Cryptocurrency and NFTs are evil.

This essay was inspired by a tweet praising NFTs for being somehow beneficial to women’s sports. That claim made me so angry that I wrote a thread about why NFTs and cryptocurrency in general are wrong, stupid, and the opposite of reality. Here’s a lightly-edited version in proper essay form.

Here’s why this logic is wrong and stupid, and only a rich CEO could believe that this nonsense is sustainable. An NFT represents nothing, legally. In theory, it works like described on the Ethereum page: In practice, what did you actually buy? Nothing.

Crypto nerds want to believe we don’t live in a society, but yet we can somehow create a digital society including “smart contracts” that somehow manifest in the real world. But it’s all a fools’ game. These people are fools. Distributing digital right ownership this way is bad.

For starters, I want Ethereum to die. I want Bitcoin to die. I want all cryptocurrencies using Proof of Work to die, and I personally don’t believe Ethereum will *ever* convert to Proof of Stake, and if they did, it would be like existing banks and benefit only the wealthy.

So if I get my wish and these planet-killing nerd toys lose their luster or the networks shut down (I don’t believe in God, but if God is out there, I pray for cryptocurrencies to be made illegal and banned by humanity like we did for CFCs), then the tokens disappear in smoke.

The blockchain is forever, yes, but spending so much electricity to haul around copies of it and add to it? This is stupid. This is ridiculous. I try to avoid ableism or else I’d use other synonyms for stupidity. This isn’t due to lack of cognitive ability. Greed makes us stupid.

So I’ve put my cards on the table. I want cryptocurrencies to be made illegal and banned and shut down because they’re wasting energy and killing the planet, purely for greed. There’s no societal purpose. “Making money” is inherently antisocial, especially with no other purpose.

As best as I can tell, anyone can start minting NFTs saying anything, and these “art dealership” sites that are springing up are just meaningless hashes that might represent a URL and link back to the creator somehow. People are paying money for meaningless hashes, due to greed.

Cryptocurrencies, “smart contracts”, and NFTs are greed written into code. They’re what the Bible verse about “the love of money” being “the root of all evil” tried to warn us against. This is literally the love of money being used to accelerate evil (human-made climate change).

Don’t let a crypto nerd try to pressure you into going along with the crowd here. You’ll feel better about yourself if you resist this greedy evil nonsense. NFTs will do nothing for women’s sports. That’s absurd. That’s ridiculous. Selling physical trading cards, I can see.

These tech CEOs have made themselves so stupid because of their money and power and because the entire tech industry runs on bullshit at the highest levels, and not on technology, that they believe this crypto nonsense is doing anything good at all. It makes them feel smart/wise.

But they’re not smart, they’re not wise, and their money, whether fiat or crypto, won’t love them back, even though they clearly love money more than humanity. It’s a sick state of affairs: mediocrity manifested through greed to create a planetary hazard we could have avoided.

I can’t think of a single redeeming aspect to this crypto boom. We must pass laws in every country to ban cryptocurrencies, and any proof-of-work technology. Libertarians will hate us, but if we can drive the price of coins to $0.00, then it will die naturally by lack of profit.

Basically, the crypto boom is sustained by the fear and anxiety of mediocre nerds, some of whom are poor, others of whom are multibillionaires, all of whom are afraid of their own mediocrity and trapped by the sunk cost fallacy. Typical humans, like you or me. It’s cult thinking.

I know a lot about “high-demand” cults that brainwash people into doing things against their self-interest, to benefit the leaders of the group. All of the crypto nerds are in a cult. They’re convinced that they’re superior to humans who don’t “get it”. We see you, though.

In any tulip craze, everyone who’s acquired the overvalued asset has to keep up the excitement in order to convince other people to buy the asset later for a profit. History recorded the Dutch tulip mania of the 1600s. Cryptocoins are “magic tulips”.

Bitcoin isn’t real in any sense, not even in the sense that fiat currencies are real because society collectively uses them to exchange the value that is supposed to come from labor or other forms of work. Bitcoin produces nothing to create entropy that appears to have meaning.

“The blockchain” is nothing. It’s a fad. Merkle trees are cool, yes, but they should not be used in this way. The greed has made the community turn against humanity. Using more electricity than Argentina, on pure greedy stupidity. I’m repeating myself. I feel strongly about this.

Let me summarize by saying that if you promote Bitcoin, NFTs, or any other crypto token, to try to make money, you are an enemy of humanity’s future. Your greed is helping destroy the chances for the world to become a habitable place for future generations. Despicable behavior.

Update: I’ve posted a followup with a potential solution: global wind-down.