I often wonder what kind of information people new to Cryptocurrency use to inform themselves and make decisions about whether to 'buy-in' or not.
And I must say I pity anyone who uses YouTube and simply queries 'should I buy Bitcoin', because if they did, they'd probably decided to keep their FIAT in their bank account, based on the search results...
I used Brave for this little experiment, which I've never used to sign into any of the major social media sites, and searched for 'should I buy Bitcoin?'
Here's a screen shot of the results returned (after a paid ad which wasn't that much better):
(I did a little bit of semiological analysis and annotated in red what the video stills say to me on a gut level).
OK In all honesty, I can't tell you whether the content of these videos has any validity, I didn't watch any of them as the stills alone suggest these people have no credibility, I may be wrong - but the point is based on semiology alone the message from what's above is 'Bitcoin is a fucking scam, don't go anywhere near it'.
More credible sources need a bit more digging
I'll admit that I've bought into BTC knowing only the basics, but now I want to learn a bit more about it and other cryptos).
Thankfully I found this article on Medium: The 10 best videos to watch on Bitcoin as a pretty good starting point, mainly because the third video in directs you to an hour long video with one Andreas Antonopoulos, and if you follow the links to his Web Site you learn that:
- He did a degree in computer science in the late 80s/ early 90s
- He's specialised in digital money, cryptography and cyber security since
- He's worked for governments and large corporations on data security.
- He quit working for said organisations in 2012 because he believed BTC was a way to challenge the corrupt fiat system.
- He's been working full time coding BTC and other cryptos since 2012.
Now, I don't know about you, but if I want to learn more about BTC and other cryptos, this guy seems like a pretty good source to start with!
He's quite well known in the crypto world (but not to us all, I have heard the name before, but never really explored) and he's got tons of material on BTC and crypto out there for free!
Final thoughts on the Bitcoin narrative
NB I do know that BTC is about more than money, I typed that in because the narrative at the moment is 'should I buy' - it's just a shame that the sources you find on YouTube take you to people who look like they have no credibility whose stills seem to focus purely on the money (hence the up arrows).
While the people who have been coding it for the last decade are buried lower in the search returns, and they're the ones that will be at pains to remind you that the significance of BTC and crypto more generally go way beyond mere money!
If you know of any more credible sources for learning about BTC and crypto, drop them in the comments!
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I listen to Unchained and unconfirmed podcasts. They are good long interviews with people in the field. No hype.
Cheers, sound like good sources!
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The best source is your gut.
Always trust your gut.
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The Moon has good analysis if you can get past his exchange shilling.
There’s MMCrypto and Ivan on Tech as well...these guys actually trade their analysis, put their money where their mouth is.
Not sure if these are necessarily the best for noobs, but The Moon for sure gives reasons to buy bitcoin all the time.
OK cheers, I will check those out - I have heard of I on Tech but not the rest!
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Mr. Antonopoulos is way more than legit compared to the clowns above. The thing is that the examples above have a definitely higher reach than Mr. Antonopoulos.
This is, sadly, a part of the new attention economy. With the help of the internet, even aunt Becca on fb, can be an expert on vaccines and has more reach than the dean from Harvard Medical School, Mr. Daley. The authority metrics come from vies and revenue on ads and not from competence this days.
This is very dangerous as it creates trends like the flat earth theory which are adopted by masses.
This is same for BTC and all crypto. People still see it as a speculation opportunity, not as a world changing environment.
Thank you for your post.
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That's quite a thought provoking comment, nothing I didn't already know TBH but has jolted me into thinking how easy it would be for governments to discredit BTC.
It wouldn't surprise me if at least one of those clowns wasn't actually working for the FED - in a way the content doesn't matter - just the fact that you've got someone that looks like a clown ranking for Bitcoin discredits it!
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Well, might be, but the FED does not need to hire and spend anything on them, they just appear. Some of this influencers earn a fortune with their stupidity and people seem to like it.
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I saw him on a packed meetup in Zürich where he gave one of his speeches, very inspirational.
But just get his 2 books, well worth it
!ASH
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Oh that's interesting that you've seen him speak!
Do you mean the basics books or the technical books?
If it's the former, there's three of them now!
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did not know about the 3rd, will have to order it... I like his way of thinking
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I've been watching a few videos, he does have some great lines:
'If your government is worried about Bitcoin you should ask what the hell is wrong with my government, not what the hell is wrong with Bitcoin?'
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They really are a bit garish aren’t they?
Off-putting clickbaity bullshit - that’s what they look like.
I don’t know much about Bitcoin really and I’d never trust this kind of presented material.
Thanks for the Andreas Antonopoulos name as someone to explore.
I’d love to know more than just the basics and it’s good to have a name to trust!
!ASH
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What does the ASH token stand for?
What’s the purpose/community?
If you put AENAES or ash in your posts you get lots of annoying failed token calls on your posts,
It's pretty cool!
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The ASH stash needs a refill!
He certainly stands out as one to watch - honestly that video of him in that '10 best vids medium article' - just watch him introducing himself - the first five minutes will have you hooked!
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Not BTC related, but I have found the videos that William Quiqley does about WAX and other tokens on Youtube are pretty fantastic. They are short and he is very matter of fact. He breaks things down really well and covers a variety of topics I had never considered before.
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OK cheers, I'll be sure to check him out!
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LOL ... those red addition of yours are the best :)
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Cheers I had fun with those.
But seriously, I have a real problem with the way YouTube ranks search returns - I was recently looking up 'the world as 100 people' - in 2010 there was this quite cool video that went through global stats in percentages, so, '20 would be Christian' '7 would have a degree' and so on....
The latest version with any stats updated is from 2016 - but there are several versions from after which literally just repeat that 2016 original, which sources the stats.
Same with those YouTube vids I reckon. A lot of A's stuff is from 4 years ago, or more.
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Andreas is awesome =)
I find cointelegraph pretty great, they put out a ton of articles on all things crypto. Also LEO of course. between Hive and cointelegraph is where I do all my blockchain reading.
Cheers, google actually does a reasonable job of finding me articles from there too!
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Thats the one downside of youtube and crypto - so much cringe and you dont know who is being authentic or not. I tend to stick to Andreas A as I find him with a core philosophy of education and learning.
I certainly am impressed so far!
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The clickbait and entertaining aspect on how these people present an idea is one of the reasons why it can gain some wider reach. People don't want long hours of complicated talks when they are just in it for the money BTC or other crypto alts may bring. I don't watch these videos but some of my friends recommend them over once in a while.
Always doing your own research and not backing down on studying complicated concepts helped me keep my money in check from scams and false advertising.
Something credible personalities could learn from these influencers is how they should focus on dumbing down some concepts and be entertaining when explaining complex ideas. That helps communication more among the masses that refuse to adjust and do their own research.
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these guys remember me of Trevon James, crypto nick, etc. I would recommend crypto daily, alessio rastani and that's about it.
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Indeed!
I was actually going to say that one positive is that at least they don't look as scammy as Jerry Banfield, I guess that's something.
Thanks for the tips!
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Oh, I have forgotten of Jerry :))
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It's a fucking scam, they all are.. trust the banks. 0.1% interest rocks 😀
Isn't that - 5% by the time you factor in inflation?
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I like having a gateway to started learning about this. Yes, that guy seems to be a the reference everyone needs in order to get a glimpse of what the world of Bitcoin is about and fathom its depths.
I wouldn't go into YouTube to do serious research. Too much click-bait content. And also YouTube tends to be more of a technical-aspect-guide-kind-of-thing site. Many people who tend to use to publish serious content would start by telling you that you need to check other sources to start understanding the topic. Unfortunately, those are not the first results when you look something up there.
If you really want to understand Bitcoin deeply then you should go to forum https://bitcointalk.org
Most of youtube content is full of shit and shit also lies on that forum too but it is lot easier to filter out shit there.
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I am slowly learning, thanks for the link!