How can anybody look at the 'official' Ethereum Max twitter and not see it as a sham?[1] The problem with crypto is that your average retail user, and probably

How can anybody look at the 'official' Ethereum Max twitter and not see it as a sham?[1] The problem with crypto is that your average retail user, and probably even a lot of regulators, do not understand the difference between Ethereum and Ethereum Max. [1] https://twitter.com/ethereum_max https://twitter.com/ethereum_max

pavlov 4y ago
The problem with crypto is that the use cases are so limited that, to the average retail user, there simply is no difference between Ethereum and Ethereum Max. Both are mysterious digital things you buy and hope the price goes up.
- nightski 4y ago
  You could replace what you said with stocks, investing, and finance in general actually.
  - pgwhalen 4y ago
    Surely a retail investor understands that the AAPL represents claims on the future earnings of Apple, and TSLA represents claims on the future earnings of Tesla. People know what those companies do in the real world.
    - zeroclip 4y ago
      And most understand that Dogecoin and Ethereum are different coins, and probably even that Ethereum and Ethereum Max are different coins. But they often do not know the difference between these protocols or projects. It would be like putting stock tickers on all the hundreds of competing JavaScript frameworks on GitHub and asking the average non-dev what to invest in.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
    - nightski 4y ago
      You might be surprised. In my experience many people have no idea what a stock actually is or how the market works and prices are "determined". I have run into so many folks that even have a 401(k) and don't even know they can invest it in things other than the default allocation. Even if they did know they would have no idea what to do, which is even worse because a 401(k) heavily limits your investment options so it makes it simple.
      - pgwhalen 4y ago
        I’m not surprised, because all of those things you mention are different and much more specific than I’m referring to. The vague idea that “if Tesla the company does well, TSLA the stock goes up, in a loose sense” is much simpler and it’s hard for me to imagine there are many retail investors that don’t understand that on some level.
        nightski 4y ago
        I'll give you that (although that principle is so generic it isn't even actionable in practice). But if you asked the average person in the U.S. who has a portfolio (I believe it's only like 50% of Americans hold stock), I'd imagine a good deal of them couldn't even tell you what companies they own.
        pgwhalen 4y ago
        Probably true (given that it’s true of me and I work in finance), but again irrelevant to my point. I’m not sure how the principle is not actionable in practice. Surely recognizing that everyone has iPhones and that trend isn’t stopping is enough for a lay person to recognize AAPL is reasonably safe as an investment.
        nightski 4y ago
        AAPL might be a safe bet, but maybe not? I'm sure the company will be profitable for quite some time but stock prices are not driven by profits as you know. They are built on expectations. A lot of the expectation for Apple is built into it's $2T market cap. You might of thought AAPL was a safe bet at the beginning of the year, but now it's down 22.23%. At this point we don't know if it's going to take a year to recover or a decade. So I know I am preaching to the choir but it's not just "company doing well so stock is safe". There's the context of the overall economy not to mention a lot of companies look like they are doing great until one day they don't.
    - dboreham 4y ago
      I don't think so. They think "I like my Tesla", that's it.
  - haasted 4y ago
    The barrier-to-entry for listing on a stock exchange is rather a lot higher than it is for creating a crypto token.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
    - ensignavenger 4y ago
      While your statement is factually correct, you may be surprised at just how easy it is to be listed on a "stock exchange". While the larger, well known exchanges have a higher barrier to entry, there are lots of smaller exchanges willing to list all sorts of things.
- zeroclip 4y ago
  One has value and utility besides its market price, the other does not. But to the retail investor who does not use either, and knows little or nothing about blockchains and decentralized protocols, they are equivalent.
  - madeofpalk 4y ago
    > One has value and utility besides its market price, the other does not This is impossible to discern.
    - zeroclip 4y ago
      Then maybe you are in the 'average retail investor' bucket, without much grasp of the protocols and software underlying these tokens.
- gausswho 4y ago
  One also hopes a Boeing 737 with MAX in the name goes up. But it has to come down one way or another right?
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
j0hnyl 4y ago
Whether it's a sham or not seems to have nothing to do with it. She's in trouble for paid promotion of securities, which who the hell knows which crypto project the SEC is going to decide is a security?

pavlov 4y ago

The problem with crypto is that the use cases are so limited that, to the average retail user, there simply is no difference between Ethereum and Ethereum Max. Both are mysterious digital things you buy and hope the price goes up.

nightski 4y ago
You could replace what you said with stocks, investing, and finance in general actually.
- pgwhalen 4y ago
  Surely a retail investor understands that the AAPL represents claims on the future earnings of Apple, and TSLA represents claims on the future earnings of Tesla. People know what those companies do in the real world.
  - zeroclip 4y ago
    And most understand that Dogecoin and Ethereum are different coins, and probably even that Ethereum and Ethereum Max are different coins. But they often do not know the difference between these protocols or projects. It would be like putting stock tickers on all the hundreds of competing JavaScript frameworks on GitHub and asking the average non-dev what to invest in.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - nightski 4y ago
    You might be surprised. In my experience many people have no idea what a stock actually is or how the market works and prices are "determined". I have run into so many folks that even have a 401(k) and don't even know they can invest it in things other than the default allocation. Even if they did know they would have no idea what to do, which is even worse because a 401(k) heavily limits your investment options so it makes it simple.
    - pgwhalen 4y ago
      I’m not surprised, because all of those things you mention are different and much more specific than I’m referring to. The vague idea that “if Tesla the company does well, TSLA the stock goes up, in a loose sense” is much simpler and it’s hard for me to imagine there are many retail investors that don’t understand that on some level.
      - nightski 4y ago
        I'll give you that (although that principle is so generic it isn't even actionable in practice). But if you asked the average person in the U.S. who has a portfolio (I believe it's only like 50% of Americans hold stock), I'd imagine a good deal of them couldn't even tell you what companies they own.
        pgwhalen 4y ago
        Probably true (given that it’s true of me and I work in finance), but again irrelevant to my point. I’m not sure how the principle is not actionable in practice. Surely recognizing that everyone has iPhones and that trend isn’t stopping is enough for a lay person to recognize AAPL is reasonably safe as an investment.
        nightski 4y ago
        AAPL might be a safe bet, but maybe not? I'm sure the company will be profitable for quite some time but stock prices are not driven by profits as you know. They are built on expectations. A lot of the expectation for Apple is built into it's $2T market cap. You might of thought AAPL was a safe bet at the beginning of the year, but now it's down 22.23%. At this point we don't know if it's going to take a year to recover or a decade. So I know I am preaching to the choir but it's not just "company doing well so stock is safe". There's the context of the overall economy not to mention a lot of companies look like they are doing great until one day they don't.
  - dboreham 4y ago
    I don't think so. They think "I like my Tesla", that's it.
- haasted 4y ago
  The barrier-to-entry for listing on a stock exchange is rather a lot higher than it is for creating a crypto token.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - ensignavenger 4y ago
    While your statement is factually correct, you may be surprised at just how easy it is to be listed on a "stock exchange". While the larger, well known exchanges have a higher barrier to entry, there are lots of smaller exchanges willing to list all sorts of things.
zeroclip 4y ago
One has value and utility besides its market price, the other does not. But to the retail investor who does not use either, and knows little or nothing about blockchains and decentralized protocols, they are equivalent.
- madeofpalk 4y ago
  > One has value and utility besides its market price, the other does not This is impossible to discern.
  - zeroclip 4y ago
    Then maybe you are in the 'average retail investor' bucket, without much grasp of the protocols and software underlying these tokens.
gausswho 4y ago
One also hopes a Boeing 737 with MAX in the name goes up. But it has to come down one way or another right?

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

j0hnyl 4y ago

Whether it's a sham or not seems to have nothing to do with it. She's in trouble for paid promotion of securities, which who the hell knows which crypto project the SEC is going to decide is a security?