Catching Up to Crypto

CHAPTER 18Crypto FUD: Fear, Doubt, and Uncertainty

Every new era of technological innovation faces extreme ridicule and scrutiny because humans fear change on a very deep level. We become comfortable in our environments and routines, and can feel threatened by new technologies that have the potential to disrupt our habits, our careers, and our way of life. These fears are widespread – even in our technological age of constant innovation. When American homes first started plugging into the internet in the mid‐1990s, there was a lot of media coverage focused on stock price speculation and FUD – otherwise known as Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt. As we covered in Chapter 17, these are the kind of stories that get attention, and it wasn't any different back then. Most of the news coverage I remember from those days were stories about nerds getting rich or creeps corrupting children in chat rooms. It seemed like a lot of people developed an idea that this new technology was weird, dangerous, and possibly a scam. There were also articles warning about the disastrous environmental impact that would be brought on by basic activity on the internet like e‐commerce. At best, the internet was seen as a novelty that had no chance of disrupting the long‐established brick‐and‐mortar stores that dominated the economy.¹ However, there was an enthusiastic group of believers who could tell that the internet would have a profound impact on the world, and, eventually, of course, they were proven right. ...