A Shilling for your thoughts
Shilling is common in the cryptocurrency world
Urban dictionary defines the word "shill" thusly:
A person engaged in covert advertising. The shill attempts to spread buzz by personally endorsing the product in public forums with the pretense of sincerity, when in fact he is being paid for his services.
Crypto bloggers can shill coins that they hold, so can group members on the likes of Facebook. But the real kings of shilling are the vloggers: the YouTube stars of crypto. People who push coins on their followers in the interests of personal gain.
Is this harmful? Is this wrong? Where does the morality compass lie on the subject of "Shilling"?
From: Retroplum [Public domain or CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
A Shilling for your thoughts
I mention many coins in my posts. I've mentioned all of my own, about 70 of them. In fact I've posted lists on several occasions, including one why I specifically suggested what to buy - all of them being coins I hold (or at least coins I was holding when I wrote the post).
So am I shilling? Am I a bad person trying to lead you astray for personal gain?
No. That's not my character. I hate lying, cheating and stealing and I detest those who do it. Obviously I'm no angel or paragon of virtue, I have my downright evil moments just like everyone else 😈 (probably more than normal), but premeditated deceit designed to benefit myself and not my readers is not something I can live with. I often wonder how the truly evil sleep at night, don't they hate themselves for what they have done? Oh well, this isn't a philosophy blog (not today anyway), back to shilling.
The dangerous shill:
One of the most shameless shills was BitConnect: A "lending platform" that was really a $2 bn+ pyramid scheme (now collapsed - big surprise). BitConnect (Ticker symbol BCC) was widely shilled due to its pyramid nature. Some of the biggest crypto names on YouTube were guilty of it: Trevon James, Ryan Hildreth, CryptoNick, NoMoreEver95, Craig Grant. Some of those channels have over 100 000 subscribers, subscribers who trust their channels to give good crypto advice. Alas, those channels abused used the naivety of their viewers to lure them into a pyramid scheme.
Was that wrong? - Oh hell yeah, you bet it was!
Such people will happily lose their followers money. They seek only fame and fortune. These are sociopaths after a reward, who do not care about their subscribers and will throw them under the bus if it means that they make more money.
The regular shill:
SubStratum (SUB). It's a fairly well known coin. It's a good coin. It's important to the future of net neutrality. In the future it may negate the need for VPNs while still providing anonymity online. I hold SUB myself.
But SubStratum were hiding a dirty secret. Well, not dirty dirty, but hardly squeaky clean either. SUB were paying vloggers to shill SUB.
Is that what we call "wrong"? No, that's what we call "advertising".
How it was advertised became the problem. Previously squeaky clean (and highly respected) crypto vlogger DataDash was one of the SUB shillers (as were some of the BCC bunch mentioned earlier). The issue was that DataDash didn't tell anyone he was being paid to advertise it. He incorporated it into his channel as if by his own design. He pushed SUB on a regular basis, thereby receiving benefit for doing so, but with no direct benefit to his audience.
That was a bad thing to do. When he was finally caught out, the incident severally affected his credibility with serious crypto enthusiasts. Suppoman had a similar incident. Kept on shilling a coin (his "secret ICO" at the time) and was finally caught out for doing so. He embarrassing (and lengthy) apology video couldn't fix his damaged reputation overnight.
These guys aren't as bad as the dangerous shillers - these guys are still telling you to buy a fairly decent coin, they just aren't being honest about why they are telling you to buy it. They aren't telling you they they are being paid to do so and that there may be better deals on coins out there.
It's not fair to you the audience, because the process isn't transparent: they are giving you incomplete information dressed up as the full package. They are trying to deceive you.
The Not-A-Shill shill:
I do this all the time. How many times must I tell you to buy CargoX? MyWish? LociCoin? NEO? Covesting? THEKEY, Elastos, VeChain, Enjin Coin? I can go on. Why is it not a shill?
Well for starters I don't have a large enough audience. I can't change the price of a coin with my little blog, I simply don't have that kind of influence. I don't benefit from telling you to buy it. So there is that. But far more importantly, I'm honest about what I'm doing. I review a coin, I tell you it's good and I suggest that you buy it. I normally also mention if I hold it. (Look at my "Cryptocurrency spotlight" posts - in the "vital statistics" section you will find a line that says: "Does Bit Brain hold it?" and one that says ""Will Bit Brain buy more?" for that very reason.) When I tell you about a coin I give you the most unbiased and objective information that I possibly can. The choice about buying it or not is yours. I'm just trying to share good information with you, I want you to have a chance at making a good trade too!
It would be silly of me not to buy coins that I think are good. Sometimes I don't have the money for it, but generally I hold all the coins that I consider to be the best investments. Why wouldn't I? Should I buy ones that I consider to be poor investments? I don't buy a bad coin and then try to raise the price buy shilling it; I buy a good coin and then try to share my good fortune with you. And I'm not alone:
It is good to see that some YouTubers are more honest than their slightly dodgy and very dodgy counterparts. If you want to follow a few GOOD crypto YouTubers (so far anyway! 😁) then I suggest professional poker player/crypto enthusiast Doug Polk Crypto, the broad topic quality education of Crypto Tips(I started learning how to use a Ledger Nano S by watching her channel) and the deeply researched, information rich videos of Crypto Candor. Luckily for you and I, Crypto Candor is also a Steemian! You can find her blog here: @brandneweyes.
Conclusion
If you trade cryptocurrencies then you are probably an adult. You should be capable of making up your own mind and making responsible decisions. Of course the world isn't Utopian: unfortunately some people are easily influenced by others, a fact that the dishonest charlatans among us prey upon. Just because you may have altrustic views, does not mean that everybody else does! (they don't). I've said it 100 times and I'll say it 1000 more: D.Y.O.R. - DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH. I can not stress the importance of that enough! It's a fundamental of crypto, on a par with "Sell high, buy low".
Promoting a coin in an honest and transparent manner is helpful and fine. Don't worry about the guy who asks you to use his referral link to sign up for an ICO or an airdrop. But do not confuse honest vloggers and blogger with those dishonest people who will to scam you into buying a coin for their own benefit. Their are always scammers operating. I SEE MANY CRYPTO SCAMMERS OPERATING EVERY SINGLE DAY. Be careful out there, it's a minefield. If you really can't tell, come here and post me a link - I'll personally help you check it out if I can.
So don't hate the shiller, just the dishonest shiller. And be wary of that middle of the road guy who may not be harming you, but he's not being completely honest with you either.
Always practise safe and informed trading.
Yours in crypto,
Bit Brain
DISCLAIMER:
I am neither a financial advisor nor a professional trader/investor. This is not financial advice, investment advice or trading advice. Unless otherwise stated, all my posts are my opinion and nothing more. Crypto is highly volatile and you can easily lose everything in crypto. You invest at your own risk! Information I post may be erroneous or construed as being misleading. I will not be held responsible for anything which is incorrect, missing, out-of-date or fabricated. Any information you use is done so at your own risk. Always Do Your Own Research (DYOR) and realise that you and you alone are responsible for your crypto portfolio and whatever happens to it.
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There is certainly plenty of ways to fall for crypto investing traps. Buyer beware is even more important today than ever before, I think.
Absolutely. I try to warn people about two things constantly: the danger of scammers and the importance of doing your own (thorough) research. I see so many cases every day of people who fall for scams or don't research properly. It's sad, and I'll do whatever I can to raise awareness of the problem.
I do find it very annoying that 99% of the fake profiles I report to Facebook (people trying to scam members of crypto groups) get ignored by Facebook. They never "violate our community standards". 😠 Either Facebook don't even check the profiles I report, or they haven't read their own community standards!
I just read through this again and I found at least five spelling/punctuation/grammar errors. Probably more like 10. I guess it was too late at night when I finally managed to proof read this post. My apologies for the errors.