A Polish YouTuber, Marcin Dubiel, made around $30,000 USD from The National Bank of Poland and ad revenue, to speak negatively of cryptocurrency and favorably of Polish fiat currency.
The video, titled “I lost all my money,” shows Dubiel losing all his money to the point where he could not pay for a dinner date. His date had to pay in fiat, which eventually lead to the couple’s breakup. The video takes an extremely biased view, “portraying Dubiel as a victim of an evil mastermind who counts the cash Dubiel lost” due to a get rich quick scheme that left him penniless and lonely. The video also includes the hashtag #uważajnakryptowaluty, which points to a website funded by the Polish Central Bank that describes crypto as “risky, having no guarantee, and not classified as electronic money” to inform potentially unaware crypto users.
In addition to paying the YouTuber, the funding was not disclosed in the video. It was only later that the Polish Central Bank admitted “it carried out a campaign on the issue of virtual currencies in social media” without explaining why other YouTubers also received funding. This can be confusing since central banks are generally supposed to remain apolitical, and according to the National Bank of Poland’s own structing articles their chief mandate is to maintain price stability. This mandate seems to conflict with the Polish Central Bank’s actions in attempting to diminish the reputation of cryptocurrency.
Crypto can be speculative and still have stable value
While cryptocurrency presently retains a strong speculative bent and has experienced a certain amount of volatility and risk (to the point where cyptocurrencies can move hundreds or thousands of dollars within a day), the overall trend, with exceptions, has been upwards and those that have bought in, used, and held have seen their value increase over months and years. This is measured as opposed to users of fiat currency, many of whom have seen their value decrease with inflation and shrinkflation. Crypto’s price tends to be made up of direct added value to users with speculative value layered on top. These layers of value can actually work together, within the market, to search for greater price stability.
Nevertheless, crypto is still a comparatively young and small market, whose price can still be significantly influenced by rumors and negative opinions. The crypto market constantly goes through phases as rumors spread, and users attempt to confirm or deny the rumors. This is not particularly different than other markets, but has a noticeably larger affect on the crypto market because it is still growing in use and market volume. Thus, the National Bank of Poland’s actions only served to exacerbate the very volatility of crypto that they fear.
Dash’s share of online slander
Dash has been no stranger to troll brigades and misinformation spread online. Both Bisq and BolehVPN previously faced threats from the Monero community over their decision to support Dash. Online aggression and spreading of false information about Dash became enough of a problem that Dash Force previously ran a “troll patrol” program of countering the false narratives and standing up to bullying and brigading to create a more friendly environment for rational discussion about Dash.
While there has likely been a degree of paid/professional trolling in the online cryptocurrency wars, there may also be a significant element of tribal mentality among fans, similar to that of sports teams. Cornell professor Emin Gün Sirer dubbed this phenomenon “cryptohooliganism,” whereby fans of what should be a scientific and technological approach adopt a political mentality, resorting to any number of underhanded measure to “win” against the other side.
The original article omitted that the money the YouTuber gained was also because of ad revenue, and that the Polish website can be argued to be a disclosure to inform potential crypto users of information they may not know. It has since been corrected.
