CryptoCurrency Marketing, is it Moral?

in #crypto7 years ago

randy-hilarski-crypto-cryptocurrency-marketing-blockchain.jpg

This Was an Actual Statement a Young Man Said to Me Recently at a Crypto Meetup.

After the young man asked me what I do he followed my answer with this statement, "Randy, I think blockchain and crypto products that use marketing techniques to promote themselves are frauds." You can imagine the shudder that went from the top of my head down to my toes. This person was calling me immoral. My whole business and life has been built around crypto and blockchain promotion.

I Took the High Road and did Not Take the Bait.

Since the response to what I do for a living was so vicious I was caught off guard and could not respond with anything eloquent. So I responded with, "I guess you are entitled to your opinion" and I walked away.

Now that I have had weeks to think about it, my response should have been, "I guess you don't use Apple, Mastercard, Visa or never ate at McDonalds". Get to shining kid!

Does a Blockchain Need to Grow 100% Organically, Like Bitcoin, to Be Taken Serious?

Frankly I don't believe a project has a chance in hell with all the noise in the industry. Imagine trying to launch a new product in the current market. Do you think that you would have a chance in hell if you just used Reddit? If your code was found how do you think the masses would find out about it? How long did it take Bitcoin to really start gaining momentum when it was the only game in town? Bitcoin launched in 2009 and started getting media attention in 2011.

I Know, I Know People Don't Like Marketers.

It is true that marketing kills everything. We saw what happened in late 2017 as so many fraudulent ICO's hit the market with amazing websites, online advertising, a flashy social media presence and personalities to match. Well, many of those projects are getting subpoenas. The ones who did it right will be here for years to come.

People Like to Pass Judgement But Forget That We Are Surrounded By Marketing.

Very few opinions we have are our own. Most of these opinions are based on some sort of marketing. Here are some examples.

  1. Apple devices are the best.
  2. People believe that Iran and North Korea are huge threats to their lives because they have been told that through the media for decades.
  3. Ben Affleck is a good actor.
  4. Trust the pharmaceutical companies.
  5. Marijuana is bad.
  6. Eggs are unhealthy.
  7. Go to school, university, work a job and then retire.
  8. Facebook is free.
  9. Bitcoin is the only viable cryptocurrency.

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Marketing comes in all forms and one should be educated enough to be able to sort through it all with sound rationalization and common sense. Take that guy on TV now who claims he has the world's most comfortable pillow, Guaranteed!!! Really? Some marketers might be downright criminal while others serve a good cause. Most marketing can be avoided and ignored as inaccurate but good marketing is worth... well, worth its weight in Klondike Bars!

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those are the people say it only by listening from others, they dont check it out themselves

Trading in cryptoCurrency is about as unethical as buying a bottle of water given how criminals also drink water. Do you have a problem with using money? Criminals use that too.

What about guns? I think you already know.

“Using (something) because it’s used by criminals” is a cop-out argument. It’s a strawman and a red-herring fallacy. It’s non-sense.

Of course, it’s ethical to use CryptoCurrency!

The words are very sound that Hua shopping ethics
But there are so many people who do not really have this morality

Yes you make great points, except on the Affleck thing, I guess some people might think he is a good actor, I wouldn't know because I stopped seeing movies a long time ago.

That could have been around when the Bitconnect fallout was still fresh in everyone's mind. It certainly isn't fair to group all marketing of crypto products or currencies as frauds though. He could have also been echoing the decision by Google and Facebook to ban advertising of cryptocurrencies. There certainly are scams that exist: pyramid schemes, pump-and-dump schemes, vaporware, etc. I wouldn't take what he said to heart though.

As long as you believe in the things you are promoting and you are doing your own due diligence to sort out the bad apples, you shouldn't feel bad for making a living promoting cryptocurrencies. In fact, a lot of people may actually end up being better off because of you if you are giving them insight on certain projects. Keep doing what you do best!

wow this is really amazing
you are a great photographer, thanks for sharing..

FRAUDS or SCAMS have always been present in our lives with regular mail, with contracts of paper and shaking hands or we can still receive some tempting invitation of a millionaire widow in X country, all of them use marketing, cause marketing is just the name of the action of communicating something. Crypto is a huge improvement in how things might be done and distributed (Steemit is a really good example). It is your own responsibility to investigate and educate yourself ir you are going to invest any money (or time) in any kind of business, it could be a restaurant, a clothes shop, an IPO or an ICO.
Again... marketing is just a way for communicating the benefits we believe our products have or who we are. NOT MORE NOT LESS

The markets are going to find out real soon these protocols must be run like companies. We are already seeing it happen. Coke spends billions on branding, marketing and research. A brand that's already known for 100 years. Obviously, these people have no experience with how a start-up works. Crypto currencies are slightly different than app tokens but nearly all the same business principles apply to the entire Crypto space.

It’s too bad that marketing a few bad projects give the test a bad rep.

I think the best projects market themselves. It makes sense for marketing around the ICO period, however that I prefer the team get on with the job rather than marketing the project. Build a solid foundation then ramp up the marketing.

You can rarely do anything without marketing nowadays.. any kind of buiness needs it and crypto too is in this category. Quite unthought statement I would say!

I liked the list of the statements people have been following without giving it a thought.
I too , once was a believer of 5th one. And when that changed, i am a believer of change now :D

I do think that advertising is necessary but all has their boundaries.
There is nothing wrong for a genuine project to bit some advertising but of course also sam projects do this.
The problem is that people are influenced by marketing but don’t time to do their own research!
But this is also valid for more regular products. By using marketing these products want to get some attention and it does increase the trust in the product, but the porduct will be still the same as before the marketing does start!

i think it's not mortal..

What a terrible blanket statement. In order to compete in this rapidly growing sector, marketing is definitely required. I wouldn't have even heard of some of my favourite projects without marketing, nor would I have eaten that Papa John's pizza the other night...

I guess the issue, like you've raised, is when disingenuous projects use clever marketing techniques to hook people in when there is no actualy substance to their projects, or in some cases, all they're offering is a scam.

That doesn't make marketing a bad thing though. Like anything, a tool in the wrong hands can be a dangerous thing.

hahah trolling it like a boss

This is exactly the kind of comment we don't want or need on Steemit. Have a little respect for the work people put in to their posts and stop spamming.