from the next-time-ask-the-guru-on-the-mountain dept.
Critics say it's a profession riddled with ignorance, conflict and moral hazards:
When the bankrupt cryptocurrency lender Celsius began foundering last month, Ben Armstrong was among the industry personalities leading the online charge against the firm.
"You can't possibly EVER support Celsius Network or [CEO Alex] Mashinsky in any way," Armstrong, who goes by the moniker Bitboy_Crypto, told his nearly 900,000 Twitter followers after Celsius froze all depositors' money in June.
There was only one problem: Armstrong had been central to encouraging them to deposit their money with Celsius in the first place.
Armstrong had talked up the company often on his daily YouTube show and, just two weeks earlier, even appeared with Celsius's chief executive on its weekly promotional video. ("Atlanta is famous for BitBoy, no longer for CNN," Mashinsky had said admiringly.)Armstrong is a leading example of a crypto influencer. One-part media personality, one-part untrained investment adviser, the 39-year-old Georgia native wields significant power in the world of cryptocurrency investment, steering tip-hungry online trawlers to the latest token. [...]
BitBoy's rise — and even his recent Celsius wobble — highlights how low the threshold can be for gaining power amid the morass of gamified finance. In the land of crypto, the one-eyed man is king — and the line between carnival barker and investment guru extremely difficult to find.
[...] "I think it's easy to say, 'Why would you listen to some stranger on the internet tell you where to put your money?'" said Nicholas Christakis, a Yale University sociologist and physician who wrote "Connected," a seminal book on the scientific underpinnings of online influence, when asked why so many have flocked to BitBoy. "But what the research shows is that, particularly when there's a lot at stake — like all the money online in crypto — online interactions can be as influential as in-person ones."
He said the idea of large groups communicating within these online bubbles can amplify the effect. "This sense of shared community — 'We're all in this together' — makes people trust more. It's not that different from the logic of a cult. I mean, don't we all have a desire to find a guru who can tell us the meaning of life and protect us from bad decisions?"
[...] It's not surprising perhaps that Armstrong would amass influence in this space in particular. Like stocks, crypto is a system that demands a constant stream of people to buy in if the value is to continue going up. Unlike stocks, though, there is little to fuel those buyers — no earnings, products or market need. That means hypesters are needed, say experts who follow such markets.
"Since you're not really buying anything of actual value, in my view, you need someone to tell you what it's worth," said Peter Schiff, a controversial money manager and prominent crypto skeptic. "I think what you have to ask with any influencer is who they're actually serving — or if they're just serving themselves."
[...] "This is the really interesting area where crypto and social media intersect," said Jason Goldman, an early Twitter executive and chief digital officer at the White House during the Obama administration. "You've always had people who sell snake oil. But they had to go door to door, and now with social media they can sit at home and be amplified to every corner of the world."
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Sunday July 31 2022, @05:56AM
Say it ain't so.
But hey, it's by far not the first time people who don't have any idea what they're talking about are use for "credible investment input". Some of the more influential investment advisors back in the 1920s before Black Friday were fortune tellers and soothsayers.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Erinys on Sunday July 31 2022, @06:52AM (1 child)
Almost like listening to Runaway1956 on matters military, vegetable, or mineral. Building walls, or legal stuff. Sooner or later, what you do not know, will hurt you.
(Score: 5, Informative) by FatPhil on Sunday July 31 2022, @11:19AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: -1, Spam) by janrinullis2 on Sunday July 31 2022, @08:09AM
My goodness you have to be fast to post anything before janrinok bans you!
I just wanted to say . . .. .
(Score: 2) by MIRV888 on Sunday July 31 2022, @02:02PM (1 child)
You don't say.
When one of the primary uses for your new 'currency' is paying extortion and ransoms, it may not be a great investment.
(Score: 0, Troll) by soylentwhores on Monday August 01 2022, @06:23PM
found the Windows user. I guess cash is shady too. But bankster-funded wars and fractional reserve banking are sooo legit. What a dumb ass slave.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Sunday July 31 2022, @02:50PM
I guess it really expanded its offerings [youtu.be] in our day, before climate change and all.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Sunday July 31 2022, @03:06PM
people liable to be influenced, i.e. people who let others think for them.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Dichzor on Sunday July 31 2022, @05:01PM (1 child)
I see the problem with dishonesty here, i see no problem with greed being punished.
Calling these inflencers influencers is far too generous.
It obscures the nature of what they do.
They are in the business of convincing-lies-as-a-service, willing to insist that black is white, as long as someone pays them.
Lie, deny, act surprised, in that order.
Greedy shmucks falling for the lies is to be expected.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday July 31 2022, @06:15PM
It's a risk/reward thing. Very risky, no tangible or legal basis, personality driven and dependent on an ever growing stream of fresh suckers. Some people got a very big return, but it is a less than zero sum game...
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 0, Troll) by soylentwhores on Monday August 01 2022, @06:28PM
If everyone had their money in their own Monero wallet we wouldn't have a war in The Ukraine right now. People could easily move government service providers via smart contract. Can you imagine how successful they would be at funding wars if they had to ask people to contribute 1k a month from their self hosted wallets to kill their neighbors? yeah right. no more war international banker scum.