Interesting Point

Crashing a CNET event


This one is real life with penis drones crashing a Gary Kasperov speech.One of the arguments made by cryptocurrency enthusiasts is that it is currency.

The thing is, it does not fit the most basic definition of currency, because it is not current.

If you want to buy something with Bitcoin, it takes hours, or days, or fees far higher than what it would cost to wire money to Guatemala.

In fact, Bitcoin is used less often to buy stuff, as opposed to things like paying a ransom, less than are Linden dollars.

I know what you are thinking, "What the f%$# are Linden dollars?"

They are the currency used in Second Life, an online game in which one participates in a virtual world.

You may not remember it, it began in 2003, and passed its zenith sometime around 2006, when corporate virtual events were ravaged by flying penises.  (As Anna Russel would say, "I'm not making this up, you know.")

I know what you are thinking now, "Oh, yes it it is still around."

No disrespect to people who are still participate in the environment, not that there's anything wrong with that, but the fact that there is still more commerce generated from a 2 decade old game than is generated by Bitcoin says something about how profoundly ill suited to, well, anything, Bitcoin is:

At a recent high tech conference (I forget which one, so let's just say SXSW), the topic of Bitcoin came up, with a very young developer enthusing to me how it was going to be The Next Big thing. I pointed out (as I often do) that Bitcoin still lacks the key thing a currency needs to be a currency -- that is to say, a mass group of people regularly using it to buy, you know, stuff.

But my new friend stood his ground. "Transactions have been growing like crazy since last year," he insisted, "they're over 100,000 a day now." I checked Bitcoin's daily transaction info, and that's indeed the case: Over 100K transactions a day, almost double what it was in the Summer of last year. Which is definitely solid growth of some kind, I'll give him that. 

But here's the thing, and it bears emphasis: At 100K transactions a day, Bitcoin is still less used than Linden Dollars.

 (emphasis original)

………

This isn't to say Linden Dollars are superior to Bitcoin -- which after all, are a virtual currency intrinsically tied to a social game MMO platform. However, after all that hype, you'd think Silicon Valley would be quick to have the same skepticism for Bitcoin as they did for Second Life after it failed to deliver on its promises in 2006-2008.

Indeed, but there is an important difference, the people running and participating in Second Life are not in this to scam people, while the people supporting Bitcoin, most notably Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, are actively scamming people.

The big money and hype is in cryptocurrency is from investors who are pumping and dumping in the hope that the retail investors will make them profits, and take their losses.