White unpacked the project at once Twitter threadBecome viral and kick off Wave of criticism A copycat video of ridicule and spawn that boasts millions of views. Currently, the Cryptoland website appears inactive and supporters have abandoned it. The request for comment to its founder was not answered.
White, a 28-year-old software engineer who enjoys writing Wikipedia articles, is a strange person who afflicts the crypto industry. upon Her website, “Web3 is on track,” White is documenting a series of cryptocurrency fraud cases. An investment that turned out to be a scam, a poorly executed project that collapsed due to a mismanagement, and a hack that wastes supporters’ money.
As much as many financial and technical elites have Gathered around the codeWhite is leading a group of small but messy skeptics who are pushing in the opposite direction, where warnings appear to have been substantiated by cryptocurrency price craters in recent weeks.
“Most of my contempt is reserved for big players who are pitching this to the mainstream audience as if it were an investment, and it’s a ticket from a really tough financial spot for those who don’t have many options. I promise you that, “White said. “It’s very predatory.”
For White and her fellow critics, the founders of crypto companies and the venture capitalists who support them are extensively regulated to remove their money from the general public by exaggerating the potential of crypto technology. I preside over no attempt. After years of spending online and studying esoteric Internet culture, White has become a rare person who can manipulate the technologically complex and memetic world of cryptography and transform it into digestible prose.
White works from his home in Massachusetts and shares it with two cats and a 70-pound pandemic puppy. She wears a youthful uniform of jeans, a sweater and Converse sneakers and communicates with her fellow crypto skeptics through her zoom and direct messages on Twitter. She declined some offers to speak at a direct meeting because of her time promise.
White’s excellence increased as more and more people began to question crypto mania.The journalist called her to talk about gut check, and she lecture He advised Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (DR.I.) on potential cryptography for Stanford University students.
“In the world of cryptocurrencies, many things look different.” Ben McKenzie, a former star of The OC, a television actor who began writing about cryptocurrencies during a pandemic and became one of the industry’s most famous critics, said. “Molly illuminates the light through the darkness and shows it to the world.”
White’s target says her criticism brand is so ironic that she has chosen a dramatic example of failing to misunderstand the entire industry, which is full of good people and good ideas. She has now experienced an unpleasant form of proof.
“I wasn’t the only one who expected some of these projects to collapse, but it’s not fun to watch,” she said.
The world of cryptocurrencies and their boosters Forging.. Mega investors such as venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, who made huge initial investments in Facebook, Skype and Airbnb, have invested billions of dollars in this area. The debate over who will provide cryptocurrencies and who will ultimately win is not over yet. White’s voice is growing, but so is the money and power to invest in cryptocurrencies.
Molly White grew up on the internet. As a preteen, she started writing and editing Wikipedia pages. First for your favorite band, then for recording unsung female scientists. During President Trump’s time, her interest shifted to the right-wing Internet movement and domestic extremism. She edited an article about a brutal online attack on female gamers and journalists who became known as “Gamergate” and the “Boogaloo” militia movement.Over the last 15 years, White has accumulated over 100,000 edits to the organization. Arbitration CommitteeHigh Court to resolve disputes on the site.
So when the term Web3, a catch-all for organizations and businesses built around cryptocurrency technology, began to appear on social media in 2021, White began writing Wikipedia articles on it.
The job turned out to be harder than she had imagined. “I kept seeing the word everywhere, but no one was saying what it meant,” White said, referring to Web3.Billionaire venture capital firms pour money into crypto companies, blockchain startups buy Super Bowl ads, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey Technical celebrities such as Hype Various cryptocurrencies.
But White’s investigation continued to bring her back to one conclusion. Web3 was full of scams, failures, and fraudulent scams aimed at pulling the public away from their money.
From this experience, she has doubled her blog and social media posts. She spends several hours a day, even working as a full-time software engineer. (White quit in mid-May, but she will soon return to full-time work.)
She constantly posts to the site, often writing short dispatches several times a day. They are written in a deadpan, easy-to-understand style and have some sneaky prosperity. Hashtags that classify each post include “#badidea”, “#hmm”, and “#yikes”. The header of this site shows an image of the Earth burning, crying, “Bored Ape,” a cartoon avatar that is very popular with crypto fans. In the lower right corner, the money lost in the scams and hacks she recorded will be added. By mid-May, it was close to $ 10 billion.
Mr White said he had been skeptical of the industry for years, but wasn’t paying much attention to most of the people who lost money due to hacking and fraud because they were tech-savvy and wealthy. That has changed.
“People are investing money they can’t afford to lose,” White said. “They thought this might be a ticket from poverty, or they could eventually quit their minimum wage job, and then all their savings were gone.”
That reality only deepened as the total value of cryptocurrencies tracked by crypto data companies. CoinGecko It has decreased from the November high of about $ 3 trillion to about $ 1.3 trillion. Reddit’s crypto forums are full of stories about people losing their lives after investing in well-known crypto coins and projects.
Many of White’s website posts focus on projects aimed at middle-class investors looking for ways to exchange the path to a new level of financial freedom. In her longer post, she unravels the demonically complex structure that underpins most crypto companies and initiatives. For example, Axie Infinity, a business that has allowed many people in the Philippines to play crypto-based video games and make money.
There was a news article praising the company as a way for people to quit their jobs and make money.After that, the company was hacked and thousands of people cumulatively Lost about $ 620 million.. “There are more and more cases like this. Not only do we lose the extra cash that someone decides to take the risk of, but people lose the money they need to live,” White wrote at the time. ..
Other crypto skeptics have produced deep and insightful critiques of this area. Moxie Marlinspike, founder of the messaging app Signal, wrote: 4,000 word essay In January, he expressed concern about Web3. 2 hours 18 minutes video YouTuber Dan Olson has talked about the issue of crypto-based art and has recorded over 7 million views.
But Wikipedia admin and Wikipedia admin Andrew Lee digs deeper into skeptical criticisms of the industry with White’s “snatch theft” daily posts on the crypto “clown car parade.” It states that it has been made available to people who do not have the time or attention. Writer of “Wikipedia Revolution”.
He has known White since she was a teenage Wikipedia contributor. “That’s what’s great about her. She looks like this.” I’m not going to club you overhead. Just read this ridiculous conveyor belt and draw your own conclusions. And I think that’s the strength of her blog, “Lee said.
From fringe to front page
Until the pandemic, cryptocurrencies were a relatively fringed technology, and Bitcoin became a popular way to buy illicit drugs in the online black market in the early 2010s, including: Silk road.. Blockchain, the core innovation of cryptocurrencies, is a record of transactions that can be carried out without central institutions such as banks and governments, and is an oppressive intermediary by liberals, authoritarian opposition groups, and open internet supporters. Human relations are welcomed as a way to potentially eliminate people.
this No more fringe.. Cryptocurrency prices soared during the blockade, turning early investors into millionaires overnight and a wave of interest from those worried about missing attractive new tools to generate wealth. It spurred on. Cryptocurrencies such as stock trading tools Robin Hood and Coinbase have built apps that make buying and selling cryptocurrencies as easy as swiping Tinder. Cryptocurrency companies launch large-scale marketing blitz, spend millions of dollars on Super Bowl advertising, Celebrity endorsement From Matt Damon, Kim Kardashian and Tom Brady. Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are a special type of cryptographic technology that implies ownership of digital images, videos, or songs, and have expanded the industry’s appeal by attracting artists, marketers, and musicians. A digital artist named Beeple $ 69 million..
According to Pew Research in November 2021, almost 90% of Americans have heard about cryptocurrencies and 16% have invested or used cryptocurrencies. study..
White and her fellow skeptics say that traditional media mishandles stories, treats Bitcoin as an exciting innovation, and underestimates the idea that it could be a huge rat lecture. increase. Cryptographic-focused publications tend to be industry-related, but financial news organizations treat it like an asset class. “The crypto industry has benefited from the silos of journalism,” Mackenzie said. “To get a perspective on what’s happening inside the industry, we need to retreat much wider and get out of the industry.”
Today, the front line over cryptography is clear. Proponents see it as a world-changing technology that can have as much impact on society as printing presses and transatlantic travel. Critics say these utopian dreams obscure a much darker reality.
Despite her growing followers, White is still an outlier among the wealthy and powerful investors and entrepreneurs who are fully involved in cryptocurrencies. She often hears from angry people, accusing her of spreading “FUD” or spreading fear, uncertainty, and suspicion. She was called her name and said, “Enjoy she’s been poor.”
White does it all at once. “No one likes to read bad things about themselves, but I’ve been using the internet all the time, it’s people’s behavior, and people are doing things they don’t like online. I think you understand, “she said.
She doesn’t get a punch when venture capitalists and strong people are driving crypto investments, but she has helped bully the general public who are enthusiastic about the potential of technology or have lost money on it. She said.
“Some people are very pleased to see the average person buying cryptocurrencies lose money,” she said. “Given the shillings and toxicity of cryptocurrencies from many in space, the urge is understandable, but I think many were convinced that they would buy based on false promises.”
