Memories are short in NZ politics. Patrick (Paddy) Gower has gone and interviewed a basic crypto scammer, Derek Handley, calling him a "tech guru" but I have my doubts this person can drive a C/C++ compiler.
My day was busy upgrading QEMU from source and compiling a new Linux kernel with memory allocator hardening to zeroize on free() and alloc() to keep this website up and running, as writing about crypto with skepticism invites trouble, meanwhile nothing in the interview indicates to me the interviewee would last 5 seconds in a command-line environment without the luxuries of an Apple MacBook and AI holding their hand. Last night I couldn't sleep until I finished a zero-crossing search algorithm for transcendental functions. Be your own judge of who bamboozles people, talks the talk, and who walks the walk.
For the record I don't mean to single out Apple, their products are well engineered, it's just disappointing labels like 'tech entrepreneur' have become so detached from the reality of what goes on in computer science. On top of that, the interviewee is mired in political controversy, receiving a government 'handout' after some frankly shady dealings to try and toe into a newly-established 'government CTO' role with echoes of DOGE to it. The role was disestablished before anyone was appointed to it because of the controversy.
When you laud "blockchains" your qualifications in (ethical) computer science go out the window. It's rare for things to be so clear but blockchains are just double-speak for Pyramid schemes, and Pyramid schemes are illegal under the Fair Trading Act whether or not they provide a product or service, or both. Simply put, this means Bitcoin is illegal in NZ, and the UK, and likely many other jurisdictions but the volume of misinformation has reached the point of regulatory escape velocity.
Pyramid schemes obfuscated by cryptography are still Pyramid schemes: Bitcoin and crypto-currencies are just a fancy system for robbing Peter to pay Paul, even Amway operated a distributed ledger system, the scam wouldn't work without one. Selling false hope is a central theme in crypto-scams and the interviewee pivoting into peddling false hope in the housing market seems little different, to me.
The median income in NZ is a measly $46,490 and crypto contributes to inflation like nothing else, proponents of Bitcoin/crypto are part of our economic problems and have no solutions to offer. I'm not waiting around in hope for Bitcoiners to bring us some supposed financial emancipation, those who stop learning stop living, and I have products and services to develop where I learn something new every day.
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