2022.02.04 加密货币的反击正在蓬勃发展

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The Crypto Backlash Is Booming
Web3 is making some people very rich. It’s making other people very angry.

By Kaitlyn Tiffany
Irene Suosalo
FEBRUARY 4, 2022
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On the subway this morning, I looked up and saw an ad for a new cryptocurrency. More specifically, I looked up at a bright-red rectangle behind large white font reading: it’s never too late to be early.

We’re in the midst of a speculation boom that has been variously compared to the Beanie Babies craze, the dot-com bubble, and tulip mania. A year ago, the average person might never have heard the term Web3. Now we all have to watch as Paris Hilton beholds a cartoon-monkey NFT (non-fungible token) that Jimmy Fallon spent $216,000 on, then remarks, “I love the captain hat.” Stories about this new vision for the internet appear in the tech and business sections of national newspapers more or less every single day, generally with the caveat that a lot of people sincerely believe Web3 to be a Ponzi scheme, a grift, a multilevel-marketing arrangement, and a scam.

This assessment has its own, swiftly growing army of adherents. “Web3 is a Ponzi scheme” has circulated as a meme, in widely cited manifestos, and in viral blog posts. Maybe soon it will be a political slogan. (Those who have a specific disdain for NFTs have already taken up the nickname “right-clickers.”) Likening Web3 to a Ponzi scheme is useful because, unlike Web3 itself, a Ponzi scheme is easy to grasp: We all know what’s wrong with scams, and we understand that Ponzi schemes are bad. We may not get what people mean when they talk about the blockchain, but we do get the sense that we’re supposed to be their marks, and that we’re under pressure to join them or die.


Trick Mirror: Reflections On Self-DelusionJIA TOLENTINO,RANDOM HOUSE TRADE PAPERBACKS
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Whether that rhetoric is fair—whether Web3 is literally a scam—depends on which piece of a broad ecosystem of new technologies you happen to be talking about. (Clearly scams abound; the Federal Trade Commission has gone so far as to officially announce that scams abound.) At its most basic, Web3 imagines a massive shift away from the habit of accessing the web via centralized platforms such as Facebook and Google, and toward a norm of communicating, storing information, and making payments through a supposedly incorruptible, uneditable, fail-proof system. This would conceivably give the average person greater control over their personal data and the consequences of their interactions, but for various reasons it has so far been a bit of a farce.

The term itself—Web3—was first used by Gavin Wood, the co-founder of the popular Ethereum blockchain, in 2014, in an essay now referred to as “seminal” and “classic” by crypto enthusiasts. The vitriol that can erupt anytime his neologism is mentioned—the fuel that often takes these conversations from zero to 100—comes from the creeping feeling that Wood and others’ vision of the future is inevitable, that Web3 will come about in spite of anybody’s reservations, however much it seems to be a scam. The frenzy of speculation is being met with a counter-frenzy of resentment.

The people who say that Web3 is a scam have other issues with the whole idea. In fact, they hate it for a new reason every day. I’m not exaggerating: They hate it.

When the Associated Press announced last month that it would sell some of its photographs as NFTs, the decision was described as “spineless, amoral,” and the news organization was told to “eat shit.” (Dwayne Desaulniers, who is leading the AP project, told me that he spent eight hours combing through the Twitter responses. “The volume, I was surprised at,” he said.) In the fall, when the NFL star Aaron Rodgers said that he would take part of his salary in bitcoin, he was blasted for participating in what some said amounted to an endorsement of “money laundering.” When the “fan token” platform Socios got involved in British Premier League soccer, Crystal Palace fans showed up to a game with a banner reading, morally bankrupt parasites socios not welcome. On Twitter, the anti-Web3 crowd has lately been circulating a digital poster in the style of 19th-century newspaper advertisements, with nfts fucking suck and open your eyes, shit-for-brains headlining in ornate script.

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A person investing in crypto or a shared future on the blockchain is said to hate Earth and support the “hyperfinancialization of all human existence.” Or they’re a greedy doofus who deserves to waste millions of dollars on digital monkey portraits while Marc Andreessen gets richer, if not an embarrassing freak who is really just looking for cover to debate age-of-consent laws. But the simple insistence that Web3 is a scam—no more, no less—remains the most consistent critique. After Kim Kardashian was sued for promoting a dubious cryptocurrency-investment opportunity on her Instagram, Ben McKenzie, an early-2000s teen-soap star (is this odd?), wrote an essay for Slate with the journalist Jacob Silverman lambasting Kardashian and arguing that celebrities who promote crypto “might as well be pushing payday loans or seating their audience at a rigged blackjack table.” Sounds bad.

The anger at Web3 carries echoes of the fury over the subprime-mortgage meltdown almost 15 years ago. The gross behavior that event exposed and the government bailouts that came after helped motivate the early embrace of bitcoin, which was compellingly described as a financial system based on “proof,” rather than the sort of “trust” that had just gotten the world into a huge mess. Now, ironically, the same historical event serves as the grounds for Web3 backlash. “I have seen one fool’s-gold rush from up close in the lead-up to the 2008 financial crisis,” Michael Hsu, a bank regulator in the U.S. Treasury Department, said in a September speech to the Blockchain Association. “It feels like we may be on the cusp of another with cryptocurrencies.”

Last year, when a bunch of Reddit users spent weeks juicing GameStop stock just to mess with everyone—and when the New York Young Republican Club responded by staging a baffling reoccupation of Wall Street—they were thinking back to the 2008 crisis. (The bailouts were “still a plot point,” Paige K. Bradley argued in a report for Artforum. “People are pissed off.”) So too are Web3 resisters in the highly active Reddit forums r/CryptoReality and r/Buttcoin. In the latter, crypto enthusiasts are stereotyped and mocked as “the millennial male versions of MLM huns hawking diet shakes on Facebook” and parodied in posts with titles like “Are we living in the future? (Bought snacks with $USD).” But they are also framed as the villainous engineers of a portended collapse who are shoving us all into a future that is really history repeating itself.

An r/Buttcoin moderator, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of harassment and doxing, admitted that swapping bit for butt is juvenile, but told me I could not possibly know how annoying it is when “crypto bros” spam Reddit with their links and say that anybody who disagrees with them is a fool. (The longest-running bit in the r/Buttcoin forum is commenting “this is good for bitcoin” underneath any piece of crypto-related news that should ostensibly be disillusioning, in imitation of the crypto bros’ unflagging faith.) The moderator also said the forum serves as a public archive of the crypto bros’ predatory behavior.

“It’s not a question of if the market is going to collapse; it will collapse,” he said. “And when that happens, there’s going to be a lot of people that are going to pretend they were victims. And there’s a large group of us that feel we can’t let them get away with that. There shouldn’t be any bailouts for these people.”

The pandemic changed the way Americans think about scams. A few years ago, when Donald Trump was in office and the Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes was awaiting trial, grifting seemed to be the default mode of conduct in a society built on self-interest. The New Yorker writer Jia Tolentino described it in her 2019 best seller, Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self Delusion, as “the definitive millennial ethos.”

We were tickled by scams, found ourselves begrudgingly awed by them, and indulged a morbid curiosity in their inner workings. But somehow, the relentless misery and staggeringly unequal outcomes of the past two years have brought an unexpected correction to this mindset. A new exasperation has taken hold around the billionaires, out-of-touch celebrities, and dubiously talented influencers who couldn’t find it in themselves to act in good taste while others were suffering, and who were insulated from the worst of the pandemic by the money that kept rolling in. Calls rang out for crackdowns on all the liars, hypocrites, and opportunists exploiting desperation.


Read: How the pandemic stoked a backlash to multilevel marketing

The most online stretch in human history surely played a role in this reversal. On social networks, anti-scamming movements have escalated through likes and shares as quickly as the scammy movements themselves. Anti-scammers appear motivated by frustration with the way things work—and with the fact that they had no say in their arrangement. Likewise, with Web3, the anger seems to come from the knowledge that regular people may be unable to excuse themselves from the possibly tragic ramifications of a movement they neither pursued nor supported. “If it’s just a dot-com bubble, it sucks for the people who invested,” Hilary Allen, a law professor at American University, recently told Vox. “But if it’s [like] 2008, then we’re all screwed, even those of us who aren’t investing, and that’s not fair.”

When I spoke with Wood, the co-founder of Ethereum, and asked him whether he was surprised by the recent pushback against Web3, he seemed unfazed. People are just afraid of change, he said, and that’s okay, because, as with any major societal shift, Web3 will be brought about in waves. “First there’s the builders,” he said, “the people who are building the next generation of stuff.” Then there’s a broader group of influential people who “think quite deeply about how it is that they’re living their lives.” If this second group buys into a coherent argument as to why the major societal shift is to their benefit, they will “largely drag along the rest of the population.”

The being dragged along is what people really, really resent. And that resentment is becoming a force of its own.

Trick Mirror: Reflections On Self-DelusionJIA TOLENTINO, RANDOM HOUSE TRADE PAPERBACKS



加密货币的反击正在蓬勃发展
Web3正在使一些人变得非常富有。它让其他人非常愤怒。

作者：凯特琳-蒂芙尼
艾琳-苏奥萨罗
2022年2月4日

今天早上在地铁上，我抬头看到了一个新的加密货币的广告。更确切地说，我抬头看了看白色大字体后面的一个鲜红的矩形，上面写着：早起永远不会太晚。

我们正处在一个投机热潮中，有人将其与豆豆宝宝热潮、网络泡沫和郁金香狂热相提并论。一年前，普通人可能从来没有听说过Web3这个词，现在我们都不得不看着帕丽斯-希尔顿看到吉米-法伦花了21.6万美元买的卡通猴子NFT（不可伪造的代币），然后说："我喜欢这顶船长帽。" 关于这个互联网新愿景的故事或多或少每天都会出现在全国性报纸的科技和商业版面上，一般来说，很多人都真诚地认为Web3是一个庞氏骗局，一个骗局，一个多级营销安排和一个骗局。

这种评估有它自己的、迅速增长的追随者大军。"Web3是一个庞氏骗局 "已经作为一种备忘录，在广泛引用的宣言和病毒式的博客文章中流传。也许很快它就会成为一个政治口号。(那些对NFT特别蔑视的人已经有了 "右键点击者 "的绰号）。将Web3比作庞氏骗局是有用的，因为与Web3本身不同，庞氏骗局很容易掌握。我们都知道骗局有什么问题，我们也明白庞氏骗局是不好的。当人们谈论区块链时，我们可能不明白他们的意思，但我们确实感觉到，我们应该成为他们的标志，而且我们面临着加入他们或死亡的压力。


骗人的镜子。反思自欺欺人贾-托伦蒂诺,兰登书屋贸易画册
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这种说法是否公平--Web3是否真的是一个骗局--取决于你碰巧在谈论新技术的广泛生态系统中的哪一块。(显然，骗局比比皆是；联邦贸易委员会甚至已经正式宣布，骗局比比皆是）。在其最基本的方面，Web3设想了一个大规模的转变，即摆脱通过集中式平台（如Facebook和Google）访问网络的习惯，而转向通过一个所谓的不可破坏的、不可编辑的、防故障的系统进行沟通、存储信息和支付的规范。可以想象，这将使普通人对他们的个人数据和他们互动的后果有更大的控制权，但由于各种原因，到目前为止，这只是一场闹剧而已。

这个词本身--Web3--是由流行的以太坊区块链的联合创始人加文-伍德在2014年首次使用的，在一篇现在被加密货币爱好者称为 "开创性的 "和 "经典 "的文章中。只要提到他的新词，就会爆发出尖锐的言论--这些对话往往从零到一百的燃料--来自一种蠕动的感觉，即伍德和其他人对未来的设想是不可避免的，Web3将在任何人的保留中实现，无论它看起来是一个骗局。狂热的猜测正受到反狂热的怨恨的回应。

那些说Web3是一个骗局的人对整个想法还有其他问题。事实上，他们每天都有新的理由来讨厌它。我没有夸大其词。他们讨厌它。

当美联社上个月宣布它将把它的一些照片作为NFT出售时，这个决定被描述为 "没有骨气，没有道德"，这个新闻组织被告知要 "吃屎"。(领导美联社项目的Dwayne Desaulniers告诉我，他花了8个小时来梳理推特上的回应。他说："数量之大，让我感到惊讶"。） 秋天，当NFL明星阿伦-罗杰斯(Aaron Rodgers)说他将用比特币支付他的部分工资时，他被指责参与了一些人所说的相当于认可 "洗钱 "的行为。当 "球迷代币 "平台Socios参与英国足球超级联赛时，水晶宫的球迷在比赛中打出横幅，上面写着：不欢迎道德沦丧的寄生虫Socios。在推特上，反Web3的人群最近一直在流传一张19世纪报纸广告风格的数字海报，上面用华丽的字体写着Nfts fucking suck and open your eyes, shit for brains的标题。

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一个投资于加密货币或区块链上的共享未来的人，据说是憎恨地球并支持 "所有人类存在的超金融化"。或者他们是一个贪婪的傻瓜，值得在马克-安德森变得更富有的同时，在数字猴子肖像上浪费数百万美元，如果不是一个令人尴尬的怪胎，他实际上只是在寻找借口来辩论同意年龄的法律。但是，简单地坚持认为Web3是一个骗局--不多不少--仍然是最一致的批评意见。在金-卡戴珊因在她的Instagram上宣传一个可疑的加密货币投资机会而被起诉后，本-麦肯齐，一个2000年代早期的青少年肥皂剧明星（这很奇怪吗），为Slate写了一篇文章，与记者雅各布-西尔弗曼一起抨击卡戴珊，认为宣传加密货币的名人 "还不如推动发薪日贷款或让他们的观众坐在被操纵的21点桌上。" 听起来很糟糕。

对Web3的愤怒与近15年前次贷危机的愤怒遥相呼应。那次事件暴露出的粗暴行为和之后的政府救助帮助激发了早期对比特币的拥抱，它被令人信服地描述为一个基于 "证明 "的金融系统，而不是那种刚刚让世界陷入巨大困境的 "信任"。现在，具有讽刺意味的是，同样的历史事件成为了Web3反击的理由。"在2008年金融危机爆发前，我曾近距离看过一次傻瓜式的淘金热，"美国财政部的一位银行监管者Michael Hsu在9月对区块链协会的一次演讲中说。"感觉我们可能正处在加密货币的另一个风口浪尖。"

去年，当一群Reddit用户花了几周时间给GameStop股票注水，只是为了搞乱每个人--当纽约青年共和党俱乐部通过上演一场令人费解的重新占领华尔街来回应时，他们正在回想2008年的危机。(救助行动 "仍然是一个情节点"，佩奇-K-布拉德利在为《艺术论坛》撰写的报告中这样认为。"人们被激怒了"）。在高度活跃的Reddit论坛r/CryptoReality和r/Buttcoin中，Web3的抵抗者也是如此。在后者中，加密货币爱好者被刻板印象和嘲笑为 "在Facebook上兜售减肥奶昔的传销男性版本"，并在标题为 "我们生活在未来吗？(用美元买的零食）"。但他们也被诬陷为预示着崩溃的恶棍工程师，他们把我们推入一个实际上是历史重演的未来。

一位要求匿名的r/Buttcoin版主承认，将比特换成屁股是很幼稚的，但他告诉我，我不可能知道，当 "加密货币兄弟 "用他们的链接在Reddit上传播，并说任何与他们意见不同的人都是傻瓜，这有多么令人讨厌。(在r/Buttcoin论坛中，持续时间最长的是在任何表面上应该是幻灭的加密货币相关新闻下面评论 "这对比特币有好处"，以模仿加密货币兄弟们坚定不移的信念。) 主持人还说，该论坛是加密货币兄弟们掠夺行为的公共档案。

"这不是一个市场是否会崩溃的问题；它将崩溃，"他说。"而当这种情况发生时，会有很多人假装他们是受害者。而我们有一大群人认为我们不能让他们逃脱。不应该为这些人提供任何救助。"

这场大流行改变了美国人对诈骗的看法。几年前，当唐纳德-特朗普(Donald Trump)在任，特莱诺(Theranos)创始人伊丽莎白-霍尔姆斯(Elizabeth Holmes)正在等待审判时，在这个建立在自我利益基础上的社会，行骗似乎是默认的行为模式。纽约客》的作家贾-托伦蒂诺在她2019年的畅销书《诡镜》中这样描述。对自我欺骗的反思》中，将其描述为 "明确的千禧年精神"。

我们被骗局弄得心痒难耐，发现自己被它们吓到了，并对它们的内部运作放纵了病态的好奇心。但不知何故，过去两年的无情苦难和惊人的不平等结果给这种心态带来了意想不到的修正。在亿万富翁、与世隔绝的名人和令人怀疑的天才影响者周围出现了一种新的愤懑情绪，他们在别人受苦时找不到自己的品味，而他们又因为不断涌入的金钱而与最糟糕的疫情绝缘。对所有骗子、伪君子和利用绝望的机会主义者进行打击的呼声响起。


阅读：大流行病如何激起了对多级营销的反击

人类历史上最多的在线拉伸肯定在这种逆转中发挥了作用。在社交网络上，反诈骗运动通过喜欢和分享迅速升级，如同诈骗运动本身一样。反诈骗者的动机似乎是对事情的运作方式感到沮丧，以及对他们在安排中没有发言权的事实感到沮丧。同样，对于Web3，愤怒似乎来自于这样的认识：普通人可能无法为自己开脱，因为他们既不追求也不支持的运动可能带来悲剧性的后果。"美国大学的法律教授希拉里-艾伦（Hilary Allen）最近对Vox说："如果它只是一个网络泡沫，那么对投资的人来说就很糟糕。"但如果是[像]2008年那样，那么我们都完蛋了，即使是我们这些没有投资的人，这也不公平。"

当我与以太坊的联合创始人伍德交谈，问他是否对最近针对Web3的反击感到惊讶时，他似乎并不感到惊讶。他说，人们只是害怕改变，这没关系，因为与任何重大的社会转变一样，Web3将被一波波地带来。他说："首先是建设者，""正在建设下一代东西的人"。然后是一个更广泛的有影响力的群体，他们 "对自己的生活方式有相当深刻的思考"。如果这第二类人相信一个连贯的论点，即为什么重大的社会转变对他们有利，他们将 "在很大程度上拖累其他人口"。

被拖着走是人们非常、非常反感的事情。而这种怨恨正在成为一种自身的力量。

骗人的镜子。对自我欺骗的反思贾-托伦蒂诺，兰德姆书屋贸易画册