Like most other industries, crypto has humorous tendencies. Make no mistake, while many Bitcoin diehards are entrenched in a holy war against institutions, they have a propensity to have some fun, especially on April Fools’ Day. Now that what some call Crypto Fools’ day has come and gone, Blockonomi thought that it would be great to gloss over some this year’s funniest industry jokes.
Vitalik ‘Hops’ On The Tron Train
At Token2049, Hong Kong’s premier crypto event, there was, for some reason, an effigy of Tron’s Justin Sun. While I (who attended the conference) thought it was a weird addition to the Kerry Hotel’s (already) lavish decor, Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin thought it would be a perfect backdrop for his April 1st joke.
Seen below is Buterin seemingly joining the Tron hype train, by standing beside a cheery Sun in an act of seeming solidarity.
https://twitter.com/VitalikButerin/status/1112581840630484993
Of course, the de-facto Ethereum figurehead isn’t joining hands with a competing blockchain, instead, he’s perpetuating a multi-week Twitter spat under the guise of a pseudo-holiday. Well played Vitalik. Well played.
CNBC — A Technical Analysis Powerhouse
In a bid to capture viewership, CNBC began to actively cover the crypto industry in 2017. While much of the outlet’s coverage has taken the form of news, the outlet has tried its hand at technical analysis. Close, but no cigar.
Last year, industry commentator Jacob Canfield determined that 95% of CNBC’s forecasts were a contrarian indicator. In other words, when the outlet called for a rally, Bitcoin fell.
CNBC has the best TA in crypto
— Joseph Young (@iamjosephyoung) April 1, 2019
Joseph Young, a prominent industry journalist, poked fun at this on April Fools’, jokingly opining that CNBC is (obviously) the most reliable source to go to for pertinent, viable technical analysis. I know where I’m going to next for insight into my investment decisions.
Bitcoin Short Seller Flips ‘Bullish’
Mark Dow, a prominent American investor, made his name in cryptocurrency circles in early-2018, when he announced he was shorting Bitcoin. While he was lambasted by crypto’s advocates for being such an overt skeptic, Dow was vindicated by 2018’s end, when he fully covered his short. Following that, Dow continued to poke fun at cryptocurrencies, signal-boosting the news that CBOE would be putting its Bitcoin futures on the backburner.
In an odd turn of events, however, the investor did an about-face on Monday morning, posting a chart of Bitcoin, claiming that it was buyable. Considering the date, Dow likely isn’t serious. That’s what bears want to believe anyway.
#Bitcoin chart. Buyable. $XBT $BTC pic.twitter.com/gE3urIfLJ5
— Dow (@mark_dow) April 1, 2019
Bye Crypto!
Crypto has intersected with social media platforms time and time again. Whether it be Twitter, Reddit, or Youtube, industry stakeholders have found a place to tout the good word of *insert your favorite cryptocurrency here*.
BlockTower’s always-online Ari Paul, however, recently took this to the extreme, claiming that he intends to “pursue his real passion” of being a social media account manager. Paul intends to drop his position as the founding partner of a leading industry investment firm in exchange for a chance to run Wendy’s Twitter account. Or not.
I’m leaving crypto to pursue my real passion of managing social media accounts. I’ll be taking over Wendy’s starting tomorrow.
— Ari Paul ⛓️ (@AriDavidPaul) April 1, 2019
Blockstream Launches Ethereum Block Explorer (It Doesn’t Work)
Blockstream, a Bitcoin development firm based in San Francisco and Victoria, Canada, has long kept its sights site on the leading cryptocurrency, barely deviating from its maximalist path. However, to start April right, the for-profit company launched an Ethereum block explorer on Monday. Ethereum users rejoice!
I'm excited to announce that after many moons of hard work, Ethereum support was added to https://t.co/M3r8M295mh and to Esplora!
Available at: https://t.co/HTF7o0ReeB (still in final stages of deployment, should go live any moment now)
— Nadav Ivgi (@shesek) April 1, 2019
“But it doesn’t,” you tell me. Yeah… it seems that I jumped on that too fast. The joke is that it doesn’t exactly work. Instead of displaying all things Ethereum, the Blockstream ‘product’ displays a loading screen that is trying to ‘sync’. Trust me, it doesn’t work.
