Narrative over numbers: Andreessen Horowitz's State of Crypto report
newsletter.mollywhite.net
Venture capital firm and crypto pusher Andreessen Horowitz wants you to keep buying crypto, and is not above publishing blatant falsehoods to convince you to do so.
This is another extraordinary piece of work on your part. But you have to hand it to Andreessen Horowitz. It takes some real chutzpah to publish some a report like that, and a firm belief that you're insulated from consequences. But, with that disclaimer, I think it's correct to read this as crypto fan fiction. "Propaganda" implies a seriousness of purpose to which I don't believe it rises.
Impressive job chasing down the sources for that ridiculous electricity usage comparison! The fundamental misdirection there is comparing to YouTube in the first place; They should be comparing to other financial - no, make that gambling sites.
What an exceptional piece of reporting! Awesome to see someone have the knowledge and do the work to show what a stupid clown show is being put on by Andreessen Horowitz. Also, a great summary at the end: far past time we see materials like this for what they are and always have been….
I was wondering for most of the article what exactly their motivation was. That last section summed it up quite well. Can the FTC now go after them for deceptive advertising, pretty please 🥺
One day there will be the so-called "White Scale" to quantify the bogousness of crypto BS, and this set of slides easily reaches the highest region of the scale. It checks sooo many boxes... Maybe it could be used to calibrate the scale? Anyway, thank you Molly White. This is certainly one of my most worthwhile Substack subscriptions.
Crypto influencers shifting to AI just further supports the idea that Roko’s Basilisk (i.e. a malicious AI enslaving humanity) already exists as the emergent generative algorithm of Capital itself…
If a basilisk can be killed by showing it its own reflection in a mirror, how might we do that with crypto and AI?
Perhaps, to introduce another metaphor, we should give AI prions by feeding AI content back into the training algorithms? (This may very well happen spontaneously due to sloppy automated scraping.)
If mirrors and prions fail to do the dirty deed, another option might be making it hear a rooster’s crow. In that case, how does one say “gm” in rooster?
Failing even that avian wake-up call, do you know anyone with a pet weasel…?
This is another extraordinary piece of work on your part. But you have to hand it to Andreessen Horowitz. It takes some real chutzpah to publish some a report like that, and a firm belief that you're insulated from consequences. But, with that disclaimer, I think it's correct to read this as crypto fan fiction. "Propaganda" implies a seriousness of purpose to which I don't believe it rises.
Wow, that is a tour de force. Well done Molly!
I loved this from your conclusion:
"Their bags are so very heavy, and they need new greater fools onto whom they can offload them."
Very heavy bags indeed!
Impressive job chasing down the sources for that ridiculous electricity usage comparison! The fundamental misdirection there is comparing to YouTube in the first place; They should be comparing to other financial - no, make that gambling sites.
What an exceptional piece of reporting! Awesome to see someone have the knowledge and do the work to show what a stupid clown show is being put on by Andreessen Horowitz. Also, a great summary at the end: far past time we see materials like this for what they are and always have been….
I was wondering for most of the article what exactly their motivation was. That last section summed it up quite well. Can the FTC now go after them for deceptive advertising, pretty please 🥺
Thanks so much for this impressive analysis.
A wonderfully thorough evisceration :-)
One day there will be the so-called "White Scale" to quantify the bogousness of crypto BS, and this set of slides easily reaches the highest region of the scale. It checks sooo many boxes... Maybe it could be used to calibrate the scale? Anyway, thank you Molly White. This is certainly one of my most worthwhile Substack subscriptions.
Crypto influencers shifting to AI just further supports the idea that Roko’s Basilisk (i.e. a malicious AI enslaving humanity) already exists as the emergent generative algorithm of Capital itself…
https://thebaffler.com/salvos/oculus-grift-shivani
If a basilisk can be killed by showing it its own reflection in a mirror, how might we do that with crypto and AI?
Perhaps, to introduce another metaphor, we should give AI prions by feeding AI content back into the training algorithms? (This may very well happen spontaneously due to sloppy automated scraping.)
If mirrors and prions fail to do the dirty deed, another option might be making it hear a rooster’s crow. In that case, how does one say “gm” in rooster?
Failing even that avian wake-up call, do you know anyone with a pet weasel…?