I am goddamn well pissed-off because yet another one of these bloody spam blackmail emails hit a work account this morning, and thus the question posed above.
Why don't ordinary people accept that crypto is THE CURRENCY OF THE FUTURE? Why does it have a bad reputation? Don't they know something something blockchain contracts Satoshi Nakamoto computers something something means it's beans on toast all round?
Well, this is why. This is just another iteration of the kind of thing I see too frequently for my liking, and I'm quoting it in full because it'll be pertinent:
Hello there!
Unfortunately, there are some bad news for you.
Around several months ago I have obtained access to your devices that you were using to browse internet.
Subsequently, I have proceeded with tracking down internet activities of yours.
Below, is the sequence of past events:
In the past, I have bought access from hackers to numerous email accounts (today, that is a very straightforward task that can be done online).
Clearly, I have effortlessly logged in to email account of yours [deleted].
A week after that, I have managed to install Trojan virus to Operating Systems of all your devices that are used for email access.
Actually, that was quite simple (because you were clicking the links in inbox emails).
All smart things are quite straightforward. (>_<)
The software of mine allows me to access to all controllers in your devices, such as video camera, microphone and keyboard.
I have managed to download all your personal data, as well as web browsing history and photos to my servers.
I can access all messengers of yours, as well as emails, social networks, contacts list and even chat history.
My virus unceasingly refreshes its signatures (since it is driver-based), and hereby stays invisible for your antivirus.
So, by now you should already understand the reason why I remained unnoticed until this very moment...
While collecting your information, I have found out that you are also a huge fan of websites for adults.
You truly enjoy checking out porn websites and watching dirty videos, while having a lot of kinky fun.
I have recorded several kinky scenes of yours and montaged some videos, where you reach orgasms while passionately masturbating.
If you still doubt my serious intentions, it only takes couple mouse clicks to share your videos with your friends, relatives and even colleagues.
It is also not a problem for me to allow those vids for access of public as well.
I truly believe, you would not want this to occur, understanding how special are the videos you love watching, (you are clearly aware of that) all that stuff can result in a real disaster for you.
Let's resolve it like this:
All you need is $1450 USD transfer to my account (bitcoin equivalent based on exchange rate during your transfer), and after the transaction is successful, I will proceed to delete all that kinky stuff without delay.
Afterwards, we can pretend that we have never met before. In addition, I assure you that all the harmful software will be deleted from all your devices. Be sure, I keep my promises.
That is quite a fair deal with a low price, bearing in mind that I have spent a lot of effort to go through your profile and traffic for a long period.
If you are unaware how to buy and send bitcoins - it can be easily fixed by searching all related information online.
Below is bitcoin wallet of mine: 1Nx353jT8zZYaqmoMdMr2PRtdixStrDoZE
You are given not more than 48 hours after you have opened this email (2 days to be precise).
Below is the list of actions that you should not attempt doing:
Do not attempt to reply my email (the email in your inbox was created by me together with return address).
Do not attempt to call police or any other security services. Moreover, don't even think to share this with friends of yours. Once I find that out (make no doubt about it, I can do that effortlessly, bearing in mind that I have full control over all your systems) - the video of yours will become available to public immediately.
Do not attempt to search for me - there is completely no point in that. All cryptocurrency transactions remain anonymous at all times.
Do not attempt reinstalling the OS on devices of yours or get rid of them. It is meaningless too, because all your videos are already available at remote servers.
Below is the list of things you don't need to be concerned about:
That I will not receive the money you transferred.
- Don't you worry, I can still track it, after the transaction is successfully completed, because I still monitor all your activities (trojan virus of mine includes a remote-control option, just like TeamViewer).
That I still will make your videos available to public after your money transfer is complete.
- Believe me, it is meaningless for me to keep on making your life complicated. If I indeed wanted to make it happen, it would happen long time ago!
Everything will be carried out based on fairness!
Before I forget...moving forward try not to get involved in this kind of situations anymore!
An advice from me - regularly change all the passwords to your accounts.
Forget all the guff about "I saw you jerking off to kinky porn", this is an old work account that we only keep around because a few sites won't let us change to the new email address. There isn't any camera, mike, etc. set up and do I really need to say nobody here is jerking off to kinky porn during work hours?
Yes, they're trying to reel in people who are panicked and ignorant of what goes on with computers and just have vague ideas they've picked up from news headlines about large corporations getting hacked (such as happened in my own country to the national health service). I know it's trash and I regularly delete these and the more sophisticated invoice scam ones.
But.
This is the experience most ordinary people will have about bitcoin/cryptocurrency, and mostly what it says is true: I haven't the faintest idea how to start tracking these bozos down if I wanted to. They do have secure and untraceable anonymous transactions. Hackers do steal and sell on information.
So long as cryptocurrency is associated with criminals and fraud, nobody is going to trust it or touch it with a ten-foot barge pole. You don't want goverment interference and regulation? Then do something about these guys who are scamming and making money off scams.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
You are confusing best personal strategy with a universally optimal strategy. These are completely different things. It is very unlikely that all participants of the market would be able to coordinate and follow the same trading strategy (in fact, I'm not sure whether it'd even be legal for some). There are people that are long-term HODL investors. There are daytraders. There are market timers. There are arbitrage seekers. It takes all sorts. Looking at one HODLer and screaming "but what if everybody!" and making the conclusion until impossible assumption that everybody on the market will clone this behavior is pointless. They won't and what is good for one kind of investor may be not good at all for another kind. It is fine and good for the market as a whole.
In a weird moment where my moral intuitions and those of a universalist utilitarian might align, I think you are mistaken in believing that there is a meaningful difference.
This is exactly the sort of thing I'm talking about when I accuse rationalists of trying to use inductive logic to model fundamentally anti-inductive phenomenon. Long story short, @faceh has struck at the heart of the matter. How do you expect crypto to gain acceptance as tender if crypto's own advocates refuse to spend it?
That assumes there's such thing as "crypto's own advocates" which think as a single mind and act in concert. This is very much not the case. Moreover, crypto is not a scarce resource, at least not for the purposes of this question, so there's no contradiction between HODLing it and using it for day-to-day transactions. If I wanted to buy my pizza for BTC, there's no fixed stash of BTC I must use for it - I could buy BTC on open market at any instant, and use it to buy pizza, if that were my intent. So if people do not buy pizza for BTC, it's not because they have a choice what to do with fixed amount of BTC, whether HODL it or use it to buy pizza - there's no such dilemma at all, you could do both. The reason people only doing HODL, mostly, is because there are alternative ways of buying pizza, which are currently much easier and low friction. Making transaction in BTC has its advantages - e.g. irreversibility and unability to block it from the regulatory powers - but when you buy pizza, at least as a normie, these advantages in most cases are irrelevant.
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My point is that there is no organized movement to drive adoption because almost everyone falls into the long-term HODL, daytrader, or market timer categories.
There's just no segment of the community that is truly dedicated to using the cryptocurrency as a currency and exchanging goods or services.
People want there to be greater adoption, but everyone is hedging their own bets and generally don't spend their cryptos just in case it pops off and they can get rich.
And the current state of the tech supports that. There are virtually zero projects available which encourage spending crypto on useful things, vs. just paying scam bounties or buying drugs.
EVERYONE is operating on the hope that they'll be able to sell to some guy in the future at a higher price than they themselves paid.
The fact that the Bitcoin pizza guy is generally mocked (if in good-natured way) for spending his bitcoin when he could have saved it and been independently wealthy is a sign of this.
I'm all for buying drugs online, and likely would if I wasn't afraid of getting caught, even though the odds seem low at a cursory glance.
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