Unite for Crypto PR: 3 To The Moon, 3 Rekt
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When we started this gimmick, the thought was there would be a mix of good and bad to put into each category. Unfortunately, I’m burning on crypto news more than I’m enjoying it lately, so we’re running with an imbalanced list today.
To The Moon
- Crypto needs to unite for better PR — (Forbes)
We know that big financial media outlets like Forbes are usually not good at covering the crypto space. But this piece deserves some credit and recognition. Crypto’s biggest problem is that there is no united representation of the positive side of the industry. In the words of the author:
Too much bad news coupled with public ignorance or misunderstanding can’t be battled with regulations alone. Here’s what’s happening now — bad news hits the market, Bitcoin and similar currencies lose value, competitors to the blockchain technology (banks, credit card companies, etc.) pile on, and there’s no official worldwide trade group to fight back.
Part of the challenge is that the group with the purest principles, the Bitcoin community, absolutely abhors things like this. Kevin Pham, to his credit, consistently calls attention to official leaders and entities of crypto as single points of failure and counter to the decentralized mission of the space. It’s also tough to reconcile the tribalism of crypto into a cohesive body that could actually put this into motion. That being said, every project in the space benefits from intelligent, informed people chipping away at public ignorance and misunderstanding when bad news hits.
We know that companies like Coinbase have botched the public image game about as badly as you can, which hurts the whole industry. Either crypto bands together or lets these companies be the default representative entities for the entire space.
2. Intel working on the Bitcoin mining energy problem — (CoinTelegraph)
Companies that enable crypto and cut into the problems (real or perceived) make me happy. Remove one more objection to crypto mining and that’s one less way for the haters to denounce it. When a company as large as Intel gets serious about crypto, even for its own ends, it lends credence to the idea that the industry is here to stay. Finding a sustainable mining solution will help with the PR point, too.
Rekt
- Telegram snapping up all the cash it can — (CoinTelegraph)
I’m becoming more and more skeptical of Telegram. I just don’t really see the value of buying its token and I certainly can’t fathom why it needs the volume of cash it does. I’d love to hear from you if you disagree and am happy to consider alternative viewpoints if they’re well-reasoned. Telegram Messenger just looks less and less like a crypto project and more like a traditional startup that wanted an easier path to fundraising.
2. Litepay is finished — (Bitcoinist)
No particularly strong opinions on Litepay, but this sure blew up quickly. Not a good thing any time a crypto enabler has to close its doors. For what it’s worth, the Litecoin community seemed very skeptical of Litepay and its lack of transparency, so maybe this is a blessing in disguise. As always, it’s probably best to tone down any crypto hype (Litepay had a LOT of it) and not overreact to any doomsday scenarios (like every daily announcement of news on the regulation front)— the truth is usually somewhere in between.
3. Vitalik Buterin is mad at Facebook — (TheNextWeb)
Where do you think this ranks on Mark Zuckerberg’s list of priorities at the moment? Vitalik is understandably upset that people keep impersonating him on social media and using his name and likeness to perpetuate crypto scams. He’s made it clear that he only uses Twitter and Reddit, not Facebook or Instagram, but it’s impossible for everyone that’s interested in crypto to know that. DYOR is a good principle and you should just never send money to anyone that asks you for it on the internet, but that’s really beside the point at this stage. Centralized entities have to own the responsibility for everything that happens on their platforms — if Facebook is serious about clipping crypto advertising, it should be even more serious about cutting down crypto scams.
4. India being wishy-washy on crypto — (Quartz)
This probably hurts the crypto space more than anything right now. When countries aren’t clear about their stance on crypto, average people don’t know whether to invest, hold, spend, sell, whatever. Institutional or corporate players get cold feet, and all of that holds back adoption. Spare me the arguments about 1 BTC = 1 BTC and the technology being better than ever, that type of thought isn’t getting us to the next mass wave, which is what we really need for this to take off. Make up your mind, India.
