This is a summary of our so-called “controversy” regarding the people behind the “Crypto Critics Corner” podcast and their association with Crypto publisher, “Protos.”
In February of 2024 Adam Smith will appeared in a livestream on Twitter spaces to confront fans of the Crypto Critics Podcast making what we consider to be unfair and overly-dramatic claims about us and our community. This page serves as references backing up what we have claimed.
First and foremost, we have not set out to “attack”, “destroy”, “cancel” or “witch-hunt” anybody.
What we set out to do was determine on what side of the fence certain influential people in the crypto-critical community stand. We did our research, and found out. We confronted Bennett Tomlin and Cas Piancey of the Crypto Critics Podcast, and they originally ghosted us, but eventually we got them to admit some basic truths we had discovered. All we seek to do is differentiate ourselves from them, on certain very important industry-related issues.
We feel this is very important. Not all “critics” of “crypto” are actually “crypto critics” in any generic sense of the world. We are however. We and our communities (which include a variety of journalists, activists, academics and online social media sites like Reddit’s /r/Buttcoin and /r/CryptoReality and /r/CryptoCritical), have taken a stance that there’s very little productive value to blockchain, and that treating crypto like an “investment” is basically functionally identical to a Ponzi Scheme. We have discussed and debated this subject for years and have a wide array of evidence to back up these claims.
HOWEVER, there are some people in this industry calling themselves “critics” who do not hold the same views as us. In our opinion, they “carry water” for the industry. They report on select crypto scams (usually after they’ve collapsed or become insolvent) but are very careful to make any wide sweeping generalizations about the industry, or the technology as a whole.
This conflict appeared to start recently, but it’s been brewing for awhile.
Here are relevant citations:
Sal Bayat’s story on, “The Problem with Protos” on Reddit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaLhZGMj9Wk – our podcast discussing CCC and Protos
Bennet and Cas claiming “tether is fully backed”.
A statement I circulated among the community denoting where our differences lie.
A collection of screen caps of CCC people, including Cas Piancey say horrible things about people.
Cas Piancey calling industry activists “cunts” and other horrible things on Twitter.
We continue to make ourselves available to any members of press who want to talk about the evidence that we’ve gathered on crypto as a technology and the crypto industry. We find that there’s a rather obvious vacuum in the mainstream media when it comes to honest and objective analysis of the industry as a whole, and whether or not bitcoin makes sense as any form of legitimate “investment” and whether blockchain technology actually provides any objectively measurable value to modern society.
If you are a member of the media and want to discuss these issues, or debate whether we’re right or wrong, please reach out to us.