To Be Zuck's Cuck Or Not To Be

This is what mainstream opinion about crypto is worth.

This is a Saturday night post made after consuming some alcoholic beverages during and after sauna. My wife's nephew who is a young Russian physicist came to visit us. I'm in my office at home writing this now.

This post was motivated by a post made by @hitmeasap today. In the post, he remnisced the amazing days of the summer of 2016 when earnings on Steem (for some) were out of this world as in tens of thousands of $$$ for a makeup tutorial. @hitmeasap managed to convince some of his friends and co-workers to join Steem at the time. Funnily, some of this friends quit because they weren't making anything like @hitmeasap made on one of his posts, that is, $900. Instead, they were making $10 to $20 per post. That didn't make them happy, so they chose $0 instead by continuing to use Facebook, Instagram and Twitter instead (that's what @hitmeasap just told me in a comment).

The boneheadedness of humanity never ceases to puzzle me. By what measure is $10 worse than $0? I told some friends and acquaintances of mine about Steem in January 2018. I suggested that we should have our online conversations on Steem rather than any mainstream social media site like Facebook. The response was typically a blank stare and deafening silence. The Steem price at the time got called a bubble once. The most amusing reaction @gamer00 and I got was from a guy who'd frequent the go club around that time. When we talked about what we did on Steem and how we earned crypto by having conversations and posting photographs and stuff, he'd eyeball us with extreme suspicion and disbelief.

But the fact is that even if you thought Steem were a scam, it should be clear to you that the only ones capable of being scammed on Steem would be the ones who buy the token. By earning STEEM one cannot possibly be scammed. Refusing to try out Steem when a friend of yours is there for you to hold your hand, help you create an account and teach you everything you know is like refusing to pick up coins you see lying on the street because you are convinced that you're hallucinating.

I once recommended everyone in a comment thread on Facebook that they should use Brave instead of Chrome because of the ease of using all the privacy functionalities and the fact that all ads and trackers are blocked by default. As a bonus, the browser comes with a crypto wallet and an opportunity to earn the BAT token for watching ads. I got some likes and a comment in which another user asked how development of the browser was funded. What the fuck? This guy needed to examine the business model of the company that developed Brave before he could bring himself to install it and use it. It's 2019. The world is full of software products free to use!

Taking part in the crypto movement, if you will, has been an eye opening experience. The FUD spewed by the establishment has been extremely effective. I have known how effective propaganda can be but only in the abstract. My being an early adopter in crypto has made me experience its power first hand, which is something I'm grateful because such learning opportunities are rare. I'm sure the FUD will be lifted and the tide will turn but the irrationality of the crowds never ceases to fascinate me.