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September 6, 2021: Matt Warwick on cryptocurrencies and dodgy smartphone apps

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Jackson Palmer, cofounder of DogeCoin (source)

Jackson Palmer, cofounder of DogeCoin (source)

Today: Discussing cryptocurrencies with DJ Matt Warwick, host of "Garbage Time"

DJ Matt Warwick, host of WFMU's Garbage Time (Tuesdays 9am to 12 noon Eastern), joins us live in-studio today to talk about cryptocurrency, Robinhood, and which sketchy smartphone apps he's using (or avoiding) these days.

Links:

• Matt Warwick's first appearance on Techtonic was the August 6, 2018 show, “revealing his favorite apps.” They were...

- Blippar (named “most innovative AR company by Fast Company in 2018”... then declared bankruptcy)
- Movie Pass (in January 2020, declared bankruptcy)
- Stringr (apparently still in operation, but overshadowed by super-dodgy Citizen app)
- Qriket (abruptly shut down, very shady)
- Cash Show, a knock-off of HQ Trivia (shut down in March 2019)
- Robinhood (the subject of a Feb 2021 congressional hearing into its sketchy business model based on PFOF, or "pay for order flow." From the May 2021 New Yorker profile: "The majority of Robinhood’s revenue comes from trading volume: the more a user trades, the more the company makes." Also an SEC investigation - NYT, Aug 30.)

• As of today, Sept 6, 2021, the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap, via Brave New Coin:

- Bitcoin: $972B
- Ethereum: $459B
- Cardano: $89B
- Binance: $83B
- Tether: $68B
- XRP: $64B
- Solana: $46B
- DogeCoin: $40B
- WETH: $29B
- USD Coin: $28B

• Jackson Palmer, cofounder of DogeCoin, continues from his post pictured above:

“Despite claims of ‘decentralization’, the cryptocurrency industry is controlled by a powerful cartel of wealthy figures who, with time, have evolved to incorporate many of the same institutions tied to the existing centralized financial system they supposedly set out to replace.

“The cryptocurrency industry leverages a network of shady business connections, bought influencers and pay-for-play media outlets to perpetuate a cult-like ‘get rich quick’ funnel designed to extract new money from the financially desperate and naive.

“Financial exploitation undoubtedly existed before cryptocurrency, but cryptocurrency is almost purpose built to make the funnel of profiteering more efficient for those at the top and less safeguarded for the vulnerable.

“Cryptocurrency is like taking the worst parts of today’s capitalist system (eg. corruption, fraud, inequality) and using software to technically limit the use of interventions (eg. audits, regulation, taxation) which serve as protections or safety nets for the average person.

“Lose your savings account password? Your fault.
Fall victim to a scam? Your fault.
Billionaires manipulating markets? They’re geniuses.

“This is the type of dangerous ‘free for all’ capitalism cryptocurrency was unfortunately architected to facilitate since its inception.

“But these days even the most modest critique of cryptocurrency will draw smears from the powerful figures in control of the industry and the ire of retail investors who they’ve sold the false promise of one day being a fellow billionaire. Good-faith debate is near impossible.

“For these reasons, I simply no longer go out of my way to engage in public discussion regarding cryptocurrency. It doesn’t align with my politics or belief system, and I don’t have the energy to try and discuss that with those unwilling to engage in a grounded conversation.”

• Bitcoin Uses More Electricity Than Many Countries. How Is That Possible? (NYT, Sept 3, 2021): “In 2009, you could mine one Bitcoin using a setup in your living room. Today, you’d need a room full of specialized machines, each costing thousands of dollars.”

• Crypto’s Rapid Move Into Banking Elicits Alarm in Washington (NYT, Sept 5, 2021): “The boom in companies offering cryptocurrency loans and high-yield deposit accounts is disrupting the banking industry and leaving regulators scrambling to catch up.”

• Regulators Investigate Crypto-Exchange Developer Uniswap Labs (WSJ, Sept 3, 2021): “SEC probe comes amid heightened scrutiny of fast-growing decentralized markets.”


(Above, explosm by Rob DenBleyker. See also this one.)

...or as the joke puts it:
Dad: Timmy, what would you like for your birthday?
Timmy: All I want for my birthday is one bitcoin.
Dad: What? $11,228? Don't you know that $15,475 is a lot of money! What do you need $8,498 for anyway?

• Finally, once again, the classic definition of Bitcoin...


(by @theophite)

...and a helpful description of NFTs:



• Speaking of NFTs: “The trouble with explaining NFTs to a five-year-old is that you’ll have a hard time convincing a five-year-old that this nonsense isn’t the nonsense it obviously is. It sounds unfathomably stupid because it’s unfathomably stupid.” - David Gerard, in NFTs: crypto grifters try to scam artists, again (March 11, 2021).

• Another good description of NFTs: "an acutely miniscule number of artists making a vast amount of wealth off a small number of sales while the majority of artists are being sold a dream of immense profit.. manipulative, predatory, and harmful" - Kimberly Parker, in Most artists are not making money off NFTs and here are some graphs to prove it (April 19, 2021)

And two more...

(Source)

(Source)

• See also my own Pumping up the worthless with NFTs (March 12, 2021) and Fighting nihilism, The Nothing, and NFTs (March 18, 2021).

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