Why Bill Maher's Snarky Takedown of Cryptocurrency Isn't Snarky Enough

Setting aside Bill Maher's usual "Old Man Yells at Woke Millenial Cloud" tone, this is a pretty good and funny takedown of cryptocurrency hype, mostly hitting the right targets, such as its Ponzi scheme nature, for instance, and the absurdity of Tesla CEO Elon Musk promoting Bitcoin despite the fact that its environmental costs utterly undermines any green advantages achieved by Tesla the company.

Maher's rant, however, fails when he notes that major companies like Microsoft, Etsy, and Starbucks accept Bitcoin as a currency... without noting that hardly anyone uses Bitcoin to buy goods and services. As I wrote in 2015:

According to Linden Lab stats, Second Life has about 1 million monthly users, and about 125K+ hardcore users (i.e. in SL over an hour a day). Insiders tell me about 400,000 users regularly spend Linden Dollars. So with all that activity in mind, it's safe to estimate 100K Linden Dollar individual users a day. (Conducting a lot more total transactions.) Contrast with Bitcoin: The much-hyped currency -- lauded weekly in the tech and mainstream press for the last 4-5 years, with over $400 million invested in Bitcoin-related startups since 2012 -- is still used only about 100K times a day. (Which means unique users are significantly less than 100,000.)

The wild thing is, Bitcoin's daily transaction rates have not grown that much since then, fluctuating between 200,000 and 400,000. In another words, a daily transaction rate of a small city, and still less than Linden Dollar transactions in Second Life.

As usual, fellow HBO comedian John Oliver had a better take on the topic, back in 2018:

According to Linden Lab stats, Second Life has about 1 million monthly users, and about 125K+ hardcore users (i.e. in SL over an hour a day). Insiders tell me about 400,000 users regularly spend Linden Dollars. So with all that activity in mind, it's safe to estimate 100K Linden Dollar individual users a day. (Conducting a lot more total transactions.) Contrast with Bitcoin: The much-hyped currency -- lauded weekly in the tech and mainstream press for the last 4-5 years, with over $400 million invested in Bitcoin-related startups since 2012 -- is still used only about 100K times a day. (Which means unique users are significantly less than 100,000.)

Amazing how the takedowns keep repeating but the hype still refuses to die. 

More crypo/blockchain coverage from New World Notes:

• Bitcoin Can't Be Free From The Powers That Be Because It Rides On Rails That They Control
• In 2016, Bitcoin Became Less Like Money, More Like A Ponzi Scheme
• Three Points John Oliver Should Make In His Next Cryptocurrency Segment

Comments

[kdm]

seething nocoiner

[G]

LOL You mean you're going to listen to this guy?

https://twitter.com/i/status/1388657288810991623

This is so "gas lighting is here to stay" and "the internet is a fad" delusional grandpa stuff.

Crypto isn't going anywhere. Yes, early on, few places took crypto. That is beginning to change and many financial advisors are actually advising to put a portion of your portfolio into crypto. My bank actually allows me to track my wallets through their app now.