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> That's why I think the cryptobro angle is relevant to the story That's an interesting perspective, and reminds me a bit of the "libertarian paradise" at the

> That's why I think the cryptobro angle is relevant to the story That's an interesting perspective, and reminds me a bit of the "libertarian paradise" at the end of http://bitsim.beepboopbitcoin.com/ http://bitsim.beepboopbitcoin.com/ . But the fact that it's framed more as a dunk than as genuine sympathy for those affected reminds me of other anti-crypto reporting like "Line Go Up" ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQ_xWvX1n9g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQ_xWvX1n9g ). Which makes it really hard to recommend it as a way to break people out. Given a choice between reporting which mocks crypto victims and reporting which might actually help get people away from the rigged casino, I'd prefer to see articles aiming for the latter.

rainsford 3y ago
I would actually tend to agree. I think the organizers deserve all the scorn and dunking in the world, but I'm less comfortable about that framing for those impacted. "Conference organized by the monkey JPG people" should be a major red flag, but it wasn't a red flag for the target audience for probably the same reason "monkey JPG" wasn't in the first place. Similar to the Fyre Festival, the real villains are the scammers (or idiots, if you're giving them the benefit of the doubt) running the show, not the people who fall victim to the scam. Cryptocurrency and NFTs fall into that category where I think recognizing the BS requires a level of technical knowledge that is unreasonable to expect everyone to have. Dunking on people who don't get the technical argument for why NFTs and the people promoting them are BS does not feel like the way.
- eru 3y ago
  NFTs, and even monkey JPG NFTs, are perfectly sensible when viewed as art projects. (Not as finance: financially, monkey JPG NFTs are rather silly.) And by 'sensible' I mean sensible compared to weird things other people either do for art or spend money on for art. Compare eg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Performance_art https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Performance_art (and that's far from the most egregious corner).
  - hnfong 3y ago
    Arguably Christie's (the auction house) invented the concept of NFT before there were NFTs. I mean, the value of art may be undervalued by society in general, but paintings that sell for hundreds of millions of dollars is just insane. The art collectors are just using art pieces in the same way crypto folks are using NFTs. The only apparent difference is that there's no physical object for NFTs, but the physical object was never the main value proposition for traditional high value art anyway.
    - meowface 3y ago
      You're absolutely right, but at least there is some underlying art-intended-as-art there. Just as much of the stock market can be viewed the same way but at least there usually is an underlying company with some value behind the stocks. With NFTs there really is nothing there. It's finance without any art component.
      - zoklet-enjoyer 3y ago
        You know there's more to NFTs than Bored Apes, right? Look at the stuff Beeple was doing before NFTs hit the mainstream. NFT was about the art before it became a get rich quick thing. Still is if you ignore Yuga Labs and people like them.
        meowface 3y ago
        I did write that in my other comment. I was just abbreviating here. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38172108 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38172108
    - jjoonathan 3y ago
      Why insane? An asset with a value that can be arbitrarily manipulated in a plausibly deniable fashion is extraordinary useful for money laundering and tax avoidance.
  - meowface 3y ago
hannasanarion 3y ago
Helping people get out is not the only purpose for media about a thing. Informing people who aren't in it is also legitimate news, and can be important if the people outside need to know what's going on inside so that they don't get taken in in the first place.
- endgame 3y ago
  That does not require dunking on those who got sucked in.
- johnnyanmac 3y ago
  So this article helped with that? The rave wasn't regulated properly. By the way, NFTs are bad. I guess it's a reminder that your redditor from yester-decade is now old enough to do that as a professional gig.
plagiarist 3y ago
Well also it's totally fair to say they should know better than to spend thousands of real money on idiotic computer-generated cartoons. But it's really unexpected that any event would blind the attendees. The first is a pyramid scheme and the second is like a war crime or something. There's zero financial incentive to blind the attendees.
eru 3y ago
Guess which kind of reporting gets more engagement?
kylebenzle 3y ago
Molly White has made a career out of mocking crypto bros, she'll have a hay day with this one! https://twitter.com/molly0xFFF https://twitter.com/molly0xFFF

rainsford 3y ago

I would actually tend to agree. I think the organizers deserve all the scorn and dunking in the world, but I'm less comfortable about that framing for those impacted. "Conference organized by the monkey JPG people" should be a major red flag, but it wasn't a red flag for the target audience for probably the same reason "monkey JPG" wasn't in the first place. Similar to the Fyre Festival, the real villains are the scammers (or idiots, if you're giving them the benefit of the doubt) running the show, not the people who fall victim to the scam. Cryptocurrency and NFTs fall into that category where I think recognizing the BS requires a level of technical knowledge that is unreasonable to expect everyone to have. Dunking on people who don't get the technical argument for why NFTs and the people promoting them are BS does not feel like the way.

eru 3y ago
NFTs, and even monkey JPG NFTs, are perfectly sensible when viewed as art projects. (Not as finance: financially, monkey JPG NFTs are rather silly.) And by 'sensible' I mean sensible compared to weird things other people either do for art or spend money on for art. Compare eg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Performance_art https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Performance_art (and that's far from the most egregious corner).
- hnfong 3y ago
  Arguably Christie's (the auction house) invented the concept of NFT before there were NFTs. I mean, the value of art may be undervalued by society in general, but paintings that sell for hundreds of millions of dollars is just insane. The art collectors are just using art pieces in the same way crypto folks are using NFTs. The only apparent difference is that there's no physical object for NFTs, but the physical object was never the main value proposition for traditional high value art anyway.
  - meowface 3y ago
    You're absolutely right, but at least there is some underlying art-intended-as-art there. Just as much of the stock market can be viewed the same way but at least there usually is an underlying company with some value behind the stocks. With NFTs there really is nothing there. It's finance without any art component.
    - zoklet-enjoyer 3y ago
      You know there's more to NFTs than Bored Apes, right? Look at the stuff Beeple was doing before NFTs hit the mainstream. NFT was about the art before it became a get rich quick thing. Still is if you ignore Yuga Labs and people like them.
      - meowface 3y ago
        I did write that in my other comment. I was just abbreviating here. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38172108 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38172108
  - jjoonathan 3y ago
    Why insane? An asset with a value that can be arbitrarily manipulated in a plausibly deniable fashion is extraordinary useful for money laundering and tax avoidance.
- meowface 3y ago

hannasanarion 3y ago

Helping people get out is not the only purpose for media about a thing. Informing people who aren't in it is also legitimate news, and can be important if the people outside need to know what's going on inside so that they don't get taken in in the first place.

endgame 3y ago
That does not require dunking on those who got sucked in.
johnnyanmac 3y ago
So this article helped with that? The rave wasn't regulated properly. By the way, NFTs are bad. I guess it's a reminder that your redditor from yester-decade is now old enough to do that as a professional gig.

plagiarist 3y ago

Well also it's totally fair to say they should know better than to spend thousands of real money on idiotic computer-generated cartoons. But it's really unexpected that any event would blind the attendees. The first is a pyramid scheme and the second is like a war crime or something. There's zero financial incentive to blind the attendees.

eru 3y ago

Guess which kind of reporting gets more engagement?

kylebenzle 3y ago

Molly White has made a career out of mocking crypto bros, she'll have a hay day with this one! https://twitter.com/molly0xFFF https://twitter.com/molly0xFFF