The Strange History of the Cryptocurrency Wiki Page
Late night wikipedia-ing unfurls a crypto conspiracy...
I was trying to read a bit more on IOU tokens and the wiki for "crypto asset" that included IOU in the description in SERP redirected me to the cryptocurrency page I've been to a dozen times before. After cmd+f failed to surface "IOU" I was about to start to dig through the history and then noticed something that bugged me about the page.
Look at the list... why is Legality seemingly more important than Timestamping or Economics... you know, the description of what cryptocurrencies are and how they work? Surely this wiki page doesn't help change the general public's opinion of cryptocurrency.
So I decided I needed to know when exactly Legality made the leap to number 3 on that list and started to dig back through the history for that instead of my original IOU quest.
This edit is the last edit before the Legality section was added to the list. Its from April 28th 2014.
Then on May 3rd 2014, in comes Legality and Fraud, of course in spots 3 and 4, with Legality having remained securely in that spot since.
So then I thought, who would do such a thing and for what purpose? Was it just a thoughtless "me first" ordering that's never been corrected? Or was it intentionally planted in an order that would steer the conversation toward the scary stuff?
After Googling for Everettjustin, the author of the first Legality containing edit (who's also since dropped off the map on wiki apparently), the very first result was none other than politician and Republican member of the Colorado House of Representatives, Justin Everett.
Are these two people one and the same? Did Justin know what he was doing when he ordered that list? Is this all part of some elaborate psy-ops to slow the impending rise of cryptocurrencies by controlling the dialog?
.....
I have no idea lol. Trail runs cold from there. Nothing comes up searching his name along crypto so I'm not sure his stance on it. His wiki seems to be pro freedom/liberty so I'd like to think if that's the case, and he was the author, that maybe the ordering was just a flub rather than some intentionally malicious thing :P
What do you think? Malicious or thoughtless? Was Justin the author, or are the names coincidentally the same? Does the order matter, or am I just reading too much into things because its late?
Interesting analysis. I think putting legality ahead of economics and timestamping makes sense though. You have to think from the perspective of the general public, not from your own perspective. Most people have only heard about bitcoin in the context of Silk Road and they want to know if they are doing something legal or trustworthy.
True, but if all they've heard about is Silk Road, I can't help but feel that knowing more about the mechanics it is becomes even more important than how its been used illegally since that's all they know about it already ;)
Imagine if the currency wiki put a "Legality" section outlining all the various types of fraud and arrests for illegal uses of fiat currency above the economics or mechanics of currencies. Its just as capable of being used illegally, but it has no mention of legal issues related to currencies at all, let alone prioritizing them ahead of other sections.
Cryptocurrencies are admittedly a much newer concept so having something about their legality definitely makes sense. But I can't think of another wiki article I've seen that's structured quite that way.
Since Steam (the other one that sells games) adopted bitcoin payments recently, I think more and more big companies will adopt bitcoins as a form of payment. However, everything is still priced in fiat. I think the day when major shops actually price things directly in bitcoin would be a game changer that will completely legitimize cryptocurrencies.
Someone should edit the article to reflect the laws in Japan and Switzerland that are in favor of cryptocurrency and take out the noise about Coinye that adds nothing to the topic. I don't know enough about law to write about that though, but I've seen plenty of articles and discussions like this: http://cointelegraph.com/news/japan-officially-recognizes-bitcoin-and-digital-currencies-as-money
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Awesome! Thanks :)
Now I feel inspired to dig into some more investigative pieces lol