Did they hand out complimentary lollipops too?

found on Dump A Day

You've got to be a special sort of sucker to not realize why the thing everyone calls a pyramid scheme gives out pyramid-shaped awards

Simon says: HODL

from here and here (image source)

 Apparently the CEO of an AI company is also involved in a project that will give free cryptocurrency to people in exchange for scans of their eyeballs. They really want you to believe that it's not a dystopian nightmare, but all I can think of is how Simon Phoenix broke out of prison in Demolition Man. Even if the technology can spot attempts to trick it, some people are still going to try. 

Your qualifications are a perfect fit

found on Izismile

After you lose everything in a crypto crash, or a hack, or any number of other ways your highly volatile investment could go bust, you're gonna need some way to make yourself whole. It may take a while but it'll be good experience.

Listening to "Experts"

found on Acid Cow

Now I'm not saying you shouldn't seek out expert opinions, but some experts just aren't what they appear to be. Be careful which ones you listen to.

You wouldn't right-click a friend, would you?

found on Dump A Day

I absolutely would right-click, along with anything else it takes to sour them on the prospect of NFTs. Friends don't let friends get sucked into crypto.

Another one bites the dust

from here and here

I don't imagine anyone is going to lose any sleep over the authorities taking down a crypto exchange that worked with cybercriminals, except maybe the people who are next.

Easy come, easy go

found on Reddit

Don't get me wrong, I feel bad for the people who lost their life savings, but cryptocurrency has long been portrayed as easy money and I think we all expected that to backfire at some point.

Catch me if you ca... No, not like that!

from here and here

So not only can blockchain transactions be traced, but since the blockchain is forever, even things from a decade ago can be tracked down.

No Whammies!

found on Imgflip

This is quite an apt comparison. "Investing" in cryptocurrency is very much a gamble, and there are many ways for you to lose everything. Maybe it would be safer if people treated it like gambling instead of investing, and only put into it as much money as they can afford to lose. Of course there are still people with gambling problems who lose everything that way too, but at least people would have a better idea of what they were getting into and what kinds of risks are involved. 

Maybe backups would have been faster

from here and here

I've heard that one of the reasons victims pay is that it can be faster to pay the ransom and decrypt the data than to restore from backups, but if it can take hours for a bitcoin transaction to go through then maybe that argument isn't so clear-cut after all. 

Superman's got the right idea

found on Reddit

Part of me wonders if that's just dog money (dogecoin?), but the rest of me agrees with the hypothetical man of steel here, and I'd like to think he could see through the scam even without his x-ray vision. 

The more things change, the more they stay the same

from here and here (image source)

Well OF COURSE non-fungible tokens would appeal to a scammer. It's like they're made for each other. Some of us realize that NFTs basically are scams so, I suppose the promise to stop scamming is itself also a scam. It's scams all the way down.

Buh-bye crypto

found on Acid Cow

I would certainly not suggest anyone buy it right now.

Crypto Winter's silver lining

from here and here

With cryptocurrency prices plummeting it's no longer economical to use video cards for mining, so the prices for the cards are dropping too because of the decline in demand. That's good news for gamers, and video card makers no longer need to deal with the market for their products being subverted by some decentralized finance nonsense.

Guess they'll just have to steal more

from here and here

I can't imagine Kim Jung Un is very happy that all that cryptocurrency his country stole has now dropped significantly in value. On the bright side, though, at least they didn't have to actually work (or mine) for it.

Must not have been on the blockchain

from here and here

I imagine if the job offers had been on the blockchain, rescinding them would have been a lot more complicated what with it being an immutable public ledger. Perhaps they would have had to fork the project in order to invalidate the transation? Although that hasn't always gone to plan in the past and it would get pretty tedious if they had to do it with any regularity. Maybe they would have used some kind of smart contract as an employment contract (assuming they even use employment contracts rather than being an at will employer).

Bitcoin can't unfry a hard drive

from here and here

While it's true that some ransomware operators have incorporated blackmail into their business model so that simply restoring from backups is no longer sufficient to resolve the incident, many if not most victims still seem to be unwilling or unable to recover from backups. It's as if they think ransomware is all they need to worry about and they can simply pay the ransom to get their data back, as if that's just the cost of doing business. 

That cryptocurrency won't uncrush a laptop, it won't unflood an office, it won't stop a fire, or any of the other sorts of disasters that really would benefit from backups. Backups are still the best way to get your data back.

Cryptocurrency, Not Even Once

found on Reddit

I wonder if anyone has ever examined the crypto bro phenomenon from the perspective of substance abuse. They certainly seem to have a problem that they need to admit to in order to get help.

Rug Pull rug

Product Page

I was trying to think of a use case for this rug celebrating cryptocurrency scams and then it hit me - you use it to decorate your office or cubical in case you happen to work with a crypto bro who's always trying to convert you. It will either offer an opportunity to educate them or it will keep them away.

Ben McKenzie on cryptocurrency

Watch on YouTube

I bet you didn't expect the star of The OC and Gotham to have an economics degree or to speak so cogently about cryptocurrency. Most of the perspectives I've heard about cryptocurrency come from technologists and thus they focus on the technology side of things. This perspective brings a range of concepts that are generally outside the ken of a technologists' expertise, and that makes it a valuable addition to the discussion.