Like me, I’m sure many of the earlier “OGs” in the crypto ecosystem got their start by following Andreas Antonopoulos’ education on Bitcoin. He always presented himself as honest, never tried to sell you anything, had an insane amount of knowledge about Bitcoin and was selfless in how much of that education he gave away for free. Though since then times have changed - and not really for the better - as the grifters, shillers and scammers have taken over the crypto ecosystem and peddle hopium scams instead of honest education.

Unfortunately, in today’s attention economy, the above thumbnails work wonders to attract the maximum amount of viewers. They also work even better when the crypto markets are hot because the only reason most new people are coming into the ecosystem is to make a quick buck. These people also have zero context around who’s a legitimate actor and who’s a grifter so it makes it even easier for these YouTubers. In saying that, I still fell for the scams, pump & dumps and grifters during 2013/14 though I consider it a pivotal learning experience that helped me to avoid the same mistakes when I got back into crypto in 2017.

Generally I try to avoid content that is geared towards guess-work market commentary - especially around random coins/tokens I’ve never heard of. I just don’t think it’s worth the time to watch this stuff given that it’s basically the equivalent of poorly-scripted reality TV. There’s nothing of substance, any “research” they claim to do is is hogwash and the overall content is literally just geared to get as many clicks as possible. It’s like this because the goal for these YouTubers is to sell you something - whether that be some paid trading course, a token that they have insider bags of or whatever else - their only goal is to enrich themselves at the expense of their viewers.

The sad thing about all of this is that the web2 algorithms reward this behavior since this type of content gets lots of views. It then turns into a vicious game where even the honest content creators have to employ the tactics used by the grifters in order to stay relevant and get eyeballs on their work. This then leads to the casual observer being unable to tell the difference between legitimate content that is employing click-bait tactics to stay relevant and actual grifters/scammers. Of course, all of this isn’t just a crypto-specific issue, but because money is involved the issue just becomes that much more amplified.

I would’ve loved to end this piece on a high/positive note, but I don’t really have one to share. This is because I actually believe there’s no fixing this issue as the tactics used to get people’s attention are based on human psychology and well, I don’t think any of us have the power to change that. The best we can do is promote the honest educators, guide our friends & family so that they avoid the grifters/scammers, and keep building amazing products & services for the everyday user.

Have a great day everyone,
Anthony Sassano

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All information presented above is for educational purposes only and should not be taken as investment advice.