Content
@
0 reply
0 recast
5 reactions
Murtaza Hussain
@mazmhussain
I like crypto and am glad that the prices have gone back up. I HODLd and tend to mostly buy what you could call the "blue-chip" cryptocurrencies whose performance and valuation I am satisfied with. I can't help but ask, however, what happened to all the people who were convinced to buy "real-estate in the metaverse" or were told that it would be a good investment to pay tens of thousands of dollars for images of a cartoon ape? I do not hear much about these narratives anymore and I have not heard of any recovery in values, though I am sure some credulous people lost quite a bit for trusting these stories a few years ago. There needs to be some self-policing and accountability not just of the fringes but the mainstream of any industry in order to build and deserve public trust. I highly recommend reading the book "Narrative Economics" to understand how good storytelling can be used to drive unwarranted increases in asset prices. https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691182292/narrative-economics
9 replies
0 recast
18 reactions
Fio
@fiodar.eth
I guess those people just got a very expensive investing lesson. In the end, no one forced anyone to pay north of $50k for a JPEG, so I'm not sure if it would be the right move to hold someone - especially the whole industry - "accountable" for something like this, besides the "investors" themselves. And the self-policing mechanism is that most of the people (eventually) won't value this stuff that high ever again, effectively rendering them a failed experiment, thereby stopping future builders and entrepreneurs from launching similar "products" going forward.
1 reply
0 recast
0 reaction
Murtaza Hussain
@mazmhussain
If this is the case then people would take the lesson not to trust any of the individuals or institutions who advised them to do something the first time; or knowingly turned a blind eye to what was bad consumer advice. That’s fine in itself but doesn’t build a healthy culture over time.
1 reply
0 recast
0 reaction
Fio
@fiodar.eth
But can we really speak of "advising" there? In the end, some people sold other people a dream (getting rich), which isn't unique to our industry. And instead of searching for someone "to blame", the people who pressed the buy button are better off long-term if they see the things as they are, which is: "I fucked up by buying a JPEG for 50k". This way, people build up something like "healthy distrust" in individuals and institutions they aren't familiar with - what seems to be the right approach to me. I get your point, though. The reputational damage done to crypto as well as the financial damage done to these people cannot be undone, unfortunately. I guess this is something we need to live with in free markets? Sorry for this blog post - it's a super interesting but also complex topic!
1 reply
0 recast
0 reaction
Murtaza Hussain
@mazmhussain
No need to apologize it’s good to write to unwind your thoughts (I do the same). I don’t even mind people giving wrong predictions but they should explain their thought process and what they had meant after they turned out to be wrong rather than trying to memory hole. That’s a prerequisite for trusting opinions in future
0 reply
0 recast
1 reaction
