'Sad to Watch': Bill Maher Brands Crypto 'A Joke' on Primetime TV Show
Crypto News

'Sad to Watch': Bill Maher Brands Crypto 'A Joke' on Primetime TV Show

2m
2 years ago

"It’s like Tinkerbell’s light, its power source is based solely on enough children believing it," the comedian says.

'Sad to Watch': Bill Maher Brands Crypto 'A Joke' on Primetime TV Show

Daftar Isi

Bill Maher dedicated a whole eight minutes of his show to cryptocurrencies on Friday night. To say that he isn’t a fan would be something of an understatement.

The comedian began by declaring: “There’s [a cryptocurrency] called Dogecoin that someone started as a joke — as far as I can tell, it’s exactly the same as all the other cryptocurrencies because the whole thing is a joke.”

While Maher acknowledged that the current financial system isn’t perfect, he said at least it’s real.

“Apple stock is worth money because Apple makes $1,000 phones that everyone buys and drops in the toilet. But Dogecoin recently rallied to be worth more than the market cap of Ford and Kraft Foods — and it has no product and no workers. It’s just Easter bunny cartoon cash.”

The withering putdowns didn’t end here.

“I’ve read articles about cryptocurrency, I’ve had it explained to me and I still don’t get it — and neither do you, or anyone else.”

Not patronizing at all, then.

‘A Boomer Personified’ 

Maher explained to his audience that Bitcoin was invented by Satoshi Nakamoto — quipping that this name might mean “Monopoly money” in Japanese.

He then reeled off a series of well-known criticisms of cryptocurrency from the likes of Warren Buffett, who has long said that Bitcoin has zero value. Maher added:

“Do I need to spell this out? There is something inherently not credible about creating hundreds of billions in virtual wealth with nothing ever actually being accomplished — and no actual product made or service rendered. It’s like Tinkerbell’s light, its power source is based solely on enough children believing it.”

Maher said that the one thing that is tangible when it comes to Bitcoin is the vast amount of electric power that’s used for mining:

“Cars are bad for the climate, but at least they take you somewhere. (In Tiger Woods’ case, a tree.)”

Crypto Twitter inevitably didn’t react kindly to Maher’s remarks — with one describing him as “definitely a boomer personified when it comes to crypto.”

Anthony “Pomp” Pompliano said comedians should never be asked for investment advice, while Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao added:

“Very sad to watch. Feel really hopeless for him. Joke’s going to be on him. Time will show.”

Others accused Maher of arrogance, and of neglecting key information in his argument.

A fair number also drew parallels with the mid-1990s, when television hosts were talking with derision about this new-fangled piece of technology that they call “the internet.”

3 people liked this article