Hacker News Reader

Comment by iSnow | Hacker News Reader

Does anyone else see those excessive "crypto dudes" around in their social circle? They seem to eat, breath and excrete Bitcoins day in, day out.

I can't understand why otherwise intelligent people are sucked into some cult-like gambling, wasting their lives away and talking about the upcoming disruption of the financial system in much the same way as QAnon idiot talk about the "Great awakening".

During my lifetime, some cultish obsessions made the round, but seems to me that "always on" social media has poured a lot of gas on the fire.

View on HN

> I can't understand why otherwise intelligent people

Intelligence isn't prophylactic against conspiracy theories, and crypto-cultism has all of the major features. It offers an alternative worldview where global elites are engaged in a massive conspiracy to keep the little people down, but with one weird trick the enlightened can stick it to the Man. Take fintech out of it and you're looking at a cyberpunk novel.

Crypto cults are technology based, so it strokes the ego of cultists already in technology fields: they're superior because of their existing skills and expertise.

Finally, crypto trading has indeed made some people quite rich, and they're happy to evangelize. Doing so works for Amway and other "don't call it a pyramid" schemes, and the mass delusion of cryptocurrency doesn't even have a living board of directors to point to as the ultimate extractors of value.

I do. Some anyway.

I have seen some very smart acquaintances start talking about how bitcoin will replace the dollar or become the reserve currency of the world in just a few years.

It really does feel like a cult or something. It’s so far removed from reality I don’t know where to even begin.

* that's nice *

Goes back to holding index funds for 30 years.

Time will tell who was smart and who is crazy I suppose.

When you think about it, the behavior isn't all that different from the way MLM converts act. MLM true believers would tell you it's the future of commerce or something and that it'll provide them financial independence or early retirement.

Bitcoin and Ethereum are actually making people money so it's different than the average MLM experience, but that makes the fervor all the more intense. Then there's all the shitcoins out there that people have lost money on.

It seems almost like its always guys, and the way they talk sounds exactly like the Amway/Avon ladies that my mom was always around when I was a kid.

Agreed; especially surrounding the current NFT craze, I notice a lot of people I wouldn't expect to fall into it suddenly have weird monkey profile pictures (or some other thing that is totally different than the pictures they've had for years), and they start posting only about their particular flavor of crypto incessantly.

Why are so many NFTs ape-themed? Bored Ape Yacht Club, Evolved Apes, Degen(erate) Ape Academy...

Didn't the /r/wsb dudes start it with "aping into stonks together" or something?

I know a couple of dudes who are really into NFT. It really does come across as a cult-like culture with odd terminology and a half-baked understanding of the technology behind it.

I'd say over 90% of people who bought cryptocurrencies have at best a half-baked understanding of the technology behind it. OTOH, you could have no understanding of the tech inside microcomputers in the late 70's and still think it was a good investment, if you had an idea of its potential uses.

People who set their primary goal to making money and being on the crest of a wave often just can’t resist. I was invited on a call for a new crypto related project and talking to these people is so freaking strange. So many red flags and irrational reasoning, clearly driven by this desperate greed and fear of missing out.

Lots of those people have absurd amounts of money now. But I simply couldn’t live in imaginary world every day just to make money. It repulses me.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com