When the limitations of cryptocurrencies are not explained, that is not education but mere advertising. The life cycle of this type of advertising campaign is rather limited as they are not self-sustainable.
Bitcoin and the rest of the cryptocurrencies are a fairly new technology with evident social and financial implications. Bitcoin was born about 10 years ago at almost hidden forums on the Web and, since then, a huge ecosystem based on this invention has been formed. It is not easy to understand that technology, of which other cryptocurrency projects take advantage to advertise their initiatives, pretending to educate.
One of the countries where this is most evident is in Venezuela, where several projects such as Dash, Bitcoin Cash, Waves, PIVX, Nano, EOS, Steem, SmartCash, and PacCoin, among others, have focused on advertising campaigns. There are even small local projects that move less than USD 200 per day in the few markets that lend their exchanges to other crypto assets. It should be noted that these advertising campaigns are not self-sustaining, since those who finance them do not distribute more funds for continuity, thereby losing all profits, as in the cases of Dash Venezuela and Dash Latam.
The country has perfect conditions to concentrate its advertising efforts: a decrepit economy, a government that promotes cryptocurrencies, marketing costs lower than in any other country, people who are seeking a magical solution to improve their finances and a rather internationally media-driven place to encourage their “adoption advances”. The latter is noted as there are African countries that may have more economic needs than Venezuela and are less mentioned in the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
All these projects have founders with large reserves of their cryptocurrency, who want it to be better known and used so that its price increases in the market and its funds are revalued through its adoption. This argument could even be applied to Bitcoin, but it does not have an official marketing team dedicated to forcing adoption among potential users. The adoption of Bitcoin has occurred gradually, since it was worth USD 0, and aspires to be an alternative to the current financial system.
Each cryptocurrency project has the right to dedicate funds and effort to advertise its cryptocurrency. The problem comes when they say that they are “decentralized”, since they actually have headquarters or multiple forms of organization to boost their development and marketing campaigns, apart from discrediting Bitcoin to pretend that they are better.
All cryptocurrencies have their own merits, but it is wrong to advertise them by hiding their limitations and risks, especially if false information about their competitors is disseminated. Therein lies the great difference between an advertising campaign, which finances cryptocurrency projects, and an educational one, which seeks to honestly teach what Bitcoin is.
Educating about Bitcoin and advertising certain cryptocurrencies are not compatible concepts. Generally, an educator seeks knowledge while an advertiser wants to make a profit through a price increase.
All cryptocurrencies are highly speculative and volatile assets, excluding stablecoins, which present their own risks as they are issued by companies. Bitcoin is the most prominent for its greater stability and liquidity in the market, resulting from the network that has been formed around it for 10 years. The other cryptocurrencies are even more volatile and have a lower capacity to transfer value. These details about cryptocurrencies should be known before investing, as the amount invested might be lost and an unjustified aversion to this ecosystem would be generated.
The problem of advertising campaigns dedicated to “educating” about Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies should raise awareness. It is recommended that people educate themselves and think critically when they read about the subject.
By Willmen Blanco
