The shady world of influencers promoting cryptocurrency | Hacker News Reader

The shady world of influencers promoting cryptocurrency

mashable.com

33 pointsBrissyCoder12 comments

Decent article.

Anyone who has spent significant time in certain corners of the internet has seen the high prevalence of get-rich-quick desperation in (some) cryptocurrencies. It repeats each cycle, but was at high intensity this year due to the low barrier to entry with BSC smart contracts. Anyone could create a PnD shitcoin.

All these scammers do is set up a nice looking website, fake some 'partnerships', then get influencers and spammers to put the word out. Once the scammers determine the market is at peak liquidity, they 'rug pull' by selling through all the liquidity, driving the price into the ground. Some rug pulls are instant, others are slow, to milk the buyers.

These scams are very common.. there are thousands of them. A lot of people willingly participate because it is possible to make some profit off suckers before the developers pull the rug. The profits are drying up as suckers are running out of money or are finally getting wise to the formula.

Despite how it sounds, I'm not in favor of regulation. I'm all for people learning lessons the hard way. I did at various times in my life and am better for it

> These scams are very common.. there are thousands of them.

IMO an easy way to spot a scam... does it have it's own blockchain? If not probably a scam.

Another way to spot a crypto scam is if it has a blockchain.

I'm pretty much of this point of view as well. Guess my point is that BTC/ETH/XRP etc... weren't started with scamming in mind. They were genuine projects in their own right. Of course the market and investment in crypto is now 99% scam territory. Chains like Ethereum and the Binance one are now just platforms for scams enitrely.

> Despite how it sounds, I'm not in favor of regulation. I'm all for people learning lessons the hard way.

That "tough love" idea is bullshit. Giving young people hope and telling them that are going to be rich, and then take away all their dreams. What you get is desperation and anger.

We live in already a unfair society, to make it harder for the ones that have less for the profit of the unscrupulous seems a dangerous path, an excuse for thieves to continue stealing.

Who said anything about love? Freedom isn't about love, it is about being an autonomous agent. Perhaps it is presumptuous, but you sound bitter.

Freedom means facing the consequences of your decisions. Sometimes you take a risk and it pays off, other times you lose. The real travesty, for me anyway, is living around people who are too scared to take any real risks in their lives. They will be the first to break in the event of a real tragedy. Resilience is built by making and learning from mistakes

> Freedom means facing the consequences of your decisions.

I completely agree with you. That is why scammers should pay for their actions. The people that is lying and abusing the trust of young and inexperienced people should pay. And the government is the means that we collectively agree that is in charge of creating laws and prescribing punishments.

At least, I hope, on that we agree.

I agree the government should pass laws and prescribe punishments, but in such a way that protects physical security and property (from e.g., violence and coercion). Broadly speaking, I don't want a government dictating what are acceptable financial investments nor what is acceptable speech.

Here, some young people are willingly entering into get-rich-quick schemes to avoid facing the reality of everyday life. Only the most naive are putting money into these scams. The quicker these delusions are dispelled, the better for everyone.

> "As soon as you could exchange Bitcoin for money, every scammer came out of the woodwork," he said. "A lot of people [involved in crypto] have a history of scams."

This is well known. But, if you are a Reddit user or many other platforms you may think that cryptocurrencies are the best thing that happened to the economy since the industrial revolution.

> "What you've described is called pump and dump," Springer explained in a phone call where we walked through the various altcoins and their marketing schemes. "It could also be a ponzi scheme or a pyramid scheme or even both."

This is so basic that every student should know about it. How they are going to be manipulated by people willing to earn money at their cost.

When this young people that though being part of a "movement" and that they were "smart" lose everything, they are going to be angry, many are going to double down trying to get to that promised easy money.

As a society we are failing them, letting them be victims of this predatory practices, this fools endeavor that promises fast easy riches. Lack of good education and regulations leave the young to be predated by the unscrupulous.

Also, where are the financial regulators?

I generally like the idea of cryptocurrency, and maybe I'm just cynical, brash, uncaring, or a little too independent minded, or maybe just an asshole, but titscoin? MILF coin? Save The Kids? I've got a few points I'd like to make on this topic.

I guess I'm old but I have no idea who any of these "influencers" are. It must be a strange world disconnected from everything that makes up my world.

If you're watching some guy videotape himself sitting at his computer, I can judge you for that and maybe I'm judgmental, but if you're stupid enough to spend your money on something because some guy who takes pictures of himself tells you to, I'm sorry but suckers exist to get took. If there was ever a truth more timeless than that one I'd like to hear it.

Conversely, if you're some guy who is getting offered some money to shill a scam and you're stupid enough to do it, you deserve what's coming for you, and it is coming for you. You've just videotaped your full face committing fraud. No amount of "come on guys they offered me a bunch of money what am I supposed to do lmao" is going to save you.

On the topic of scams and cryptocurrency scams, watch YouTube videos for a couple of hours and see how long you can go without getting an ad that is a scam, cryptocurrency or otherwise. Getting told by some bald black guy about a free government check (racist much?) or about some secret loophole to get free gold bars or whatever in between songs really makes me glad I blo k ads everywhere. I wonder if these are the advertisers YouTube has to please when banning political accounts, I wonder if YouTube will get hit the way these influencers are going to. Scams exist everywhere, nobody is safe from them, nobody is too reputable to shill them for a buck, no amount of laws will prevent them from happening, and the only way to be more safe from them is to educate yourself and to take a skeptical approach to anything anyone ever tells you.

On a deeper note, just the state of some aspects of the world where people follow professional selfie takers on the internet as some sort of meaningful part of their lives, and the delusion that such a person is likely to be anything other than an opportunist or grifter, that whole world grosses me out, I assume everyone in it (the followers and the influencers) is devoid of redeeming qualities until proven otherwise, I'm sure there's someone out there in that world that isn't a total loser or piece of shit, just like I'm sure there's a Chinese woman with green eyes out there somewhere. All in all I'd say these people deserve each other.

I honestly feel bad for kids today.

I remember being a teenager with too much time who wanted to find ways to make money. I would find clearance deals on old stock high end bicycles on ebay and part them out. I actually learned a lot from doing that. I probably made less than minimum wage for all the time I put in but it added up and I had fun.

I could see my 16 year old self having gotten caught up in stuff like this instead if it was around and I got over excited and thought there was a way to make real money.

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