Crypto is a hotbed of scams, but we shouldn’t be so surprised. It’s not that crypto enables new kinds of scams, but it’s a forum for old scams to be used again. Eventually, legislation and oversight will kick in and it will be harder for scammers to scam. In turn, they will take their playbook of scams and reuse them someplace else.
This Twitter thread from @foone describes a “poke” scam where an NFT’s price is inflated and pawned off on an unsuspecting victim. This is a centuries old scam made new in crypto. However, it’s unlikely to persist once the IRS starts tracking transactions and taxing crypto investments (scammers will move on to the next scam or the next forum).
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Your Spam Folder Is a Glimpse of What Censorship Free Content Looks Like
Centralized systems are criticized for making unilateral decisions about what people can see and not see within their privately controlled network. This leads to strong anti-censorship sentiment and desire for censorship free content where anyone can say anything. However, look no further than your spam folder for a glimpse of what a truly decentralized and censorship free content network could look like.